I watched your video some time ago, and I've just got around to doing it. I removed the pole pieces from the neck pickup on my '97 Standard, plugged in and played. After 47 years of playing Les Pauls I've finally got the sound available that I've craved. And the best thing is, the modification came at the right price.

@SteveWoodyMusic

13 күн бұрын

@@Rich6Brew so great to hear this!!!!! I'd love to hear some clips. What type of music do you play?

great video, great tone. this made my neck les Paul pickup sound much better.

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

Oh, thanks so much! Glad you found it helpful!

Best tone, man! 👏

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

Thanks so much!

Thank you so much for sharing this. I have a Gibson LP that I love but I also have a Gretsch Electromatic singlecut that almost became firewood until I saw your video. Definitely sounds like a P90 and so I will be able to use it now. Subscribed.

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

Oh, awesome! Glad you found it helpful. I also had a Gretsch Electromatic at one point, but it was much brighter than my LP. It was the guitar that first got me off the Stratocaster bandwagon I had been on for 14 years!

This is very interesting, might have to try it! I'd suggest having a look at a video series called the Les Paul that isn't by Dave Stephens. He goes into all the details of LP tone and how modern LPs basically get everything wrong and sound dull as a result.

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

Interesting, I'll have to check that out. Thanks!

Wow. I can't believe the difference this makes. My Epiphone Les Paul Standard was muddy as heck, I needed to use and EQ/Clean Boost with bass and treble controls to fix it but THIS is incredible.

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

Wow, so glad this was helpful! Spread the word!!!!!

@EsteemedRepresentative

4 ай бұрын

@@SteveWoodyMusic Crazy thought. I was wondering what would happen if I used a hack saw to cut the screws in half. I'd need some spares on hand in case things didn't work out. Thoughts?

I did this to the neck pickup in my LP. A lot of people put a P90 in there, but this sounds just as good and there's no hum. And if you don't like it you can just put the screws back in

@SteveWoodyMusic

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I agree totally! My understanding is that it sounds more like a mini-humbucker. Narrower field of pickup range, but still him canceling.

@Kris-ex6yk

9 ай бұрын

@@SteveWoodyMusic would love to hear this with some crunch settings. Sounds great.

@danaeverhart6487

5 ай бұрын

Great mod to try mate! Bravo 👏🏻 as an owner of Two Les Pauls, I’ve been looking for these tonal qualities! Thanks mate. Peace ✌🏻 Dana E💫☮️

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

@@danaeverhart6487 oh, you are totally welcome! Have you tried it yet? And how did you like it if so?

@danaeverhart6487

4 ай бұрын

@@SteveWoodyMusic Hey mate! Yes I tried on on one of strats by removing the pick guard and broke the fixed ceramic magnets loose by tapping on the center pole pieces down. Now they are all level flush with the covers. I Raised the pick-up height , instant warm gratification! Give it a try, just don’t break 💥 the ceramic magnets 🧲 on the bottom of the pick-up!

Sounds great!

@SteveWoodyMusic

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, John!!

Pretty music and pretty genius idea...

@SteveWoodyMusic

Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much! I have since installed stainless screws just to fill the holes and make it look more stock. Sounds the same. Take a look at my latest video "All Creatures ......" To see the installed and hear it.

@LfunkeyA

11 ай бұрын

@@SteveWoodyMusic do you have a source for these screws? is the thread 5-40 and length 3/4 inch? where can you source stainless screws with the right screw-head dimensions? i was thinking brass and nylon could also be cool options.

@SteveWoodyMusic

10 ай бұрын

@@LfunkeyA Sorry for the late reply, I just saw this! I just checked my Amazon history and it looks like the place I ordered them from (Libonstore) is out of them. But the product description is: 5-40 X 3/4 Slotted Fillister Narrow head Machine screw STAINLESS .205 #5 5/40 So I assume any #5 5-40 fillister head screw should work.

Very nice, I like it, and the whole of the guitar and your playing as well. Would it be a good idea to put some plastic screws or something to prevent dirt or some liquid from getting into the pickup?

@SteveWoodyMusic

10 ай бұрын

Thanks so much! I ended up ordering some non-ferrous stainless screws and installed them a couple months after this video was made.

@VicenzzoPaiva

9 ай бұрын

or just a cover with no holes

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

@@VicenzzoPaiva oh, I didn't know those existed!!

Nice sound

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

Thanks so much!!!

