screw slot direction

[StarryNight]

Dan Earliwine mentions in one of his videos that he positions the screw slots on pickups perpendicular to the strings as putting them parallel reduces the signal. Anyone have an opinion on the subject?

[David Schwab]

I think it's nonsense.

[voodoochild]

Dan Earliwine mentions in one of his videos that he positions the screw slots on pickups perpendicular to the strings as putting them parallel reduces the signal. Anyone have an opinion on the subject?

Yes I've heard several so called gurus mention that specific orientation of the screw slots does something. I think they smoked a bowl before they came up with that idea. Definitely not true. Adjusting the screw height is what makes the difference.

[kevinT]

I think it's nonsense.

+ 1

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

+ 1

I have another reason to think Earlwine is full of fecal matter.......

[belwar]

I think it's nonsense.

+1

[Possum]

...

I guess its up to me again to be devil's advocate. SATAN RULES!!! No its not nonsense, a regular humbucker screw has quite a big slot in it, if you line the slot up with the string, there is a null spot where the slot sinks down into the screw. Granted its not that big but there is an actual patent on pole screws with lining up the slots in various ways changes the tone. When Gibson shipped the original PAF equipped guitars back then they turned each screw slot at a 45 degree angle to the string if that tells you anything, I don't think it was for looks. Most of the screws like Guitar Jones sells have such teeny tiny slots in them it probably makes no difference, I hate those screws, its like there is no driver that really fits them correctly, yuk...

[Down Time]

I guess its up to me again to be devil's advocate. SATAN RULES!!! No its not nonsense, a regular humbucker screw has quite a big slot in it, if you line the slot up with the string, there is a null spot where the slot sinks down into the screw. Granted its not that big but there is an actual patent on pole screws with lining up the slots in various ways changes the tone. When Gibson shipped the original PAF equipped guitars back then they turned each screw slot at a 45 degree angle to the string if that tells you anything, I don't think it was for looks. Most of the screws like Guitar Jones sells have such teeny tiny slots in them it probably makes no difference, I hate those screws, its like there is no driver that really fits them correctly, yuk...

Right you are, Leo Fender's patent 4,686,881 on the orientation of a slotted pole piece.

[Possum]

....

Was hoping someone had that one stashed away. Some of the old big ass DeArmond pickups had crossed slots on large heads, probably intentional. If you have Erlwine's books he shows how the 'burst screws were oriented, 3 were angled towards the left and 3 towards the right and they were radiused for the neck. I used to do that but it takes to much time for a blind guy to do...

[Possum]

..

The patent is a pretty interesting read, check it out, google patent search will bring it up...

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

I tend not to believe people who say "I think this makes a difference in sound because I made up a reason", there are just too many myths out there. Many many things can make surprisingly profound impacts on tone, but if you do too much thinking and not enough experimenting these things come up.

I never heard Earlwine say this before, but I did try it because I had the same thought - the surface of a screw is not uniform. I found that a 1/4" turn can make a difference in tone due to the height, but the actual orientation didn't seem to make any difference. I compared my perfect dialed in sound regardless of orientation to reorienting them to different vectors (I tried a couple) moving the height as little as possible, and I always found the difference was small and sounded to me like just height differences, and I ended up preferring the scattered pattern. Maybe if the shape of the head was more dramatic I'd have different results, but I have doubts on that.

What I did find (and is probably old news to everyone here) is that the height relation of the screw to the slug is very important. If you look at how a humbucker ring (or pickguard) is in relation to the strings - whether or not it is truly parallel - and compensate with the screws, you can clean up the sound of a pickup a lot. I've found this especially true of modern SGs which have more dramatic neck angles than the old ones, and the pickguard ones are flat against the body creating a really bad angle. I've found that difference to be enough to go from hating a pickup to kinda liking it.

[voodoochild]

I guess its up to me again to be devil's advocate. SATAN RULES!!! No its not nonsense, a regular humbucker screw has quite a big slot in it, if you line the slot up with the string, there is a null spot where the slot sinks down into the screw. Granted its not that big but there is an actual patent on pole screws with lining up the slots in various ways changes the tone. When Gibson shipped the original PAF equipped guitars back then they turned each screw slot at a 45 degree angle to the string if that tells you anything, I don't think it was for looks. Most of the screws like Guitar Jones sells have such teeny tiny slots in them it probably makes no difference, I hate those screws, its like there is no driver that really fits them correctly, yuk...

Not to be a smart a$$ but I think this one of those things that makes sense on paper but anyone who can actually hear it deserves an award.

[David Schwab]

Right you are, Leo Fender's patent 4,686,881 on the orientation of a slotted pole piece.

That patent says the slot angle changes the tone, and not the signal level, so either Leo or Dan are wrong.

It says that when the slots are perpendicular to the strings, it gives a percussive sound. Parallel to the strings sounds like a "typical dual pole pickup."

It should also be noted that the screw head in the patent is quite large; 3/8" in diameter, 5/32" thick, and the slot is 1/16" deep.

I'm sure Leo discovered a difference in tone by accident and patented it as a feature.

[Possum]

...

Like I said before, how big are the slots in your screws? If they are the cheap metric stuff the slots are tiny, the screws I'm using have big slots in them like the old PAF screws. Don't forget, guys back then didn't bend strings like we do. If you read the patent the interesting thing it points out in a larger screw head is that the head with a big slot in it acts as a double pole head magnet and that since both pole sides are the same polarity they repel eachother leaving a nearly dead zone in the center. Leo's patent talks about a larger head than normal, 3/8" diameter I believe.

Can anyone actually hear that effect, well probably in a clean amp you could, probably could even measure it with lab audio gear. I usually avoid having the slots line up with the strings myself, step on a crack break your mother's back :-)

Yes, balancing the screw poles with the slug side is very important. I point this out to my customers who buy the VL set. Contrary to what most people think, raising the pole screws on a bridge pickup will reduce treble and mellow it out more if its a slug dominant wind coil. Putting the screws low will emphasize the slug side and brighten the pickup up. You can spend hours tweaking a bucker set with height adjustment of the pickup and screw pole adjustments. Alot of tones available just by how everything is adjusted.