Lefty strat sets

[Lpone]

quick question:
are the magnets and coil start and finishes reversed in a lefty set or just the magnets?

Thanks don

[big_teee]

Hi Lpone:
I'm Lefthanded, and the only difference is in Staggered Sets.
You Keep the short Magnet on the B String, but it ends up on the Other end.
Not sure what Magnet length you use, just turn everything accordingly!
Everything else stays the same.
Good Luck,
Terry

[Lpone]

Thanks for the info.
Cheers Don

[David Schwab]

If you use a right handed set on a lefty Strat you sound like Hendrix!

I'd get rid of that stager nonsense. It doesn't work well with modern strings.

[big_teee]

If you use a right handed set on a lefty Strat you sound like Hendrix!

I'd get rid of that stager nonsense. It doesn't work well with modern strings.

That is Your Opinion.
As Far as selling them, Everyone Around here wants the Grey Bottom Staggered sets.
I do a Modest Stagger that works better with modern Finger Boards.
A lot of what we make is dictated by demand, and what sells.
Around here the old Vintage Style Pickups is what sells.
I have never had anyone want a pickup with Blades.
I have put Blade Pickups in a couple of the Local Guitar Stores.
I always end up taking them back home with me.
I am a Lefty and I tried the Right hand stagger, and took them out and sold them.
Later,
B_T

[David Schwab]

That is Your Opinion.
As Far as selling them, Everyone Around here wants the Grey Bottom Staggered sets.
I do a Modest Stagger that works better with modern Finger Boards.
A lot of what we make is dictated by demand, and what sells.
Around here the old Vintage Style Pickups is what sells.
I have never had anyone want a pickup with Blades.
I have put Blade Pickups in a couple of the Local Guitar Stores.
I always end up taking them back home with me.
I am a Lefty and I tried the Right hand stagger, and took them out and sold them.
Later,
B_T

I notice you start almost every line with "I"

How does a stagger work with a fixed fingerboard radius? There's no reason to have the B string lower. Did you ever have a B string that was too loud?

Just arch them to match the fingerboard radius. I don't know if you are a player, but if you are, you can hear how out of balance the strings sound with a vintage stagger.

Just Google and see how many people complain about it:

Fender vintage stagger - Google Search

I don't make any vintage styled pickups. I'm mostly making bass pickups, but I'm starting to get interest in guitar pickups, especially for 7-9 string guitarists. So I figure I'll start selling my guitar designs.

If you don't make pickups with blades, how would any one buy something you don't make? I have a line of pickups and people either want them or not.

I suppose my customers are looking for something they can't get anywhere else, which is good, because I don't have to compete with all the other pickup makers.

As far as guitar pickups with blades; I think EMG and Bill Lawrence have sold an awful lot of pickups. And then you have the Duncan and Barden rail pickups.

My latest set (the neck will be losing the poles soon):

The bridge pickup was voiced to sound like Mick Ronson, and the neck gets a nice round tone without being muddy or too bright. If you think about some of the classic guitarist like Ronson, they didn't just plug their guitar into the amp, but relied on RangeMasters and things like that to get something the pickups weren't doing. The younger players often don't have a clue, and think it's all in the pickups. But I wanted to make a bridge pickup that was loud, and still bright.

So having blades doesn't prevent you from getting classic tones. There are a lot of musicians out there, and you'd be surprised how many want something different. But make what you like. I'm just giving my opinion and the opinion of other guitarist's I've talked to and worked with. I know more that hate staggered poles and even some that will only use blade pickups, than those that want fake vintage pickups.

[copperheadroads]

I do Staggered strat pickups because it what everyone wants , IMO the stagger is not practical ,i do find the D & G string too sharp & stand out especially the G in the neck .. If this was a flat pole pickup i think it would be a little more balanced

[big_teee]

We (Is That better) all know you don't care for tradition, and that is fine.
But, a lot of folks do.
There doesn't have to be Just one way.
You can wind them straight, but Everyone in these circles like the Stagger.
There's room for both!
Same with Blades, and Poles pieces.

Terry

[David Schwab]

I do Staggered strat pickups because it what everyone wants , IMO the stagger is not practical ,i do find the D & G string too sharp & stand out especially the G in the neck .. If this was a flat pole pickup i think it would be a little more balanced

I guess we all have different kind of customers. All the players I work with hate the stagger because of the unbalance between strings.

[David Schwab]

We (Is That better) all know you don't care for tradition, and that is fine.
But, a lot of folks do.
There doesn't have to be Just one way.
You can wind them straight, but Everyone in these circles like the Stagger.
There's room for both!
Same with Blades, and Poles pieces.

Terry

Tradition is fine, but doing it just because it's the way it was always done, and not because it makes for a better pickup, or even asking why you are doing it that way makes no sense to me. I started building instruments and pickups because I couldn't get what I wanted from a lot of the commercial stuff on the market. I was always modifying it to get it to work right*, and to get the tones I wanted. So my point is that 50 years later some things can be improved upon while still retaining tones we are familiar with, and want to hear. EMG has done well in that regard.

