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New pickup poles do not align with strings

Dardas92

Dardas92

Jun 9, 2010
192
218
Glens Falls, New York
#1
I recently replaced the stock pup in my sterling ray5 with a SD. It sounds great but the G sting does not align over the pole very well. I think it’s because the sterling basses have narrow fretboards than the real MM.

I was thinking of buying some saddles that are threaded so I can move the strings as close as I can closer to the left of the pole.
Any suggestions or thoughts?

8C55C4E2-C559-4F8B-A069-C0071E0538A9.jpeg
 
#2
Dardas92 said:
I recently replaced the stock pup in my sterling ray5 with a SD. It sounds great but the G sting does not align over the pole very well. I think it’s because the sterling basses have narrow fretboards than the real MM.

I was thinking of buying some saddles that are threaded so I can move the strings as close as I can closer to the left of the pole.
Any suggestions or thoughts?

View attachment 4333731
Click to expand...
I can see on the right side of the pickup room to move it to the right. Just get it even on the B and G. The only way anyone knows is if they get a direct look at it; any angle at all and it is unnoticeable. Moreover, the strings don’t need to be directly over the poles for a great signal.
 
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#3
The spacing of the pickup poles won’t match with the strings no matter what; I’d just move the pickup a little so that the A string runs right down the middle of the center pickup pole (that’s really the best you’re going to be able to do) and call it a day. I would not replace the saddles. It looks like everything is on the fretboard where it should be.

And I would do that because I’m really obsessive about that sort of thing. It will not make one bit of difference to the sound.
 
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#7
Does SD make a drop-in replacement for a Sterling? Or, just MM?

SD lists profile drawings of their pickup offerings, down to thousandths of an inch.

Compare the OEM to the SD... doubt they're going to line up.
 
#8
Dardas92 said:
I recently replaced the stock pup in my sterling ray5 with a SD. It sounds great but the G sting does not align over the pole very well. I think it’s because the sterling basses have narrow fretboards than the real MM.

I was thinking of buying some saddles that are threaded so I can move the strings as close as I can closer to the left of the pole.
Any suggestions or thoughts?

View attachment 4333731
Click to expand...

I'm normally in the camp of, "If it sounds good, then leave it alone." However, that pickup spacing is way off from the bass's string spacing. IMHO, that is the wrong pickup for that bass.

Side question - what's going on with the pickup opening in the pickguard? It looks rough and unfinished.
 
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#10
two fingers said:
That being said, it appears you bought a 19mm spaced pickup for an 18mm spaced bass?
Click to expand...

16.5mm. The Sterling 5ers have a very narrow string spacing. The pickup looks to have been made for something closer to 18mm.

Warpeg said:
Side question - what's going on with the pickup opening in the pickguard? It looks rough and unfinished.
Click to expand...

Somebody free handed it with a Dremel. As you probably noticed, the replacement is not in any way a MM style pickup, and I doubt there’s any commercially available pickguard for that bass that would fit that pickup. In this case, the slop will work to the OPs benefit and let them get the pickup at least on center, although as I remarked earlier, it won’t make any difference to the tone.
 
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#14
The reason the pickguard looks unfinished is because as someone mentioned, I had it dremeled in order to fit the pickup. I did not do the work, my friend put the pickup in for me.

I think I am going to move it over a bit to center it up a little, which will require it to be drilled into the body.

The new pickup sounds way more clear and less muddy than the stock pup but I noticed the highs are not as loud and established which I’m thinking is related to the poles not lining up on the higher strings.

I only paid 280$ used for the bass so I figured it was worth trying to upgrade the pickups and use as a project bass. It’s hard to find left handed 5 string basses. And I like the smaller string spacing opposed to wider spacing.
 
#15
Dardas92 said:
I figured it was worth trying to upgrade the pickups
Click to expand...
you might have better luck finding a pickup with continuous bar magnets rather than individual polepieces, that way the string spacing doesn't matter. EMG and bartolini both make good ones like that.

that duncan is built like a traditional MM pickup with individual rod magnets; with those kinds of polepieces the spacing very much does matter, you get way more volume when a string is directly over the individual magnet.

in the mean time all you can do besides trying to nudge the pickup over a little is to just drop it further away from the strings; this reduces the difference between one string and the next, at the cost of lower overall output.
 
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