Damage on 34346?

[JimN]

I wonder why that was so with 34346? What effect would the stagger have on the sound? Very intriguing.
Andy

It would make a standard wound G in a medium gauge set very quiet by comparison with the two adjacent strings - not that potential imbalance (even more marked with a flush pole pickup such as those used in the "Black Strat" era) seems to have ever bothered Hank...

JN

[dave robinson]

My original '62 Strat had the same staggered pole pieces, nothing unusual about it at the time, I never gave it a second thought.

[Gary Allen]

Ive been using a Dimarzio VV Heavy Blues 2 at the bridge and it has a similar stagger, I dont know if the Polepieces are a contributing factor but its a great p/up,

[abstamaria]

Gary, your stagger looks different to my eyes and seems to be the "modern" stagger, with the G, B, and high E polepieces at equal height.

For comparison, here is what I understand to be the usual "vintage" stagger, shown in a Customshop '56 Stratocaster:

Sunburst.jpg

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The G polepiece is quite high, the B flush with the cover, and the E slightly higher than the B.

Andy

[abstamaria]

On Keith's CRS Stratocaster, posted by Geoff in the preceding page, the G polepiece stands taller than the B polepiece, but not as tall as on the G polepiece on the sunburst Strat shown above. Keith's G polepiece seems to be the same height as his high E polepiece.

Here is the "usual" vintage stagger again, this time on a Masterbuilt 1959-spec Stratocaster. It is similar to the stagger on the sunburst Strat above, different from Keith's in the G and perhaps E polepieces, and very different from Gary's.

FR.jpg

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Or so it all seems to me. I could be completely wrong!

Andy

[Gary Allen]

Hi Andy, Yes the polepieces on your strat are identical to Keiths strat, Fender custom shop change their specs almost every year, If you ordered a 56 nos in 2011 it would have come with Fat 50s p/ups. In 1998 they started bevelling the p/ups on 57 reissues ???. An educated guess is that Abby handwound the crs p/ups with slightly less turns to reduce output and give a sweeter tone although unless you measured both sets with a multimeter its just a guess. I would say the photo in post 14 is closer to whats actually in Bruces guitar. BTW, Are they Flatwound strings on your Sunburst? regards Gary

[abstamaria]

Hi, Gary. I think the G polepieces on the sunburst and Fiesta Red Strats are taller than on Keith's. Until yesterday, I thought there were only two stagger styles; now, there seem to be three:

1. the pre-56 (?), exemplified by and somehow ending up on 34346 (?);
2. the "vintage" stagger, as in the sunburst and fiesta red Strats above; and
3. the modern stagger, with G, B, and E flush with the cover.

I didn't note the beveled edges before. I had the fiesta red built to '59 specification and left it up to Fender's Customshop to decide what went in. Dennis Galuzka built it. I have an Inca Silver Strat built by John Cruz; this has the vintage stagger, too:

IS.jpg

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Yes, Gary, we want to use the sunburst for early Ventures Bogle-and-Wilson-era rhythm work and concluded Don Wilson must have used flatwounds then. So we fitted Thomastik-Infeld George Benson Nickel Flat Wound Jazz Guitar Strings, 53-12, with a wound third. It sounds very close to Don.

All this had me looking at the polepieces on my three guitars this evening.

Andy

[Gary Allen]

Hi Andy, Its all a mystery..... According to Rocketfire, theres some connection with the Tele regarding the G magnet. http://rocketfireguitars.com/pickups.html

[abstamaria]

Hi Keith, on your CRS, are the G and high E poles the same height? That seems to be case from the photos Geoff posted. And also with the PUs Gary posted in post 14. My first impression was that the G pole was higher.

Andy

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi all'
Ref my post 141 on David Martin's thread regarding the New stagger on the American Standard Strat, year 2000. y Geoff Alderton LH » Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:53 pm » Post #141

Hi all.
On the subject of the three flush pole pieces on the CRS 50th Anniversary Strat, I have just been looking through the Guitarist mag from Oct 2000.
There is a review of the latest version of the American Standard Strat. The main inovation, and I quote Fender, are the vintage spec pickups with a lowered G pole magnet which balances the output on the unwound strings, ie the G, B and E poles are flush with the pickup covers, just like the 50th Srat. Fender call it the custom magnet stagger. So there you go ,you learn something every day.
Regards Geoff.
Geoff Alderton LH

Posts: 500
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 2:25 pm
Full Real Name: Geoff Alderton