Great tone, great playing, well-presented demo, nice Bigsby! I recently switched to NYXLs on my downtuned guitar. Diggin em. 56 on the low string?! I play hard and am happy with 10.5-50. You’re a beast, man :) did you have to widen the nut slot a tad?

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for the kind words! You know, I don't remember if I did widen the nut slot, but feel like I probably had to. The heavier strings help with the bigsby (remember, there weren't and"light" strings when it was developed) and also, I strum pretty hard sometimes and the heavier strings don't flap around as much lol

I really like your staccato finger picking style. 👍🏻 I’ve never tried removing pole pieces. Quite interesting. 🤔

@SteveWoodyMusic

Ай бұрын

Thanks so much! You should give it a shot and let me know what you think about it!

This sounds really good and I am thinking about trying it on my custom, but man without the before clips it's really hard to tell. Did you try flipping the pup before taking out the pole pieces? How was that?

@SteveWoodyMusic

7 ай бұрын

Yeah, flipping the pup doesn't do anything, unless you had the pole pieces set pretty drastic. I do get the wishing you had a before/after. Maybe someday I'll get around to making one. But, it's a free, reversible, 5 minute test to see if you like it on your guitar or not. I say go for it and let me know how you like it!

Awesome! Just did the same to my lp!

@SteveWoodyMusic

Жыл бұрын

Very cool. How do you like it?

@edcaouette5180

Жыл бұрын

It’s great ! Huge difference in clarity and brightness,Highly recommend for any set of buckets. Thanks again!

@SteveWoodyMusic

Жыл бұрын

@@edcaouette5180 that's awesome, glad you like it!!

Someone else pointed out that in the movie It Might Get Loud Jimmy Page's neck pickup has no pole pieces. It is during the song Ramble On. It looks to be true but I am not sure if my eyes are playing tricks on me.

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, I saw that as well! They are either out or lowered well below the cover.

@RustyMadd

3 ай бұрын

It is true. See Jimmy's guitar sans pole screws in It Might Get Loud starting at 28 seconds here kzread.info/dash/bejne/Zpt41cSIosTPoco.htmlsi=OswnM0cwD_Km90tG. And you can also see Eric Clapton's guitar sans pole screws starting at 35 seconds with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers here kzread.info/dash/bejne/gp-pzsWvgs7KZKw.htmlsi=Iw_rCtXG5kCE0Opy

@Dr-Curious

15 күн бұрын

At 1:19 there appears to be light hitting the tops of something in the polepiece positions. I'll have a guess. The pickup in there is ancient and the nickel is worn and dark as heck - He later replaced a cover, and there's a finish mismatch.

Brilliant!

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

Thanks so much!

good idea

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

I seen a picture of Keith Richard’s, he had Gibson custom 335 and he had tape over the neck humbucker where the screw pole pieces would be. I assumed this is what he is doing.

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

That's pretty cool and I'm sure a good solution, esp while on the road, etc

I did this on the neck pickup on my Godin Summit Classic SG, The neck pickup was too muddy, now it has twang, sparkle and funk.

@SteveWoodyMusic

Жыл бұрын

Awesome! I used to have a Godin LGXS and wonder how it would've cleaned that one up!

@ChasTheOhm

6 ай бұрын

I also added a .033 mfd capacitor in series with the neck pickup. I mounted it it the selector switch cavity.

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

@@ChasTheOhm oh really? How did that affect the sound?

@ChasTheOhm

4 ай бұрын

It cut the fatness back a bit more, made it even funkier sounding. Easy mod, and easy to reverse if you want to try it. @@SteveWoodyMusic

Tasty playing, well spoken with no hype/BS. Subscribed. Going to try. Thank You and Best Regards and Best Wishes!

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

Oh wow, that's a great compliment! Thanks so much!

Have you tried getting pickups with lower winds? I just installed a GFS 'Metal Foil' humbucker which is rated at 6k, which sounds awesome to me. You can also get them at 5k, which seems a little crazy to me. They sound similar to a strat but not as harsh, and of course less noise. You do lose a bit of high end harmonics, but it is a easy trade.

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Wow, that's very low! I'll have to check them out and see if there are some videos online. I'm guessing it's like the old Gold Foil Gretsch type pickups?

Sounds good to me 👍

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

Sweet, thanks!

The Epiphone Custom Pro is designed to give you all of the things you’ve described. I guess wanting the strat sound on a Les Paul works but why not play a strat?

