SLANTED PUPS

[Veenture]

Visiting the following interesting Mosrite website pages today;

http://home.insightbb.com/~mosrite/wsb/ ... html-.html

And

http://home.insightbb.com/~marksma/wsb/ ... html-.html

Reminded me again of an old slumbering question that’s been with me for such a long time now (too long!)

I’m not a guitar scientist and so after all these years I’m still intrigued as to why only the bridge-pick up on (almost) all Fender Strats is positioned at a slant and not the same as the other two, i.e. at a right angle to the fret board.
Was Leo Fender thinking of intonation, aesthetics, or perhaps something else when he decided on this configuration, I wonder.
Many, many guitars have a similar set up but Leo was first in this I guess but I can’t see any logic in it.

Now in most MOSRITE models it’s the NECK PUP that is so noticeably slanted and not only that, it’s slanting in the opposite direction as to that of the Strat’s! -has anyone noticed?! Who knows what Semie was reasoning here?

I can’t help but think that Semie even subjected his pick-ups also to his famous ‘flipped over Stratocaster’ design!

But seriously, it doesn’t seem to make any sense to me other than that it might have something to do with a more precise alignment of the pole pieces to the strings…since they are not evenly spaced throughout the whole length.
Who can straighten out my thoughts on this slanted matter?

[FritzCat]

I don't know about the function, but to me it really sets the guitar off visually. I'm sure it has some impact on the sound, but there's something about the pickup tilted the "wrong" way that really appeals to my sense (or lack) of taste.

[oipunkguy]

Hey Veenture,

the only reason for a slanted pickup is tone. a strat guitar is a perfect example. if you flip through the different tones on the pickups, the tone has a more treble bite the closer you get to the bridge, and bassier the closer you get to the neck. slanting a pickup (in the case of a stratocaster) would give more treble on your higher strings, G,B,high E. the reverse is also true, that in the case of a mosrite ventures model, a slanted neck pickup would have a fuller bassier tone on the high notes.
of course it does look cool too...
hope this helps, cheers!

[Veenture]

Aaron,
what you say makes perfect sense. You've convinced me that it is a tone thing and I agree wholeheartedly with you and Fritz that besides influencing tone it looks cool too , especially on the Mosrite, being such a prominent feature there. Can't imagine it being any other way than the 'rite' way!

Thanks guys, my mind's finally at ease again
Paul