FORGOTTEN SECRET about Humbuckers | Guitar Tweakz

#humbuckers #guitarsetup

Please use headphones or good monitors for best sound.

This is something guitar players totally forget about even though it helps fine tuning your humbuckers a lot. I'm talking about adjusting the pole pieces together with the pickup height.
It is the forgotten secret about humbucker pickups.
Check out the adjustment and the tonal differences in my latest Guitar Tweakz video.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro jam
00:44 Introduction
01:35 Playing | Les Paul
01:59 What happens if you adjust pickups
03:27 What people forget about...
03:40 Playing | HB Fusion-II
03:48 My pickup setup
04:20 Playing | before the adjustment
05:18 "Tuning" the humbuckers
05:51 Playing | CLEAN before and after
07:18 What did we just hear?
08:20 Playing | OVERDRIVE before and after
09:22 Let's try it on the Harley Benton
10:20 Playing | CLEAN before and after
11:40 Did it work?
12:11 Playing | OVERDRIVE before and after
12:50 Should I then change pickups or not?
13:55 Playing | high gain | after the mod

Gear used in this video:

-Harley Benton Fusion-II Roasted SSP
-Gibson Les Paul Custom Shop '58 reissue
-One Control Agamidae switcher

Other gear I use in my videos:

-Fender Telecaster Custom Shop '53 reissue
-Gibson ES-335 Traditional
-Gibson Les Paul CM 2015 - heavily modified (thin nitro refin; Lollar Dog Ear P90; Emerson electronics)
-Barocsi Troublecaster - Custom built T-style guitar with Gretsch Filtertrons
-Barocsi "Frankenstrat" (2000 Fender American Standard body + Warmoth neck)
(this is the current version; same sound, smaller housing)
-SIB Nick Nitro (discontinued, you'll find it used)

The speech mic:
Audio Interface:

These links are affiliate links; use them to support my channel. Thank you!

Check out the Thomann Music channel for some wicked guitar videos:

Follow me on instagram:

Cheers,
Kris Barocsi

[justinpaquette]

More than once have I lost sleep over thinking about pickup height

[zoltannemeth]

I installed a 7 1/2 inch lift kit on my Silverado and now I really feel good about my pickup height.

Seriously, thanks for the video, it’s very helpful.

[joshuadevries]

I have a guitar with p90s and thought it sounded pretty damn good. I brought it into a really great guitar tech for another issue. He ended up setting everything up for me including adjusting the pole pieces. I was literally blown away when I plugged it in. Its been two weeks and I still can't believe how great it sounds.

[Denkruis]

Thanks a million for this!! I was about to sell my PRS 594 as it was a dull guitar. But it once was my dream and I loved the playability and looks. With your tips it came to life and what a massive difference. I reduced the neck pickup (58/11lt) to the max and raised the individual screws to 3.5/4.5millimeter treble/base. Somewhat higher for the bridge. Now even the utterly useless coil split is fantastic and really close to the brightness of a strat. Very happy.

[lessthanpinochet]

I raised the pole pieces on my Harley Benton with Filtertron pickups which were pretty muddy sounding, and i went from being 90% ready to get rid of the guitar to it becoming my favorite guitar in my collection. This trick definitely works in a big way. Add a compression pedal and you can transform most crappy pickups to pretty good ones.

[adambrown]

I’ve experimented with pole pieces a lot when I was younger. The amount of variation you can get is insane. You can have single pole pieces higher or lower and change the way your chords sound a lot, and it effects chugging too with distortion. It really is an art and a science

You can make certain strings louder for some songs if you know there are notes in particular chords you want to highlight. that’s next level ocd but you can do it if you really care. I usually try to make all strings sound equal now for versatility but you if you had all the time in the world you could be really creative with making variations from string to string, really under utilized stuff

[fatboysgarage]

I remember when I got my SE. I spent two days tweaking the pickup height and pole piece height. Now, it's exactly the tone I want. None of my other guitars come close so I use my SE for everything. It easily beats out anything else I own and most guitars I've played in music stores.

[jltrem]

Well, I tried it. It worked. I'm in love with my SG again. I came so close to switching out the pickups so many times. My Les Paul sounds better, too. It helps to tinker with what you have.

[marcosticianelli]

Man you just saved me a few hundreds of dollars. I was about to trash my pickups and after those adjustments i've put them to a decent sound. Thanks a lot and keep posting those videos. Believe me it helps a lot an enthusiastic like me

Cheers!

[bthomson]

I basically never picked up my Orville Les Paul Junior as it was just sounding flat and generic. Also the screws on the sides were maxed out in terms of pickup height so not much I could do there. I adjusted the pole pieces to bring them closer to the strings and the guitar immediately came to life. Completely different sound. This is a great tip.

[fatboysgarage]

I have the bass side of my pickups on my SE almost all the way down with the treble side a little higher. I tweaked the pole pieces until I got the sound I like. Now I can plug in and play through almost anything and know my guitar will sound good.

[themixmusicandmore]

Joe bonamassa was talking about some old burst and said something like "I put the pickups down flush with the pickup rings, how they're supposed to be". When I started lowering my pickups I started loving my tone. And it's not just because I heard him say it. It really opens your guitar up

[gersh]

The pickups have more air to breathe, it's about time someone brought this up. 1000 thanks.

[dukesofhell]

I did exactly this after looking at film of Peter Green and Jimmy Page. Their pickups were sunk right into the bodies of their guitars so I figured, give that a go. The resultant volume drop made me adjust the pole pieces to get a little back. It seemed to me to change the tone and increase resonance.

[codyburns]

I'm new to the electric guitar world and was looking at upgrading my pickups because they just didn't sound right. After tweaking my humbuckers like in this video they sound completely different and on point! Thanks my dude.

[TheChadPad]

That sounds so much better. This is a vital skill to know when playing guitar seriously, because it gives you control over your sound

[jjcale]

Kris, you just made your hbuckers sound very similar to a single coil but preserving the humbucking of your pickups. Good job!

[adamgreenhill]

"Less top end, less bass end, less punch, less compression, less volume"

*And Less Paul*

[alphatimca]

I bought a new EVH wolfgang and HATED the neck pickup. It was way to dark. Finally tried this method on my own and adjusted the pole pieces on the treb side of the bucker and boom. Phenomenal tone. It was like lifting the neck pickup out of the mud.

[hussamjamil]

Damn, you learn something everyday, i never knew one can adjust the pole pieces on open Humbuckers, just the overall hight (the outside thank you for explaining.