@SteveWoodyMusic

8 ай бұрын

I played a strat as my main guitar for around 14 years. I think there is a beefiness to the Les Paul that I never could get on the strat which worked better for the rhythm stuff I do. Though, if this guitar were stolen or something, I would probably go back with some sort of strat with a humbucker in the bridge. That or maybe the black R4 Les Paul with the bigsby and P90/ Staple pickup. Or, even better, I would hunt down that '56 Gretsch Silver Jet I played in one of my other videos. It was the best sounding guitar I've ever played!!!

@cnilecnile6748

4 ай бұрын

Because, as we all know, one guitar isn't enough.

I bought a used Gibson sg short neck bass from a private party and i noticed that the pole piece screws on the humbucker pickup near the neck of the bass are missing.

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

Interesting. How does it sound?

@doyleholloway1818

8 ай бұрын

it sounds great!!@@SteveWoodyMusic

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

@@doyleholloway1818 just saw this. Very cool!

Also a solution. In fact you get a single coil with lower output than a P90, but still with humbucking effect. If I did this, then only on the neck pickup, as I love an authentic bridge PAF sound. Certainly nice for clean tones, but hardly will improve the overdrive sounds in my opinion. For the neck pickup certainly a good solution, as this one has a tendency to sound too bassy and too muddy, especially, but not only in a Les Paul. Cool, simple idea and if you dislike the tone, you simply can reinstall the screws again. Having turned around the neck pickup is a good idea too, so the still active coil is closer to the neck. But even this is a matter of taste. Another way to get similar sounds is, to screw down the neck pickup, but raise the screws a lot. Also alters the magnetic field and you also get a more single-coilish sound, but the difference is not so extreme, but you keep the authentic output level, while it also lowers with your solution. Ritchie Blackmore did this, when he still played an ES-335 with PAF's. My personal favorite Les Paul optinization is, to change neck tone to neck bass-cut and bridge tone to master tone. Allows precise, adjustable neck pickup bass control - if using the right capacitor values without altering any mids and treble - and this also allows to get some very differently sounding combined pickups sounds. The advantage for me is, that the pickups keep their (hotter) output level, while your solution reduces it, as I anyway hardly ever play clean.

@SteveWoodyMusic

28 күн бұрын

Oh those are some great ideas! Thanks for that. I'll have to give those a try especially if I ever get around to doing a comparison video!

Seems like you could put non ferous screws in the holes for looks.

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

That's actually what I ended up doing. Bought a pack off Amazon, and it's looking stock again! Check "All Creatures" video I put up this year to see it with them in

Nice minor 4 chords My fave move in all of music

@SteveWoodyMusic

6 ай бұрын

Thanks man! Totally underrated for sure :)

@iamjakt

5 ай бұрын

iv to I and I'm crying

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

@@iamjakt hits the feels for sure!

I tried this on a PRS neck pick up, it sounded strange and the volumes didn’t match the way I hoped.

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

Interesting. I wonder if that coil it the hotter of the 2 and it dropped most of the volume? You could also try running the screws in well below the pickup cover. Should have a similar effect about the volume drop maybe

@DWinegarden2

4 ай бұрын

@@SteveWoodyMusic the PRS pups didn’t sound that great but I had a set of Gibson ‘61’s that are working nicely. I tried them with no poles and mixed with different lengths of poles but none of them sounded very good outside of their original set up. Your recordings sound nice but I couldn’t reproduce that tone.

Wonder what the sound would be like if you pulled the slugs too…?

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

No clue. The pole screws were easy to take out :)

I’d love to hear a before and after comparison

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, I think maybe someday I'll do a before and after, but I never seem to get around to it.

I may be wrong but I don't think so. I believe what you have done is turn your humbucker pickups into single coil pickup with hum canceling properties. There is a reason why pickups have pole pieces.

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

The coil still has some amount of pickup potential, but you are essentially correct. But it's a big sounding single coil :)

You should have made a small clip with the screws in too mate, so we could have heard the difference 👍

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll go back and make a comparison video at some point. Hopefully I can get to that soon.

@stopitrightnow12

4 ай бұрын

@@SteveWoodyMusicPlease! I’m wondering about doing it soon. Probably will on my next string change haha. How do you do it? Just screw them out until they’re loose and fall?

