Fender American Vintage II 1975 Telecaster Deluxe Pg. 2

[HNB]

Oh by the way, these come with a bridge cover also...

[Dok]

Cool. I haven't ever messed with pole pieces before.

Oh man, that's a whole world to open up right there.
...

So imagine that you have a humbucker 5mm from the strings, and drop it to 10mm. The output from both coils has dropped by 60%. Now, you raise one
It's probably the most underutilized tone adjustment on a guitar. Way bigger impact than swapping out pots etc, and way quicker too. No disassembly...just a few seconds with a screwdriver.

I um... canNOT believe that this never occurred to me on my vintage WRHB-equipped custom Tele Custom. Was never quite happy with how that neck pickup sounded and I just did exactly what you recommended (lower it some and then raise the pole pieces) and holy CRAP does it sound so much better! All because of a couple of mm, hot damn! Thank you.

[Embenny]

I um... canNOT believe that this never occurred to me on my vintage WRHB-equipped custom Tele Custom. Was never quite happy with how that neck pickup sounded and I just did exactly what you recommended (lower it some and then raise the pole pieces) and holy CRAP does it sound so much better! All because of a couple of mm, hot damn! Thank you.

Awesome!

I didn't really understand how big a difference adjusting polepieces could make until recently, because I spent the first 20 years of my guitar-playing life thinking I hated all humbuckers.

But my recent Gibson bender got me to reapproach them with an open mind, and this video from Johan Segeborn demonstrated the effect clearly enough that I started giving it a fair shake.

Before that, I had just pulled the screws entirely out of a few humbuckers to make them single coil/dummy coil arrangements. But if the pickup is low or medium output, it sounds much better to just set the screws up high and jack down the pickup.

I can't imagine how many people have swapped out their humbuckers for a brighter model without having given the polepieces a fair shake.

[Dok]

I can't imagine how many people have swapped out their humbuckers for a brighter model without having given the polepieces a fair shake.

And it makes me wonder if all of the Fender humbuckers I've had were actually any good or just ass like they all seem to be.

[garyfanclub]

Cool. I haven't ever messed with pole pieces before.

Oh man, that's a whole world to open up right there.
...

So imagine that you have a humbucker 5mm from the strings, and drop it to 10mm. The output from both coils has dropped by 60%. Now, you raise one
It's probably the most underutilized tone adjustment on a guitar. Way bigger impact than swapping out pots etc, and way quicker too. No disassembly...just a few seconds with a screwdriver.

I um... canNOT believe that this never occurred to me on my vintage WRHB-equipped custom Tele Custom. Was never quite happy with how that neck pickup sounded and I just did exactly what you recommended (lower it some and then raise the pole pieces) and holy CRAP does it sound so much better! All because of a couple of mm, hot damn! Thank you.

Can confirm, I’ve done this on my Tele Custom (‘75) and it makes a massive difference. Pickup down low, bass pole piece nearly flush with the cover, treble pole pieces boosted slightly. Guitar becomes way more articulate, and the muddiness many people
experience with the neck WRHB is gone.

Also helps balance better with the bridge, as the low end isn’t just complete overwhelming the standard Tele pickup.

[Powdered Toast Man]

. They are similar to the brandonwound and novak ones if you are unsure what to spend money on. I don't notice a huge difference in sounds between the new ones. TBH I kind of like the brandonwound ones the best, but it could be that the sassafras Bilt is just something special. Here are pictures while I wait on the audio demo to upload.

I've had a Fender MIM WRHB, Brandonwound, Seymour Duncan CS, and the Fender Cunife reissue in my Tele Custom and the Cunife RI sounds NOTHING like the Brandonwound. In fact, I'd say out of the four the Brandonwound sounded the worst. The two bass strings sounding especially mushy and the other four strings incredibly bright. Also HOT. So hot that I had to have it down to level with the pickguard and it still overpowered the bridge pickup (which itself was wound to 10K).

The Fender RI Cunife is the best of the bunch by a country mile. Beautiful sounding pickups. However with all things WRHB, you have to have the heights calibrated properly.

[HNB]

I think pickups can vary as well as the guitars they are in leading to subtle differences. I have tried:

Vintage WRHB

Brandonwound WRHB

Novak WRHB

Fender Modern WRHB (Humbucker under WRHB Covers)

Fender CuNiFe Reissue WRHB

Revel WRHB

If you are comparing those to the original vintage ones, all were much hotter than the vintage example I have. The one closest in tone to the originals (to my ears) was the Brandonwound. Novak's was also very good. The reissues are totally nice, but even with the same components, they don't sound exactly the same. I have to imagine little differences in winding, body wood, etc make the difference. Also adjusting the pole pieces can make a difference. Hight on all of mine are set up the same, so that factor was controlled, but the other things are harder to control without using one body and swapping pickups in and out to compare and I don't have an interest in diving that deep. LOL

To be fair, I like ALL of those examples I have tried. They have a slightly different flavor which I use to justify keeping them all. LOL

It isn't an addiction, I swear.... LOL

[HNB]

FYI My Bilt Sassafras ESG has shown to be a very special guitar. It is strongly becoming my desert island guitar. There is just something about it that is extra special.