Tipping a coil

[Steve A.]

On a P-90, the bar magnets adhered to the keeper bar in the middle direct the field outwards, rather than down or up.

I have a different take on that. The two magnets on a P90 have like poles facing each other which forces the keeoer bar and screws to acquire the opposite polarity very strongly with the magnetic force of two magnets. Photos of the flux fields of P90's are quite different from those of hb or strat pickups.

BTW the 2014 Gibson Melody Maker has P90S pickups with magnetic pole pieces rather than bar magnets. This makes them very similar to the wide oval pickups Gibson used on their lap and console steels between 1947 and 1951. Without the bar magnets the P90S is skinny enough to be used with soap bar mounting on the MM which is much thinner than LP's.

Steve Ahola

[mr fab]

reckon its a fair question; raising and lowering the pickup changes the tone (because of the change in field strength). tilting it to some degree will also have an effect, as to whether its a usable result will depend on the guitar, the listener, and the type of pickup used.

rotating a strat pickup 90 degrees may not be optimal, but maybe 20-30 degrees may be...its all dependent on the result you want to achieve

[Steve A.]

I once tried rotating a pickup 180° but it was very uncomfortable playing my guitar while standing on my head!