pole lenght

[Marco Pancaldi]

two questions on pole lenght:

1 - if I make SC using the classic Fender dimensions (bobbin height), but I have alnico poles about 1/16 longer, can I let them protrude from the forbon base? I noted some "hot" Seymour Duncan PU using this design. Effects on tone/string sustain?

2 - if I use alnico poles all of the same lenght, and use a "staggered" configuration (with different protrusion from the base), is this a good or bad method? I know about slightly differences in the HB using longer or shorter screws, but I don't know if the same is valid for real magnets.

thanks
m.

[Possum]

some examples

There are some pickups that use alnico rods that are pretty much flush on the top but protrude a ways below the bobbin, like the old DeArmond Dynasonics and some Rickenbacker pickups. I did a strat pickup like this once, the result was a softer darker tone, I think the closer the pole tops are to the coil you get a darker tone, softer. as for doing a stagger on top with some protruding below the coil, the ideal way to test this would be to get a plastic bobbin pickup like Texas Specials where the stagger is fake, all the magnets are the same height but pushed up to create the stagger. Put your own magnets in a similar bobbin and experiment away.....

[Spence]

A lot of tele neck pickups have the magnets protruding through the bottom flatwork and so do Jazz Master pickups. My suspicion is that the magnets needed to be longer than the coil height in order to retain enough gauss to be effective. I have found this works well with tele neck pickups where the magnets are A3 and having to balance with a hot A5 bridge pickup.