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

@@stopitrightnow12 yep, that's all there is to it. Just unscrew them and remove them. You can always put them back in. Also, you don't need to wait until your next string change, or even loosen the strings, though I suppose it could be easier if you do.

Interesting, I had never considered it. That neck really does sound like a P90, almost a strat sound. I have one with humbuckers, one with P-90s,, and a Strat.Might do a comparison later. Just curious, did you move the pickups closer to the strings after you removed the pole pieces? I'm not really a pedal guy either, but one of the few I have is a n LPB-1. I have found that if I add it to my signal path with the knob set to 9 or 10 o'clock (pretty low) it brightens my tone without coloring my clean tone very much. From there you can play with the volume and tone pots until you are happy with the tone. An added bonus is with the same clean tone I can roll off my tone all the way and crank up that pedal and get a good approximation of Clapton's famous Woman Tone.

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

I don't think I moved the pickups closer, but I could be wrong about that. It always surprises me when I hear bright Les Pauls, but I know that used to be the rule, not the exception. My favorite Les Paul sound is a video of Greg Koch playing "Way Back Home" live in Milwaukee. Gotta check it out!!!!

heyy how did you remove the screws??? and what model les paul is that??? thanks

@SteveWoodyMusic

10 ай бұрын

I just used a flathead screwdriver and backed them all the way out. This is a 2017 Made 2 Measure (M2M) '58 Reissue (R8).

@sooparticular

10 ай бұрын

u sound amazing! so all I have to do is unscrew them while pickup is on guitar that easy?? thank you...will try this@@SteveWoodyMusic

@djolemadzarevic

10 ай бұрын

You seriously need to ask that?

@SteveWoodyMusic

10 ай бұрын

@@sooparticular yep, that's it. Super easy, though they may be tight depending on the amount of wax potting in the pickup. I purchased some non-ferrous stainless screws to put back in their place just to keep it stock looking and keep dirt out. Oh, and thanks so much for the compliment!

@sooparticular

10 ай бұрын

yes asswhipe I do@@djolemadzarevic

Before and after sound examples?

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Sorry, I don't really have any. I'll try to make some one day.

@limerot

5 ай бұрын

@@SteveWoodyMusic I'm gonna try this, thanks for the upload, cheers from Norway!

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

@@limerot oh, great! Please let me know how you like it! Cheers from a small Norwegian town in the US (Stoughton, Wisconsin) :)

@limerot

4 ай бұрын

​@@SteveWoodyMusicThat was nice to read! My grandfather was born in 1875 (my mother was born when he was 60). He died in 1965 five years before I was born. He had two brothers that emigrated to America from Northern Norway. His family originated from northern Sweden/Finland (Torne Valley). They went to Northern Norway seeking a better life. My great grandfather had 22 children. Our name is "Isaksen". "Son of Isak". I have my "summer house" in the northermost municipality in Norway - Northcape municipality. 24 hours of daylight in the summer. Greetings from Bergen Norway :)

you can reverse this right ?

@SteveWoodyMusic

Жыл бұрын

Yep, just screw the pieces back in.

@djolemadzarevic

10 ай бұрын

No, like any screw, once you unscrew them, you can never put them back. You'll need special skill and equipment for doing that.

@Dragnerve.

10 ай бұрын

funny...@@djolemadzarevic

@djolemadzarevic

10 ай бұрын

@@Dragnerve. Yeah, isn't it? Sorry, I couldn't resist. Cheers :)

if you are happy then that's all that matters.

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

I am for sure!!!

1k pots works too

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Yeah, I think that's what I have in here. I always swap out for 1M, even on my strats

IMO you're essentially doing a partial coil split. Should be replicable by coil splitting the humbucker using a specific value resistor (probably somewhere in a 2k to 6k range, but that's just my guess). And while it would be a more "difficult" mod than simply removing the screws, it would at the same time allow one to still have access to the full humbucker sound with just a switch.

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Ahh, that's a good idea. I've considered doing a capacitor on a switch to shelves off some of the mud. I hard wired one in at one point, but moved back to normal

Interesting concept, but really hard for me to hear any improvement because you didn't show what it sounded like with the screws in 1st.

@SteveWoodyMusic

3 ай бұрын

Yeah, it hadn't crossed my mind when I made this video to do a before/after. Maybe I'll do that someday

@Chckyrsix

2 ай бұрын

Probably sounds like every other les paul that has the screws still in it...

