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Post by stratsoundfan on Aug 12, 2023 19:24:55 GMT
What were they thinking? I know guitar companies couldn't care less about us lefties(poor choice of models, on/off pots...), and now right-handed pickups in lefty guitars. Ridiculous.
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advb
Harley Benton Expert
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Post by advb on Aug 12, 2023 21:44:54 GMT
As a right handed guitarist, that had never occurred to me. I can see that staggered single coil pickups would need to be different, as the design adjusts the heights of the individual pole pieces against the string thickness to obtain a balanced output. Similarly, hybrid pickups with a mix of Alnico II and Alnico V would only work properly one way round. Of course, humbuckers, non-staggered single coils and pickups with height adjustable pole pieces can be used on either LH or RH guitars. Unlike LH pots (which do exist even if most manufacturers don't fit them on LH guitars), most budget pickup manufacturers cater only for the main market, which is RH guitars, which in turn limits what Harley Benton can do at their price point. Interestingly DiMarzio do provide LH versions of their staggered pickups at no extra cost but a full set would cost more than a lot of budget Harley Benton guitars! What are your views stratsoundfan of the real world impact of RH staggered pickups in LH guitars? As with most things on the internet, there doesn't seem to be a consensus out there among lefties on this.
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Post by stratsoundfan on Aug 13, 2023 13:49:06 GMT
I have five LH guitars with staggered pickups, and all the pickups on them have LH stagger. That pretty muchc says it all. Harley Benton is being lazy in this case, obviously.
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Post by edwardmarlowe on Aug 25, 2023 14:03:06 GMT
Given we southpaws are in such a minority, I wouldn't expect a left handed stagger in this price range.
Frankly, on a romantic level, for me a right handed / inverted stagger on a left handed guitar has a very specific appeal. In some circles, there are a lot of players who want a reverse stagger from the norm because they see it as a step closer Hendrix's tone. GFS (among others) do a set of Strat type pickups that are reverse stagger - introduced due to customer demand.
In truth, though, with modern windings and flatter radiuses than the 7.5 for which the original Fender stagger was designed, I doubt it makes much difference. I like the look of a staggered set, but I've genuinely never found in 31 years of playing guitar that it makes a damn bit of difference whether / how a pickup is staggered, if at all. (My 1994 US Std Strat is from the era in which all Strats had polepieces of an even height, almost entirely flush to the cover.
It's not a detail I'd get hung up on as a left handed player, tbh - but then I'm still cockahoop at the sheer range of left handed models Harley Benton actually offer, after so many years of having to compromise on finishes (I am SO OVER sunbursts) because that's all that was available left handed - if the model was even done as a lefty at all. I'd say at least 65% of the guitars I looked at and really wanted over the years weren't left handed. My first Harley Benton came along last May. The MR Classic, and I'm in love with it. I'd been looking for a Mosrite-type for as long as I've been playing, and this is the first production guitar at any price (and the first guitar outside of a 2K+ custom option that would have involved buying from the other side of the world by mail....) that I have found of this type - after thirty years of hunting.
Sure, we sinisters have it harder than the normy dexters, but it's ridiculously better now than it was in the early 90s, and HB offer a crazy range of left handed options compared to pretty much any other brand out there. The "wrong" stagger on a single coil just isn't something I can get upset by, tbf.
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