Fingerboard Radius and Staggered Pickups

[jeffreywt]

The more I play on the compound radius with staggered pole height pickups, the more I realize they are not really a perfect pairing.

My G-string is much louder than all other strings no matter the pickup height. In the future I might stay with level magnets with the flatter boards.

At the same time, when playing live, that extra mid-range honk really shines through.

Your thoughts?

 

[AutoBat]

I never noticed a difference in volume when I changed necks from stock Fender to Warmoth 10-16 despite having staggered pole pups.

 

[Cagey]

The more I play on the compound radius with staggered pole height pickups, the more I realize they are not really a perfect pairing.
My G-string is much louder than all other strings no matter the pickup height. In the future I might stay with level magnets with the flatter boards.
At the same time, when playing live, that extra mid-range honk really shines through.
Your thoughts?

By the time the strings get over your pickups off a compound radius neck, they're at about a 17" radius already, heading toward 18" at the bridge. It's going to be tough to get much flatter than that and still have any radius to speak of.

 

[line6man]

The more I play on the compound radius with staggered pole height pickups, the more I realize they are not really a perfect pairing.
My G-string is much louder than all other strings no matter the pickup height. In the future I might stay with level magnets with the flatter boards.
At the same time, when playing live, that extra mid-range honk really shines through.
Your thoughts?

By the time the strings get over your pickups off a compound radius neck, they're at about a 17" radius already, heading toward 18" at the bridge. It's going to be tough to get much flatter than that and still have any radius to speak of.

I've heard of basses with 40" radii. Seems like you'd want an unradiused board at that point. :dontknow:

 

[ezas]

I built two guitars this summer, both strats with three single coils. One with flat pickups from Bare Knuckle, and one with staggered from GFS. Both guitars have the same 10-16 compound neck with the bridge set to ~18" radius.

I don't have them both here right now so I can't compare but I never noticed a difference, but I never really listened for it either.

On the one guitar where I had an option I went with Bare Knuckle's recommendation from this answer in their FAQ:

Answer: A vintage stagger handles the heavier 7 ¼" radius of a vintage fingerboard and works well right up to @ a 10" radius.The stagger is how Leo Fender heard the strings to balance the best and we use the more common '56 stagger with the E/A magnets at 17.6mm, D/G magnets at 18.4MM, B magnet at 16mm and high E magnet at 16.8mm. We can also produce the earlier '54 stagger with low G pole on request. Flat magnet profile gives better string to string balance on modern radius finger boards of 10" and flatter. At the end of the day it's a matter of preference and what works best for the individual-some players use a vintage stagger on very flat fingerboard radii of 14" and love it!!

 

[line6man]

Staggered pole pieces hearken back to a time when string sets had an uneven response. I don't see any reason to use them with modern string sets and flat radii. :dontknow: