I recently had to string up my main strat with slinky's, which are normally reserved for my humbuckered guitars (Pure Nickel go on the single coils). I don't like the sound of nickel plated steel on single coils, it's too tinny sounding for me. I was never into the "throw the bridge pickup on and seperate the front rows heads from their shoulders" sound.
I cant get new strings for a week or so, and it's not a big issue, just one that got me thinking. I dont have an issue with the bridge pickup since I changed the tone control from a basic high-cut filter to a high/low cut filter (rolls the low end off just a little as it takes off the highs, kind of like compression, but affects only the volume of a few frequencies instead of the whole output like a compressor does). But the neck and middle were too trebley for me, so i dropped the treble side of the pickps down a bit to mitigate the increase in treble.

Once i get my normal strings, they'll go back to the way they were. I wondered how others have theirs set? My bridge pickup has always been set more flat than recommended, but I always have the neck and middle slanted.

You?

Oh, and my pickups have staggered pole pieces, not flush.

While I have my guitar plugged into the amp set to a clean setting, I strum the guitar as I turn each adjustment screw slightly until the tone sounds right to me. That means a little bit on each side one at a time until the height "sounds" right, not looks right. So what I'm saying is, my pup heights are not even, one edge is higher than the other. Typically on the neck, the higher strings have higher pup height to help even the tone from the low e to the high E. The bridge is a little different only because to minimize the ice pick tone the bridge pup sometimes produces...

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So you prefer them slanted? Yeah, I do my heights by ear, usually after setting them tob factory spec as a start. But I realize that with pickups with vintage staggered poles, slanted up towards the high E is actually somewhat flat. Though there bobbin i is slanted, with the pole pieces on the low E,A &D strings being raised, they actually balance out.
I had a set of Rio Grande Vintage Tallboys on before, a couple years ago. They had the pole pieces flush with the top of the pickup, but I can't remember how I had them set. I'm curious to how people with pickups with the same straight pole pieces have theirs set.

I also use Area 58/61 pickups that use Alnico II pickups with an EXTREMELY low magnetic pull. So I have my neck/bridge pickups set "relatively" high, and I mean relative to the middle. With these pups, they get more punchy and compressed than typical single coils. So I can have my amp set for the edge of brakup, and on those 2 pickups, it'll drive the amp into overdrive, and I can throw it to the middle one for clean.

Also the tone control I wired up makes the bridge pickup so much more useful than with a normal tone control. I actually use the bridge pickup w/ the tone between 3-6, and get a pretty nasty sounding rhythm tone out of it.

Any flat polepieces out there?

My "shop guitar" has the Robert Cray pickups (flat pole pieces across the bridge pickup). I set it up like everything else (2.5mm on the bass side, 2.0mm on the treble) and it sounds fine.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Mine normally sound fine set like that too, but not with steel strings, like I said, I find them too steely(better description than tinny). I like having the bridge flat, actually its a bit higher on the bass side, but only to compensate for the higher pole pieces.
So you didn't answer me before, did you put Eric Johnson RW necks on your build?

NOTE: I havent ever looked into one, but I think Fender's Greasebucket is pretty much the same tone circuit I built. If you use one, and dont have a hotter bridge pickup than the other 2, be prepared to compensate with a boost, or some volume increase. Because it rolls of highs AND some lows, you'll have a noticable volume drop when you roll it below 8.

WTF?

I built that guitar three years before EJ's rosewood signature model was ever even a concept at Scottsdale's R&D studio.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Okay, okay. Calm down, just a question, jeez. They look good.

I recently did this and if I recall correctly (I did my measurements from the Fender playbook recommendations) holding down the string at the 21st fret I measure from the top of the pickups pole to the bottom of the string and I set the Tex Mex pickups at 6/64 at the treble side and 8/64 at the bass side, and for the standard pickups 5/64 at the treble side and 6/64 at the bass side.

Planning began in January of '05, shortly after my cardiac surgery. Construction started in April of '07 and by August of that year the guitar was complete.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Standard setup.

