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AVRI raised pu poles help!!

#41
The pickup in the OP's bass is as good as it gets in the P bass world. No fancy boutique pickup is going to sound any better!
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+1,000 Have to say I agree with this - king_biscuit - your cool for your + comments on these pickups, and you do own a lot of bass's :bassist: - I wouldn't go near the pickup set with file or dremel without another set, in fact I would only mod the spare set purchased with the Fender part number as I did rather than those supplied in the bass. The price is good on these pickups, can anyone confirm if the 62 originals really are or do sound identical to these :hmm: cause I reckon these pickups are the biz if you want that character sound from a 57 P - okay - before I was born but still love the sound...:ninja:
 
#42
walterw said:
yeah, no dremeling or filing please; the poles will get hot and magnetically "die", if they don't shatter or burn through a coil wire first.

and it is not "the way it has always been done with that pickup"; the raised polepieces got ditched pretty quickly back in the day, because it didn't work out so well.

if you like the sound overall, just get a regular fender original '62 pickup; it's the same thing without the unbalanced poles.
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Yes Walterw you will be right about the heat from dremlling etc, good advice !, of course it will melt the insulation from the wire and the result is for the bin.. or cracked alnico poll peice.. bin...or magnetic death - none bears thinking about ! yeah the raised pole pieces got ditched pretty quick but during those years that was the sound from the bass of the day, (and I like it) is the 62 original really identical sound wise ? if you are 100% on this that would really help the OP on where next as he's not happy or wouldn't have posted the help Q.
 
#43
walterw said:
and it is not "the way it has always been done with that pickup"; the raised polepieces got ditched pretty quickly back in the day, because it didn't work out so well.
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If that was directed at my comment, than you are wrong. That certainly is they way that particular pickup has to be adjusted to get a proper volume balance between the strings. There is no reason to replace the pickup.
 
#44
king_biscuit said:
If that was directed at my comment, than you are wrong. That certainly is they way that particular pickup has to be adjusted to get a proper volume balance between the strings. There is no reason to replace the pickup.
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Sorry but the dremel idea was first mentioned by me I think in this thread anyway, dumb idea yeah and not directed at you, like you I am sweet with this pickup as is but the OP is still working through how to position it to taste and looking for ideas on how others have achieved this to their satisfaction. I for one got there quite quickly as shown by the pics in my post, surely there are others that like this pickup but if you don't like it change it for a 62 Original or any P bass pickup.
 
#45
My 57 P reissue had a weak "G" string and the strings didn't quite line up over the pole pieces the way I wanted so....
I swapped the two sections of the p/u so that the raised pole is now under the "G" string instead of the "A".
Good luck. For what it's worth my 57 RI has been my main player for the past few years.
 
#46
so far this is how it sounds the best:

photo-2.jpg


so King_biscuit you're telling me this is how yours looks like too?
 
#49
king_biscuit said:
If that was directed at my comment, than you are wrong. That certainly is they way that particular pickup has to be adjusted to get a proper volume balance between the strings. There is no reason to replace the pickup.
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oh, i just meant that the design itself was not "the way it was always done", because it went away pretty quickly.

with that pickup, you'd have to of course adjust it just like you're saying.

(i'd still ditch it, why fight an unbalanced getup like that? just get one without the problem, it's not like there's some tonal magic you only achieve with raised-up A poles.)
 
#51
i dunno;

maybe it's hair-splitting (i haven't played a lot of these myself) but even when adjusted like it needs to be, to have one string sensed by way-taller (and thus stronger) magnets, coupled with a coil that's way further away as a result of the needed adjustment, it can't sound exactly the same as the rest of the pickup.

if it did, then it would mean that no design differences among P-pickups actually make any difference.

i mean, i suppose you could have one wheel on a car be way bigger than the other three, as long as it was adjusted via the suspension to still be at the same height as the other three; but why would you want to?
 
#52
walterw said:
i dunno;

maybe it's hair-splitting (i haven't played a lot of these myself) but even when adjusted like it needs to be, to have one string sensed by way-taller (and thus stronger) magnets, coupled with a coil that's way further away as a result of the needed adjustment, it can't sound exactly the same as the rest of the pickup.

if it did, then it would mean that no design differences among P-pickups actually make any difference.

i mean, i suppose you could have one wheel on a car be way bigger than the other three, as long as it was adjusted via the suspension to still be at the same height as the other three; but why would you want to?
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If there are any tonal differences at all they are negligible. I know some people like to mod and make changes, and that's fine, but functionally it it not necessary on this bass, and if the OP decides to sell it at some point, I guarantee you a potential buyer is not going to want it to have been modded.
 
#53
I have a '57 and I love the pickup. I think the design contributes to an increased "punchiness" that so many associate with this model. I have the string action set pretty low, so to compensate I dropped the pickups as low as they would go, and then increased the height of the respective screws to compensate for any string balance issues. I can't get a picture right now, but it kinda looks like the opposite of any split-P pickup I've setup without raised poles. It sounds great though! Hear with your ears, not with your eyes.
 
#54
williamk said:
so far this is how it sounds the best:

photo-2.jpg


so King_biscuit you're telling me this is how yours looks like too?
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Well,... you're not alone!

My '57 reissue is my primary studio workhorse. Made a lot of records with it & it just sounds killer! Very aggressive, mid-forward but with plenty of lows too.

I agree that the raised-A poles are probably unnecessary today, but I wouldn't change mine out for anything! (I have 3 other Precisions & this one arguably sounds "the best").

Here's where my pickup has been set for almost ten years. Producers, engineers and colleagues all seem to dig it!

20120909_213012.jpg


20120909_213030.jpg
 
#55
Mine looks exactly like the one above.

My 57 AVRI is strung with TI Flats. Took me a while to dial in pickup heights but now it works perfectly. Best way I've found to achieve equal string volume is to listen in quiet setting like home studio or practice space. Don't worry about what it looks like. If you dig in hard, you'll need to drop them even lower but there's plenty of output in these pickups so you're not going to lose anything.

Here's what this bass sounds like from a recent studio recording.

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#60
I had a 57 that I really loved but had to sell a while back : ( ..... I noticed the A string as well, I did very carefully tap the poles down a bit, not as far as the others and it was great. I now have a 62 RI and all the poles are the same height, easy to adjust for string balance. You might try a 62 P-up in it if you don't want to mess with it. The 62P is a bit darker sounding w/the rosewood board as you would expect, but not much, still has good punch. I wouldn't be surprised if the P-up is the same except for the poles on the A string.

For strings, I haven't used flats on it yet but I will at some point. I do like GHS Boomers 45-100, the have a nice upper mid sound that works great on a P bass. They are pretty cheap to boot..
 

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