Vintage Toaster Pole Pieces

johncorth · Post by **johncorth** » Tue May 01, 2007 11:37 am

Can anybody tell me if the pole pieces in vintage toasters are staggered at all? Are they just flat under the cover? If staggered, then I assume they'd be set for a wound G? I'm just having a hell of a time with balance. I'm using flatwound Thomastik Infelds 11's. I can't get the G balanced. When I use a plain 19, it sticks out like sore thumb. I've also tried a wound 18 and that's too soft. Anybody else have this problem? Any suggestions?

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:26 pm

Hmm... Alas no, John, they're not staggered at all, which is a bit of an oversight on ANY guitar pickup. There's not much you can do, except possibly pulling out the G polepiece - if at all feasible - and inserting a not-too-thick, non-metallic shim in the respective hole so that when the polepiece is pushed back in it will be set lower than the others.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:26 am

Sergio, couldn't you take that particular magnet out and degauss it a bit to try to level the paying field, or would the magnetic field from the other magnets compensate to where it wouldn't make much difference?

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:35 pm

That approach would work, no doubt. And the other magnets would not counteract the desired effect. But I believe it's much easier to simply set the G polepiece lower.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:48 am

Yah for someone who doesn't have a way to degauss the magnet, then your aprroach is easier for sure!