Will a Gibson humbucker work without pole pieces?
If you remove the 6 adjustable pole pieces the pickup will still work because the bobbin with 6 studs is still conducting the magnetic field to the strings. The studs are ferrous and are in contact with the bar magnet beneath the two bobbins held in place by 4 wood screws. The output will be lower because your only picking up one side of the coil. It will sound thinner and brighter as the magnetic field will be directed differently to the strings and back through the adjustable bobbin. I ve removed the screws in my Tele-Gib (a Telecaster with two humbuckers) to get a thinner sound when playing sessions and needing a clean sounding rhythm neck pickup. It works pretty neat especially if you like doing home recordings. It will give your guitar a few more sounds without using push pull pots or splitting switches. Put your removed screws in a safe place till you need them again.
Related Questions
- Is it better to have the pickup adjusted high and the pole pieces adjusted low or have the pickup low and the pole pieces adjusted high as on a humbucker?
- How does using a Gibson Humbucker with narrower pole spacing effect the sound or output of the pickup when used on my Fender Stratocaster?
- Will a Gibson humbucker work without pole pieces?