I wonder how it sounds with a real tube amp, no effects. 🤔

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Not sure, I haven't really played through one in 4 years. But, I'll wager it could sound great or terrible depending on the amp settings and player :) That being said, we have a guitar get-together at church tonight, and there will be a couple tube amps there. Maybe I'll check one out.

Buckers

@TCoulter1

6 ай бұрын

They still cancel hum in this configuration. It’s a series dummy coil. I got kicked off of some manufacturers forums for saying people should try it. Sounds very single coil with no hum.

I took the magnets out of my pups. Lighter and more resonant.

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

Awesome! Hope you like it in the long run. It's nice that it's easily reversible

ha, i was going to try this until I remembered my LP doesn't have covers... 😊

@SteveWoodyMusic

3 ай бұрын

Do it anyway!!!

@TheArthurfonzarelli

3 ай бұрын

​@SteveWoodyMusic oh God, I'm slow. Giving it a try.

@Mudhog72.

3 ай бұрын

I thought that removing the covers will just make the pickup brighter

@Mudhog72.

3 ай бұрын

If each coil in the humbucker has Allen head or straight slotted screws you can make it sound similar to a telecaster too or take out the screws in the upper coils of each humbucker to make it the brightest for a single coil sound

Should have just bought a strat

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

I played only strats for 14 years. The Les Paul suits my "live" playing better for thicker rhythm stuff, but it has been a little dark for my finger picking

Interesting idea but hard to tell - there was no "before and after". Just talk. It would be interesting to science this out and see how pole pieces (or lack thereof) impact the shape of the magnetic field. The pole pieces are not magnets - they are just ferromagnetic material. I tend to think of them as analogous to lenses for light. They don't create light - they just bend it. The pole pieces (and the metal PU covers for that matter) don't change the strength of the magnets in your PU but they do alter the shape of the magnetic field the string is vibrating in. Science aside, at the end of the day there is only one rule that matters - if it sounds good, it is good.

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, I had never intended to do a before/after video, but wanted to share the idea after having found it so useful. But, hopefully one day I can do a proper before/after. And I took would love to know the actual magnet effect. I've since bought non-ferrous stainless screws to plug the holes.

Scott Grove has every video on pickups literally ..lowering the pickup for more sustain where it's located on a guitar etc....

@SteveWoodyMusic

3 ай бұрын

Oh, cool, thanks for that!

But don't take the cover off. If you do the cover off, there will be nothing left to create the inductance.

@SteveWoodyMusic

3 ай бұрын

Just for that one coil?

@Rich6Brew

13 күн бұрын

The cover was already off when I removed the pole pieces. It worked fine.

Why are most people so in love with distortion? I play as as clean as possible, so I can hear my mistakes and fix them and try and improve my musicianship. i guess that answers the question. This guitar now sounds like it has stage 4 throat cancer, and since that's it's baseline sound, when you add stacked tube screamers or whatever, it will go from this barely articulate sound, to a roaring, howling, screeching, agonized sounding mess, but I'm sure that will be considered desirable.

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing your opinion/preference for clean tone. Glad there is a variety among guitar players and musicians in general.

@daverenick5830

9 ай бұрын

thank you for your gracious reply to my lopsided opinion.@@SteveWoodyMusic

@michaellathim791

5 ай бұрын

Did this to epi 335.....took the mud right out

@SteveWoodyMusic

4 ай бұрын

@@michaellathim791 sweet! Glad it worked for you

@sidalientv

3 ай бұрын

I agree with you 100%. The planet is full of guitatists who spends THOUSANDS dollars in a good guitar.......... To connect it to a Chinese multi effects unit and then to a high gain megadistorted amp. Then playing djent style 90 percent of the time. It was Eddie Van Halen who played cleaner and cleaner towards the end of his career. Another example is Jeff Beck, or Mark Knopfler just to name a few.

You'd get far better tone by lowering the pup overall and raising the screw poles!

@SteveWoodyMusic

9 ай бұрын

Already did that many times. Couldn't get any lower with the pup or higher with the screws. This got me where I wanted to be tonally

@rekeesefil

6 ай бұрын

Dude commented w o even watching the video

DO you think I could add a cover over some ss pickups on a LP just for looks, but not add the screws? Hmmm...

@SteveWoodyMusic

5 ай бұрын

There are hole-less pickup covers in existence, but I'm not sure who makes them. But if your pickups are not currently covered, Be prepared to lose a little bit of the high end, etc by adding them.