Is it possible to adjust the polepieces on a single coil pickup? Couldn't it damage the pickup? Does it affect the volume of the sound? Polepieces for the strings b2 and e1 are quite deep on my Strat and I think those strings aren't as loud as g3. Can I adjust it?

Hi philcan,

While typical single coil Strat pickups don't have adjustable pole pieces, the pickups themselves are height adjustable with the screws on either side. Try adjusting the treble side of the pickup higher than the bass side, or lower the bass side, or a combination of both, to get more treble response. Adjust more or less for taste, too close to the strings and you lose sustain, too far away and the output is less. You'll find a sweet spot by adjusting and trying different heights. A setting something like the neck pickup in this picture will give more treble since that side is higher.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Thanks for your advice, I'll try it. Does it mean it's impossible to move the pole pieces?

If your pickups have the plastic bobbins, it is possible to adjust the polepieces without damaging the pickups. That's because the polepieces are in little plastic tubes. (You could even flip the magnets over to change the magnetic polarity, ie, to have a RW/RP set up.) I don't know how hard it might be to move them, however, and one could damage the pickups in the handling of them.

If the pickups have the more "vintage" design fiber-type bobbin, then trying to adjust the polepieces could damage the coils.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I wouldn't try it myself.
In the latest Vintage Guitar magazine there's a section about what guitar do you wish you had never sold,a dealer said he had a '65 Strat that sounded magical,the best he had ever heard,he sold it to a guy who had more money than sense and who didn't know anything about guitars....the guy wanted to remove some of the light surface rust on the pole pieces and took a pair of pliars and removed them and cleaned them on a buffer wheel.When he tried to put them back he didn't know why there was wire in the holes,and couldn't get them back in.When he took it back to the store owner for help all the damage was done,he said after $300 for the pickups to be rewound the magic was gone.

I'd give it a go IF I couldn't stand the lack of balance caused by the stagger and IF I had pickups with the plastic bobbin.


I will admit that about 30 years ago I did adjust the stagger of a vintage type pickup ... luckily I did not ruin the pickup (it is still working to this day).

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Sorry, it's been a long time since I posted, but I couldn't resist......Don't mess with things that shouldn't be messed with. The pole pieces are set the way they are for a reason. Play it instead of worrying about what might be "wrong", and the boredom that's making you want to change things will go away - I promise.

You can push the pole pieces down, but they will break through a wax coating that covers the bottom, and then you will be open for noise and interference ( more so than usual ), or if you have cheaper pickups with a bar magnet on the bottom, they wont move at all. Not to mention you could screw up the windings of wire inside the pickup, which would kill it. That being said, NO you cannot adjust the pole's height without damage.......but I have not tried using a dremel tool to grind the pole down.......if you have an old beater guitar to experiment with, you could see how that works! Probably best to adjust the pickup height first......and your issue with low output may actually not be the pickups at all, check your guitar's nut and saddles to make sure everything is good there, and that the strings are loud and comparable to the others when played without amplification......

I have followed one line of thought that has saved me a lot of unnecessary heartache. That is whether it is cars or guitars or whatever..The less you know about something the less you should mess with it.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Do the pole tops have an indentation resembling a phillips screw-head
If so, then they are adjustable
If not, then leave well enough alone

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

I wonder if people are slightly missing what OrvilleOwner is saying, above. Pictures might help.

If you have single coil pickups made from moulded plastic bobbins then the slugs are just inserted into tubes and can be pushed up or down without injury to the unit. Here:



Bear in mind though that the slugs may not be just set to different heights but can actually be different length bits of metal too. So even if you raise the top e slug or lower the G one they are still different sizes, different mass and therefore different magnetic strength. So you have to make the adjustment by ear, not by eye.

On the other hand, if your pickups have the flatwork made from fibreboard then the copper wire will be wound directly around the slugs and the wax potting may in places have penetrated to the slugs, for instance right beside the flatwork. That means the whole unit is sealed and solid and pushing the slugs up and down may break the copper wire. Which destroys the pickup. Here is fibre flatwork:



And here is Stew-Mac's exploded view of how a pickup is constructed (for those as may not know):



Easy comparing that to the first picture of the plastic bobbin to see how in "vintage" construction the copper winding wire wraps directly around the metal slug magnets. It doesn't have the plastic tube in between.

And it is easy to tell which you've got by a glance at the bottoms of the pickups. Here is a "vintage" spec loaded pickguard of mine from Bare Knuckle Pickups. This is their Sultans set and has the pups made from fibreboard flatwork. On these ones therefore you can't adjust the slugs without possibly damaging the coils:



Of course, if all of this still leaves you nervous about messing with the magnets then a simple solution is just to buy some replacement pickups with non-staggered pole pieces. Plenty out there to choose from.

Cheers - C

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Thanks for the pics, ceri.

I hope they help folks see the different situations.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Thanks shimmilou, I tried it and it works fine.