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Staggered radius was introduced at a time where there was a wound G string so the string outputs were slightly different, but it just stuck after that.
I've got flat pole Mother's Milks in my Strat (9.5") and I love 'em! Baseplate on the bridge tames harshness and adds a bit of oomph, too.
The last straw for me swapping to flat was when I had the amp set so it was just on the verge of breakup then when I moved up to a note on the G string it went all distorted - I didn't want the sound changing arbitrarily like that.
P.S. how come you think it's a terrible name? BK's are all named after artists to give you a rough idea of the sound they're going for - Mother's Milk being a RHCP album.
The imbalance of the original rod magnet length "stagger" pattern gets worse as the fingerboard gets flatter. If your Es are good, your G and D poles will be almost touching the strings.
Personally I would always fit either flush poles or just a shallow radius 'modern' pole curve to any Strat of my own these days ... the stagger is really only to maintain a vintage look.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Only if you want to break the pickup
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The only single coil pickups on which it is possible to adjust the rod magnet polepieces are those with a moulded plastic bobbin. (e.g. DiMarzio, some Fender, Duncan YJM Fury.) On these, each rod magnet section is entirely contained within a "tube" of plastic. This permits it to be pushed upwards or downwards with impunity. There is no possibility of damaging the copper coil.
Some single coil pickups come with an underslung bar magnet and either steel stud or threaded polepieces with Allen key heads. The latter are intended to be adjusted.
This is the sensible solution.
One caveat:
I invariably find that Fender style single coil pickups, constructed using plastic bobbins, always sound ever so slightly wrong. In other tFB Discussions, it has been suggested that the proximity of the copper wire to the rod magnets is a factor. By definition, the thickness of plastic bobbin obliges the coil to begin further away.
Punishable by death.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Thanks for the info!
I have a set of @OilCityPickups Caliber 5/3 on my MIM Strat. Presumably these are vintage staggered?
To be honest I hadn’t really thought about the concept before I bought them (although I wish I had).
But saying that, I don’t really notice any major volume difference between the G and B strings. But the trouble is, once you start thinking about it…
Don't know if anyone's ever done this but for soloing you could even learn to make conscious decisions about which strings you play notes on - deliberately going to the G string to make the note distorted or playing it on the B string if you want it to be cleaner.