Very old topic, but why not just rotate a staggered p.u.?

[SJ318]

Hi,
Read a lot about staggered vs. flat vs. radius matching pole pieces, all good answers to good questions. It seems to me ( I have tried it and like it ) that
no one I see has mentioned what must be covered plenty somewhere, namely that flipping the pup around it is much easier to match string heights with the magnets and the only odd man out in this scenario would be the A string.
But the low strings sound plenty fat anyway and it worked for Hendrix.
Is there some reason that makes this a bad idea? The wiring is the same for all pickups, "rotated" or not, so am I missing something?
If I missed a thread somewhere please guide me.
Also, I was wondering if you could gently hammer the pole pieces (the g and d especially ) down without
breaking any windings, all the care in the world being used?
Thank You,
Steve B.

[Edgecrusher]

Dont be hammering the pole pieces there is a big chance you will ruin your pickup. Singles arent set up the same as humbuckers.

Keep in mind that fret board radii and popular string diameters have changed over the years so what was relevant in the 1950's may not be any longer. being able to flip the pickups would depend on how your guitar is routed

[Funkfingers]

Very old answer.

The fibreboard baseplate of a typical Stratocaster style pickup has an area along one edge to accommodate the output cable soldering points. Turning the pickup end to end leaves this portion of the baseplate facing towards the neck heel. Unless your Stratocaster has the so-called swimming pool rout, the pickup ain't gonna fit.

[frankfalbo]

I do it with the SSL-5 in the neck.

[SJ318]

Hi,
I have made room for that part of the pickup. It is a J.Beck model that comes
with the neck & bridge already routed for an H/S/H set up. i just needed to take a little from the middle pup route. I have a J.B. humbucker in the bridge and tapped the slugs to match the neck radius. I also have the
pup oriented with the slug side facing the bridge. I screwed the poles facing the neck very low so this gives me a very bell like sound from the h.bucker and the 4 position is a beautiful (to me) combo sound.
The slugs were very tight so I was super careful when I tapped them to match the radius.
Steve

[TheLivingDead]

I do it with the SSL-5 in the neck.

Is there any tonal difference?

I'm thinking about putting a SSL-5 in the neck of a strat pretty soon.

[Mad Raxz]

Did a lot of slug hammering recently. They were cheap Humbuckers that needed a magnet swap, but the original mags were thicker than the UOA5b RCA2n that was being installed.
So I hammered the slugs (they were all slugs, no polepeice screws) and filed down the metal spacer and plastic shim, and the thinner mags fit! They became microphonic so I wax potted ONLY the magnets. The pups now sound great!
My staggering the slugs was not a problem, and did not damage the buckers, of course they were cheap so there was no big risk.

[Funkfingers]

So, you adjusted the fixed polepieces and, effectively, rendered the adjustable polepieces fixed.

[Edgecrusher]

Did a lot of slug hammering recently. They were cheap Humbuckers that needed a magnet swap, but the original mags were thicker than the UOA5b RCA2n that was being installed.
So I hammered the slugs (they were all slugs, no polepeice screws) and filed down the metal spacer and plastic shim, and the thinner mags fit! They became microphonic so I wax potted ONLY the magnets. The pups now sound great!
My staggering the slugs was not a problem, and did not damage the buckers, of course they were cheap so there was no big risk.

I mentioned earlier that humbuckers are built different than singles. You can do this to a humbucker you cannot do it to a single without risking damage to it. But hey if you really want to hammer the slugs in your single go ahead and have at it. But dont say noone warned you either.

[idsnowdog]

You can adjust the stagger by changing the height of the magnets if they aren't glued to the bobbin. You can also replace the magnets if you want. I have replaced A5's with A3's.