physical pole contact vs close proximity

[rjl001]

I'm new to building humbuckers, and I may have a misconception about physical contact between all the poles, slugs, steel keeper, and bar magnet.
I know the steel keeper bar physically touches the magnet, but do the pole screws and slugs require physical contact with keeper or magnet? Or do they just need close proximity - say within .5mm of keeper or magnet? Will lack of physical contact result in a dead pole or a weak pole?

I ordered some pole screws, slugs, and keeper bars from Stewmac. I was expecting the holes in the keeper to be threaded for the pole screws, thus making solid contact. I was surprised to find that they are not threaded, and they are slightly oversized - ~.5mm larger then the pole screws which they sell.

Thanks for setting me straight on this fundamental newbie issue.

RJ

[belwar]

No it doesnt have to come in direct contact. Some people make a big stink out of it NOT being in contact.. I'm not too familiar with it, but I think dimarzio does something like that in one of thier pickups. Dave Schwab probably has the patent tucked away some where.

Personally I do like the parts fitting snuggly and touching, but that is my own personal preference

[David Schwab]

They should be fine passing though the unthreaded hole. That's a pretty small gap. They don't have to touch.

The DiMarzio gap is actually a lot larger, and they don't use a keeper. The keeper is in contact with the magnet so you just have that small space in the keeper holes. The DiMarzio patent is 5399802.