Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on February 14, 2016 at 3:38pm

Great ideas! I like the screws idea ...such a simple idea. Thank you so much !

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Permalink Reply by jabes on April 16, 2016 at 7:35am

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on February 14, 2016 at 2:01pm

A solid plastic cover and then paint. If your good at taking the paper off the inside of the box lid. Glue to match the picture on the front. You can find single coil solid pickup covers on Ebay. 

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on February 14, 2016 at 5:38pm

...I have chrome looking humbuckers so maybe the screw idea will be best but these are all creative ideas and I appreciate the info..

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on February 15, 2016 at 11:37am

Replacing the poles with metal screws will result in the screws becoming magnets later and can alter the pickups strength/performance. Brass/aluminum screws or wood dowels won't become magnetized. Removing poles will alter the pickups strength, but it worked for Keith Richards who uses 5 strings on his Tele and removed the pole in the pickups.

I put a piece of metal cotter pin on some poles on a couple of my guitars to experiment with. Put them across the poles for the wound strings to see if it improved the sound like the Railhammer pickups. It sounded better to me, but there was a slight drop in output volume because it weakens the magnets.

So leaving the poles in and putting a plastic cover without holes on the pickup would be the better choice.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on February 15, 2016 at 12:56pm

Keith Richard does it with 5 strings ....man I bet he coulda done it with 1 or 2 strings like Mark Sandman. Good point about the screws messin with the magnets and using non magnetic screws etc...

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Permalink Reply by Jon Leslie/Runaway Veal Music on February 15, 2016 at 3:01pm

If just leaving the pickup alone and not covering anything does it add to the sound in any way by having extra magnets/poles nearby? Maybe a higher output in some way? In other words does string 3's magnet/pole have anything remotely connected to 6 and so on ...

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on February 15, 2016 at 11:50am

If you got the room and really thin plywood you could build a box around your pickup. 

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on February 15, 2016 at 10:37pm

If your pickup's poles are the magnets(most Alinco magnet type), then removing a pole or 2 will weaken the pickups overall magnetic field which will weaken the pickup's output. Removing 1 will have little effect, but will become weaker the more you remove. If your pickup has a strip magnet across the bottom(Alinco or Ceramic), removing a pole or 2 will not have an effect. Didn't think of the 2 different kinds of pickups earlier.

I would just cut some thin pieces of plastic to cover the top of the pickup and attach with a dab of glue. Something that isn't too strong so you can remove it if you want.

Leaving the pickup alone will sound the same as it would in a 6 string guitar.

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Permalink Reply by JL on February 17, 2016 at 2:12am

If we're brainstorming here, how about the handyman's secret weapon, DUCK TAPE.

not only will it disguise the number of poles in the pickup, it adds to the 'home made rustic' look

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on February 17, 2016 at 10:02am

Electrical tape comes in different colors and prints too.

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Permalink Reply by Grandpa on February 18, 2016 at 1:16pm

I'm a bit late to this discussion, but when I use 6 pole mag pickups on a 3 or 4 string build, I mount the pickup on an angle, so the outside strings run over the outside poles, or between the "1 & 2" and "5 & 6" poles. This way, I have all 3 or 4 strings running over the 6 poles. My experience shows me that strings don't have to be directly over a pickup pole, and that by running 3 or 4 strings over the 6 poles, I get good sound. I think that when the strings run in the vicinity of the pickup  poles, the vibrational excitement  gets snatched up by the magnetic field. Adjust the height of the mag pickup to your liking, and let 'er rip. There are many examples of angle mounted, as opposed to perpendicular mounted pickups on many CBG builds in the photos within this very website. My $.02.

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