Magnet Preferences for Tele bridge and neck pickups

[madzub]

They use the word "intonation", but they go on to explain how the major 3rd in a chord sounds sharp.... That is due to temperament issues. Near the end of the article he talks about tuning the low end of a piano sharp and the high end flat. First of all, he's got this backwards, the low end is tuned flat and the high strings sharp, but that happens for entirely different reasons that don't affect the guitar at all, and so is irrelevant.

His method of setting the saddles and tuning is simply a compromise to balance out the out-of-tuneness of the 3 saddle design. Compensating the saddles with actually fix the problem, truly, without compromise. And it's easy and straighforward diy, that's why i recommend it.

But, the effect is still subtle, that's why players can still sound just fine without compensation. Look at classical guitars with one long saddle, no compensation. They don't intonate perfectly either, but it's good enough for Segovia. We should all really just turn off our computers and practice guitar rather than fret over minor issues in these forums, but heck, practicing is hard, googling shit and discussing it is easier, right?

[David Schwab]

Intonation adjustment is to deal with the fact that when you press a string down to the fretboard, you are bending the string, and it sounds sharp. So you compensate by moving the saddle back to flatten the pitch up the neck.

The out-of-tune 3rd interval is because of temperament. That's totally different.

Three saddle bridges never adjust the intonation well enough for me.

[thegreatwent]

Right.

Guitars, unlike pianos, are inherently flawed, hence the advent of the Buzz Feiten tuning system and whatever that fanned fretboard system is called.

Back to pickups.

Anyone have any more info they want to divulge on their tele bridge and neck pickup builds?

I made a .710 height .187 diameter neck pickup at 6k and it sounds great!

Gonna wind another with Plain Enamel and hear how that sounds.

[David Schwab]

Buzz Feiten tuning system, and other compensated nuts are to fix another problem. Because the string is anchored there, it's stiff. That makes it sound sharp on the lower frets.

This is the same reason they use stretch tuning on a piano. If you use a zero fret and keep the string nut a small distance from the zero fret, you don't need the a compensated nut.

The Buzz Feiten tuning system moves the nut slightly closer to the bridge. That flattens the pitch on the lower end of the neck, which is then corrected with a different intonation adjustment for the upper end of the neck.

[madzub]

Stretch tuning on a piano is due to the inharmonicity of the string itself, caused by stiffness, which results in the harmonic series of each string being sharp. Rather than tuning all the fundamentals to match, you tune the harmonics of the lower strings to match the middle range of strings, and tune the high strings to the harmonics of the middle range strings. Since the harmonics of all these strings are sharp, you end up with the fundamentals of the low strings being flat and those of the high strings being sharp. But it sounds better this way than if you were to make all the fundamentals match.

[David Schwab]

Right, and that's what the Buzz Feiten tuning system does because the strings are stiff close to the nut, so the harmonics are sharp.

[Stratz]

Anyone have any more info they want to divulge on their tele bridge and neck pickup builds?

I made a .710 height .187 diameter neck pickup at 6k and it sounds great!

Gonna wind another with Plain Enamel and hear how that sounds.

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