Pickup poles distance and alignment

[rdm_chem]

Maybe I'm posting a question that had been discussed here before, but I really could not find a good answer for my doubts, yet, so I hope you guys can help me to calm down my concerns. I had also looked other discussions forums, without success.

 

To better understand my comment, please refer to the attached figure (Drawing in scale), OK?

 

Drawing

 

I own an Epi Les Paul Std (acquired in April 2014), and I recently noticed that my pickup poles (in yellow in the figure) don't perfectly align with the strings. In the bridge, the misalignment is mild towards to first (E) string. In the neck, this misalignment is more noticeable and the first (E) string barely cross the tip of the last pole. In general, in both bridge and neck, there is some level of misalignment, as you will be able to check in the figure. I'm a not very experienced guitar player, so I cannot say if this situation has a real influence in the sound that is generated by the guitar.

 

The distance between strings in the bridge is standard, it means, the distance between the middle of the 6th string until the middle of the 1st string is 50mm (1.969").

 

I'm evaluating two brands of replacement pickups for both bridge and neck: Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio. In both cases, the use of their standard spaced pickups would change the picture. The misalignment in the bridge would have a visually more noticeable, and in the neck it seems visually a little better, but overall, it doesn't solve the problem in any way.

 

Maybe, I can move the bridge pickup a little bit towards the 6th (E) string, what seems to be a good way to achieve an almost perfect alignment between strings and poles.

 

On the other hand, as we know, the string spacing narrows from the bridge towards the neck, and above the pickup (in the neck), the strings distance is reduced (at least in my guitar) from 50mm (1.969") to 47mm (1.850").

 

Here is my problem! No matter what I do, the poles in the neck pickup will never be perfectly aligned with the strings:

 

* Strings in my guitar: 47mm (1.850") / 5 = 9.4mm (0.37") distance between the strings.

* SD pickup: 49mm (1.93") / 5 = 9.8mm (0.386") distance between the strings.

* DiMarzio pickup: 48.64mm (1.915") / 5 = 9.73mm (0.383") distance between the strings.

 

So, what's the "miracle" to make the poles to match the strings in the neck, if no matter what I do, the smaller distance of the strings close to the neck will always cause some misalignment?

 

If I could rotate approximately 20 degrees the neck pickup, the poles (as in the bridge of a Fender Strato), it would be perfectly aligned, but of course it is not an option.

 

I went to a Sam Ash store and checked several other Les Pauls ... Some of them presents the same problem (including expensive Gibsons ...), and some of them are perfectly aligned in the neck.

 

Are there pickups for the neck with reduced distance (e.g. 9.4mm/0.37") between the poles to address this difference? If affirmative, could you please share the brands and models you know?

 

Have you any experience to share on how to solve this situation?

 

This issue is really disturbing me ... Hopefully some of you have some good piece of information about it.

 

Thank you a lot for your help and attention.

[rct]

What is it that disturbs you? Does your guitar sound right? Are other more experienced guitar players ok with how your guitar sounds?

 

rct

[jambop]

I have just fitted a new bridge and pups to my Sheraton. The Gotoh bridge has a 52mm spacing 5 x 10.4 mm the pups have a 52mm spacing at the bridge and 50 mm at the neck. The strings and pole screws are as near as makes no difference bang on at the bridge but at the neck is very slightly off and favours the high strings, which I suppose make sense as they move less than the bass strings. The sound is nice though and the new pickups are a good improvement over the stock ones. The difference is not huge but the clarity and depth of tone is very pleasing. Also the stock pickups were microphonic and caused squealing at high gain / volumes none of that now. On the whole I would say replacing the entire electrics was a worthwhile exercise.

[albinomeatpod]

Had a similar problem recently with a 2002 Epi LP when I went to fit new pups, turned out the pole widths were all over the place on the Epi, 47mm at neck

 

I went for a plan B and fitted the 50mm pups to a different Epi LP, the guy who does all my electrical work had an old set of Gotto pups, probably from a Tokai,

and fitted these to the mutant Epi, these were much closer to the weird measurements

 

Re your choice of SD/DM, I was using a boutique builder here in the UK for the neck pup and before I fitted it to the other LP he offered to rebuild to fit the spec

of the mutant guitar. Two US boutique builders I've bought from are Jason Lollar and Lindy Fralin, if you're in US you could contact them to ask if they'd build to spec