But doing things just because people think they want it isn't really the way to make the best product you can make. I think if we hold the greats up for study, like Leo and Bill Lawrence, we can see that they kept tinkering with things to get them just the way we wanted. Even Fender stopped staggering the poles when that wasn't needed any more. People think they want it, but can't tell you why it's something to have. It' just them making believe they have a vintage guitar. That goes along with the whole distressed finish fad. It's a few steps above playing one of those guitar hero games.

I think people making pickups comes from different motivations. Some want to save money and make copies. Some build them because they need something they can't get anywhere else. As far as the vintage repro market, that's a moving target. We have beat to death the whole idea that there is no single PAF tone for instance. Even Duncan has a half dozen or so PAF versions. I had one set of very well regarded PAF copies here that were really quite awful. The owner had them in his guitar a week or two and couldn't stand them anymore. Wasn't anyone from this forum I'm happy to say. And who says that's the best tone from a humbucker anyway? It's a niche market compared to more modern higher output pickups. It used to be that a guitar sounded like a guitar. You could then get your own tone. Now players that don't know how to get a tone want it out of the box.

My opinion is it's a fad and will fade out eventually the same way brass hardware did.

But we all have our ideas of what's good. Some people want to make exact copies of Strats, and some of us want to make something new. That's how we got the guitars we have now, because a few people tried something new.

(* Play a few early 70s Rickenbacker basses to learn what you don't want in a bass as far as functionality. Another example of sticking to traditions even if they make for a less than ideal instrument.)

[big_teee]

Whatever.
The O P just wanted to know how a left hand stagger went.
Simple Question.
T

[David Schwab]

Whatever.
The O P just wanted to know how a left hand stagger went.
Simple Question.
T

Sure, but tell him why it's there in the first place. Don't just do things because you see someone else do it.

Dies the OP know why they are staggered? That's the question.

[Lpone]

Thanks guys for all the answers, I can see both points of view about the stagger.

OK this is my take on the stagger: its there to match the curve of the fingerboard, also the high G string magnet is for the original wound G strings of the 50s, not sure why the B is lower, I assume its due to the string being more powerful relative to the top E, maybe it has more bass as its tuned a semitone lower relative the sequence of the first 4 original wound strings. I think the stagger has a certain character of tone that sounds natural to our ears given thats the classic sound of a strat, the flat pole or blade certainly has a role, but for vintage strat blues I would choose the stagger as thats what I expect to hear out of an old strat. Especially on the original radius 7 and a bit inches. I would't use the stagger on a 12 inch radius board.

I have decided to reverse the wiring and the stagger on any lefty sets I do.

Don

[David Schwab]

Thanks guys for all the answers, I can see both points of view about the stagger.

OK this is my take on the stagger: its there to match the curve of the fingerboard, also the high G string magnet is for the original wound G strings of the 50s, not sure why the B is lower, I assume its due to the string being more powerful relative to the top E, maybe it has more bass as its tuned a semitone lower relative the sequence of the first 4 original wound strings. I think the stagger has a certain character of tone that sounds natural to our ears given thats the classic sound of a strat, the flat pole or blade certainly has a role, but for vintage strat blues I would choose the stagger as thats what I expect to hear out of an old strat. Especially on the original radius 7 and a bit inches. I would't use the stagger on a 12 inch radius board.

I have decided to reverse the wiring and the stagger on any lefty sets I do.

Don

Yes, the stagger was to balance the string sets used back in the 50s. The B must have been louder back then. It was a lot heavier compared to todays strings. Arching your magnets to match the fingerboard is a good idea. But I have a '72 Fender Mustang, which pretty much has Strat pickups, but with flat poles under a closed cover. The guitar has a 7.5" radius as with most older Fenders, and the sound is very even from string to string.

I agree staggered magnets have a certain sound, but personally I find the string balance very uneven with today's lighter string sets and plain Gs. As I mentioned previously, others also have an issue with it, as you will see if you Google it.

So some like it, and some don't. I also meet some demanding players who feel the raised magnets get in their way.

[Mike Sulzer]

Yes, the stagger was to balance the string sets used back in the 50s. The B must have been louder back then. It was a lot heavier compared to todays strings. Arching your magnets to match the fingerboard is a good idea. But I have a '72 Fender Mustang, which pretty much has Strat pickups, but with flat poles under a closed cover. The guitar has a 7.5" radius as with most older Fenders, and the sound is very even from string to string.

I agree staggered magnets have a certain sound, but personally I find the string balance very uneven with today's lighter string sets and plain Gs. As I mentioned previously, others also have an issue with it, as you will see if you Google it.

So some like it, and some don't. I also meet some demanding players who feel the raised magnets get in their way.

In the 50s you had a wrapped G string: less magnetic material than the plain B next to it. That problem has shifted a string, so why would anyone want a vintage stagger unless they play with a wrapped G? I think a bit of increase under the D string gives better balance, especially on a neck pickup when you adjust the bass side lower so that it is not too bassy. But it really is not necessary.