Who here has adjusted the pole heights in their MFD pups, and why?

fourstringbliss · #1 01-06-2009, 10:04 AM

Have any of you raised or lowered the pole pieces on your MFD pups? Why? What was the result?

RobJ · #2 01-06-2009, 10:38 AM

I haven't done it personally on my G&L but Mike Lull adjusted the ones on my L-1500 fretless when I had it in for some work. If the screws are too high the magnetic pull on the strings limits their motion which leads to bad tone. So it's a bit of a balancing act between not enough and too much distance between them and the strings to get maximum tone and volume.

fourstringbliss · #3 01-06-2009, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobJ

I haven't done it personally on my G&L but Mike Lull adjusted the ones on my L-1500 fretless when I had it in for some work. If the screws are too high the magnetic pull on the strings limits their motion which leads to bad tone. So it's a bit of a balancing act between not enough and too much distance between them and the strings to get maximum tone and volume.

I wonder if anyone here has adjusted some of the pole pieces to get a particular sound. Maybe raising the pole pieces on the inner coils, for example.

millahh · #4 01-06-2009, 12:09 PM

Messin' with MFD 'buckers: mock single coil mode

fourstringbliss · #5 01-06-2009, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by millahh

Messin' with MFD 'buckers: mock single coil mode

I actually have a parallel/single coil/series switch for each pickup.

I think I'm going to try raising the inner coil pole pieces and see what affect it has on the sound. Maybe it'll emphasize a different tone.

Ken Baker · #6 01-06-2009, 05:32 PM

They're actually designed for use in fine tuning the loudness of individual strings. Beyond that, I'm sure there's some tone shaping that can be done.

Ken...

Youngspanion · #7 01-06-2009, 05:47 PM

I had to tweek 'em on my SB2's split coil MFD.

unclejane · #8 01-06-2009, 07:45 PM

I've monkeyed with mine a bunch, mostly to even out the volume of the strings. I have the ones on the center strings raised a little bit to follow the radius of the fingerboard. Raising them makes the strings louder but it also adds some heft to the tone. It can get pretty aggressive as they get really close to the strings but you also get a chorusey kind of warble in the fundamental which makes you sound out of tune.

I've never tried adjusting them on just one coil, but that'd be kind of a neat experiment to see what kind of tone you get.

LS