Pole pieces and string placement

[gusrb5]

Do I really need to make sure the strings are centered in the middle of the pole pieces?
Cuz I wanna make a custom bass and I'm not so sure about whether my strings would be placed on the center of my pickup's pole pieces or not.
Basically thinking about making smth like this below.

 

[ardgedee]

Functionally? No. Within reason.

Cosmetically? Maybe. If it'll bug you to see the misalignment every time you pick the bass up, you may as well get it right.

 

[gusrb5]

Functionally? No. Within reason.

Cosmetically? Maybe. If it'll bug you to see the misalignment every time you pick the bass up, you may as well get it right.

So you mean it will perform almost the same or very similar as the sweet spot of its placement?

 

[mellobud]

Does not matter. You just need to be in the magnetic field. Below is a Wilde p-46 pickup that has an extra pole on each side. Spacing is weird and looks wonky on this mini-p but the thing sounds great.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Some pickups are FAR more forgiving about this than others. With the type of pickups and the pickup positions in your pic I think you will probably be fine.

Other types of pickups, for example Gibson-style mudbuckers/sidewinders or Gretsch-style (non-rail) FilterTrons can be a total disaster if the outer strings end up even a tiny bit outside the pole pieces/slugs. At least that's my experience...

But you really won't know for certain until you try.

 

[Reno2]

Every time you pluck the string it moves side to side so while it sounds it's almost never in the middle of the pole piece

 

[Jefenator]

This pickups in your design are so close to each other, the spacing difference should be more subtle [than if one were up much closer to the neck].
FWIW it seems like Gibson mostly got away with not worrying about precise alignment when they made the EB-5.

I'm pretty sure they didn't tool for wider pole spacing for the bridge on this.
Fender famously did for the J-bass and I do have to say, my J-bass is currently my #1 tone king. (Not all of that is pole alignment, though – I had to go through a few of that type before I finally got a really good one...)
If you're really worried about it, you cold go with ceramic or blade magnets.
But like I said, with the coils in your design all so close together it should be close enough for rock 'n roll.
Check out the Warwick $$ (double bucker) models for validation.

 

[darwin-bass]

Yes, it can matter. The Old Smoothie Stingray sounds like it does partly because the strings are between pole pieces rather than over them. I believe having the strings over the pole pieces rather than between them can contribute to snappier, tighter attack on the leading edge of each note as the initial movement is better captured by the pickup.

 

[Mike Vee]

I like it to line-up but it doesn't usually exactly when the strings are spaced properly.

 

[Chop11777]

Man unless your ears are akin to a Bat or Dog .... You've got nothing to worry about ... Go for it !!!

 

[ardgedee]

So you mean it will perform almost the same or very similar as the sweet spot of its placement?

As other people note, some pickups are fussier than others regarding string placement. If you're going for Musicman type pickups, the pole pieces are so huge that you've got a generous margin of error.

Are you planning on a four-string or more? Almost all full-scale four-strings have string spacing of 19mm at the bridge so pickups are almost universally built for them -- although the exceptions are only off by 1-2mm so even then it tends not to matter. For 5+ strings there's more variety in string spacing and you have to pay more attention.

You also have the option of getting pickups with rail-type or hidden pole pieces, in which case you won't have to care as much how they line up.

 

[wysiwyg248]

Do I really need to make sure the strings are centered in the middle of the pole pieces?
Cuz I wanna make a custom bass and I'm not so sure about whether my strings would be placed on the center of my pickup's pole pieces or not.
Basically thinking about making smth like this below.

When planning for this, take in consideration the bridge/spacing you will be using. That could be a limiting factor relative to pickup pole & string allignment.

 

[ericplaysbass]

Alright, I'll be the one to ask: Why do you need a pickup even closer to the bridge? What tones are you expecting there?

 

[Isaac_James]

Does not matter. You just need to be in the magnetic field. Below is a Wilde p-46 pickup that has an extra pole on each side. Spacing is weird and looks wonky on this mini-p but the thing sounds great.
View attachment 7292945

It looks to me like the strings are right over the poles. I have a bass with Wilde pickups in it and the strings are also right over the poles. I think these are designed to be useful as 5 or even 6 string pickups, with the two halves just spaced further apart.

 

[Topkat13]

You could always go with a covered PU and sleep better.

 

[Tj smith]

Old smoothie uses a 5 string pup and the strings are in between the poles.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Old smoothie uses a 5 string pup and the strings are in between the poles.

They certainly are, but they still line up perfectly between the pole pieces. If one string is aligned perfectly OVER a pole piece, and another string is aligned perfectly BETWEEN the pole pieces, there will usually be a noticeable different in tone/output. I mean, that was the whole point of the "old smoothie", wasn't it? A slightly "smoother" take on the Stingray tone?

But the "old smoothie" is a rather extreme example of course. With a less extreme misalignment, like with the OPs plans, I don't think there will be any noticeable difference at all. But I never take anything for granted until I've tried it myself, so I won't say that it 100% won't matter. But it probably won't with this type of pickup.

 

[winston]

IME with a '90s EB/MM StingRay 4 - uniform alignment over the polepieces is important for even tone/volume.
I had one with the dreaded "Weak G" string - due to construction errors the G string was barely over the polepieces.
When I bent the string to the same "pole position" it had the same tone/volume as the E, A & D strings.

EB/MM basses are built so tight - with threaded inserts for both bridge and pickup mounts, that there's no clean way to move them over just a bit, also (not sure about my bass, it's been 20+ years) for some period there was a mismatch between the amount of staggering on the polepiece height and the neck radius.

I replaced the stock pickup with a Bartolini with blade poles - then realized I hated the sound of the 3-band preamp (boom and click but no real guts) and sold the bass. It was a shame because acoustically, the ash/rosewood combo was one of the richest, brightest, best-sounding of all the basses I'd had to that point. And I'll always say that other folks (Tony Levin and Dave LaRue are the first to come mind) get fantastic tones from 3-band EB/MM basses.

 

[Makten]

It depends, as usual. One thing that is often forgotten is that all (?) electric basses have a radius on the neck, that the string height is more or less following. So, with flat pickups with the same height of all the pole pieces, you often get higher signal from the outer strings. Interestingly, this can be mitigated with a bit of misalignment in the other direction.

For example, this bass has very even string balance. I don't think many people would expect that. And yes, I set it up like that on purpose (adjustable bridge) because I like narrow string spacing.

 

[mapleglo]

Incredibly, this worked well, and had even output between strings, even the "A" string.