MFD adjustable pole piece question

[Case24]

Does anyone adjust the height of their MFD pole pieces? If so, do you adjust them like staggered single poles? Just curious.

[NickHorne]

I absolutely do.
And I am (always have been) allergic to over-loud 3rd strings.

I leave the bottom E and the G poles all the way in.
And then raise the A slightly, the D the most, the B perhaps a tiny bit and the top E up about the same as the A.

The height differences are greatest at the neck pup, and flattest at the bridge (where I have the whole pup nearer the strings, so the proportional differences are greater).
I usually end up with the pups angled up a bit, Strat-style, with the treble end closer than the bass.

I have 12" radius boards on mine. If you have a more vintage radius, you might want to increase the height of the A and D, reduce the top E a little, and maybe even raise the G slightly.
The main effect, from a string balance point of view, of a smaller board radius is that the E strings become relatively closer than the others.

Hope that's useful.

[GeorgeB]

Nothing much to add to Nick's excellent post.
The G string is typically the most problematic in many regards, so the extra degree of freedom with adjustable poles is quite helpful to balance it.
MFD's, notably the big ones, change their tone a lot with string distance. If you don't want heavy peaking from them when digging in hard they need to far away, more than other pickups it seems. But if you do want just that sound you can dial it in perfectly to (over-)drive the amp. At least that's what I found on my ASAT Supe these day again when I played with pup/pole height one more time.

[Case24]

Thanks for the excellent replies Nick and George. I've been experimenting a bit with the small ones on my ASAT Classic with a 12" radius. There is a noticeable difference in output when you start adjusting. I wonder why they don't adjust them at the factory?

[Case24]

I took Nick's setup and applied it to my ASAT Classic tonight. Worked perfectly. Very balanced sounding now. I really love this guitar! Such great sounding tone from it in all the selector positions!

[fianoman]

Thanks for the follow up post Case24.

And thanks to Nick and George for the tips. I will be a little more methodical in my approach in the future.