More Clarity and Punch on Low E string

[Billy Bones]

Hi folks,

Looking for pointers. I can wind a humbucker that I really like, and a P90 that I really like. My 12 pole adjustable filtertron style pickups are good, but I would like a little more clarity and punch from my low E and A strings. I don't like using those descriptive words, but I don't have the language to talk about it all that clearly.

My 12 pole sounds great through the bottom four strings, but I'd like a little more power out of my First couple strings, without it getting muddy. Any ideas? It sounds best when I cheat it up towards the strings on that side, but it's a great time for me to learn something.

It's potted, is it possible just potted a little too much?

Billy

[JGundry]

Try pole screws made with a higher carbon steel for the A and E strings.

[Possum]

....

Have you tried just lowering those pole screws down way flat? When you raise pole screws they increase the inductance and makes it darker....
You could also cut those end pole screw bottoms off to shorten the screws, that will dramatically brighten those up....

[EFK]

"When you raise pole screws they increase the inductance and makes it darker...."

REALLY? (I'm not being sarcastic, I'm genuinely interested.) This seems to go against all 'conventional' wisdom, i.e. raise the screws and lower the pickup overall at the neck to *brighten* it up.

Can you elaborate more on this?

[Possum]

....

OK, I am going by my own PAF reproductions here, all alloys and parts are as PAF spec as possible. My slug side is slightly hotter, but it doesn't seem to matter. The best place to listen to this is the bridge pickup. Put the poles all the way down flat and maybe even a little lower than that and the pickup up high. You will be getting mostly the slugs. Now without lowering the pickup raise the poles so maybe 1/4 of the head sticks up and listen, you should hear the pickup start to warm up. On the Extech the inductance and AC resistance also goes up. Why, I don't know for sure, its probably because the magnetic field itself is coming up over the top of the coil in a certain way or it has to do with interaction with the other coil's field, I just dont know but I hear it in every pickup I've made and every offset ratio. It also works in the neck. Now if you drop the pickup itself and raise the poles I still hear it there too, but I suppose if you raise the poles with the whole head up over the cover it may go back the other but I don't like the looks of pole screws sticking up like gopher heads waiting to be whacked down If you have your Extech handy try this on a pickup out of the guitar. If you're using kit parts pickups maybe it doesn't do this but probably does....

[EFK]

Huh! What do you know, you're right! Raising screws = raised inductance. That's very interesting. While I was at it, I took a new Duncan Seth Lover and took the cover off (because I needed to mess with it anyway), and the inductance also went UP. I tried it on a few other pickups, including an old narrow-space (Byrdland?) paf which no longer has it's original cover, and the inductance went up every time I took the cover off and went down every time I put one on. ????? Now someone explain that. And these aren't brass covers; nickel plated nickel silver or unplated nickel silver, doesn't make a difference....