Strat and Tele bridge pickup placement

[KGWagner]

Does anybody know why the bridge position pickup on Teles and Strats is angled off perpendicular to the strings? It seems to align the pole pieces better with the strings, where the middle and neck pickups have the outside strings off-center. But, if that's the reason, why not just re-design the pole piece locations? And why not slant the the other two pickups the same way? Does it perhaps have something to do with the string's vibration travel being greater the further you get from the bridge?

[David Schwab]

I think back then it was done to widen the tonal response of the guitar. If you look at the first Teles they only had one pickup. So the angle got the bass strings a little deeper and the trebles a little brighter. Same thing with the split coil pickups like the P bass.

I think they sound better angled in the opposite direction.

[KGWagner]

Tonal response makes some sense. They didn't have adjustable pole pieces on the old Teles, did they? I've never paid real close attention to those guitars, so I don't remember.

[Zhangliqun]

I don't know if such a tonal response was necessarily what Leo Fender was looking for with the angle -- somebody a while back gave some other explanation that had to do with some manufacturing practicality that had little to do with its effect on tone, and I don't know if that's true.

But whatever the motivation behind the slant, the effect on tone is just as Dave says.

[Old Tele man]

...to agree with David Schwab's answer: they were angled to progressively "catch/sense" more of the strings' "fundamental" vibration movements of the bass strings.

...moving/angling the pickups forward toward the neck and the middle of the "fundamental" string vibrations does that.

...reversing the angle would emphasis the treble strings responses.