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I start by using the "Nickel Method" (Do a search on the Forum) then turn the volume on the guitar up and set the amp on clean and low volume. Hit the E and e strings with the same amount of pick attack. Adjust one side of each pickup either up or down until the volume for the E and e strings are equal. Then using my normal amp settings adjust each pickup up or down evenly until I find a tone I like.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Great info....I have always just balanced them buy ear giving the frequency's even volume slanted toward the high stings.... But i can never get right with the bridge, I to use it to cut through rhythm sections but i don't dig its ice pick tone. Its a necessity only position...But you guys saying flattening it out will change that? Why so? Will that not just accentuate the highs and mids and make it worse?? I would appreciate any info on this i would love to like the bridge pick up!

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Yes & no. Hows that for an obscure answer. Lol. Anyway, what it will do is attenuate the volume from the high E, B and to a lesser degree the G. The ice pick more often than not comes from the high E primarily, so pulling the pole piece further away will lessen its volume. There are other ways. I went to pure nickel strings because they are noticeably warmer sounding that your average string, which is nickel plated steel. The nickel plating is more to lengthen your frets life than for any tone that may come from that, you Herrera hear the steel. People like steel because its stronger and is louder, so it gives it more output. The whole strength thing though; if your guitar is setup properly, with a well cut/dressed nut, and properly setup tremolo, you shouldn't break strings. Pure nickel also tends to not last as long, but as long as you clean your strings after. Playing, they'll last long enough. They also stay in tune better. I know this for fact. I have locking tuners, so I don't need to wrap the string, just put it through the hole, tighten the screw, cut the excess string ad tune to pitch. After tuning, we all know we have to stretch the strings or they'll go out of tunw with each bend. When I used regular GHS Boomers, I had to stretch/tune to pitch/stretchand repeat dozens of times befor it would stop going out of tune. Pure nickel stringsK 3, maybe 4 times, and it was in tune.
Eric Johnson gtook asay some of the high Es tone by removing the standard saddle, and having one of the old nylon saddles from the tune-o?atic welded/glued on, so the string rested on plastic.
The BEST way IMO, to get rid of the ice pick, is pure nickel, and making the tone knob a high/low cut filter instead of just a high cut. A normal high cut rolls off just the high frequencies (along with some upper mids). This tone circuit ,which IS basically a GREASEBUCKET I discoverd works differently. Fender says it "rolls off highs without adding bass". Well we all know you can't "add" anything to a passivge pickup system. You can add it relative to its normal sound. If you're always playing with the tone knob at 5, then one day turn it to 10, you've 'added' treble, but really only unvailed something already there. What happens in reality is that a normal tone knob takes off highs/ making the bass more noticable, that's all. This circuit works when you turn it down, as its lowering the highs (we'll call it the ceiling), it also rolls off some low frequencies (the 'floor'), but not to the same degree. It kind of works as a compressor, but only to certain frequencies.
To boil it down, it makes the tone knob MUCH more usefull. Before, I never went below 7 on the tone knob, now at timmes I'm at 2 or 3. It can make the bridge pickup sound and respond more like a humbucker. I just did it a couple months ago, and I love it. I onlu did it to the bridge. I don't know why they did it on the John Mayer strat since its pickups have scooped mids, so you have less to work with. But now, I can have my amp overdriven, roll the bridge to 4 or 5, and use it as a rhythem pickup, and it has a real unique sound. I can also use high gain, and it sounds 'right' not ice pick in the ear.
There is a volume loss, so you have to take that into account, but that's easy. I also recommend if you're going to make one, you cchange whatevger pot you're going to do it to, up to the next size. If you have 250K, go to 500. I have a 250k in the volume, a 300k at the neck, and a 500; for the bridge. Its a super simple mod. You will have to use whatever you normally use as a cap; say a .022 for each pot. You won't be able to jumper one cap for both pots.
PM me for the instructions.

Windwalker....Thank you very much for taking time out of you day to share such fantastic info, I have looked into this style of Grease bucket before, I will take you advice and have one of these installed. I use Nickel wound strings, They are a lot warmer huh but still bright.... I will flatten the pick up as soon as i get home also...I will tell you how it worked out for me at least with the strings and pickup angle tomorrow...Thanks again Windwalker talk soon...

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