When the Stratocaster made its debut in the 1950s, there was no such thing as light gauge strings. The third string – tuned to G – was wound and its output was lower than the other three wound strings, so naturally, Fender raised the polepiece for that string to compensate. But today, very few guitarists use strings with a wound G. But when a plain G string is installed on a guitar with staggered polepieces, it’s usually far too loud. So what’s the solution?
Well, if your Strat is a vintage model that’s worth big bucks, swapping out new pickups probably isn’t an option. If it’s a more recent model, or perhaps a reissue, swapping out pickups isn’t quite as big a deal (though we recommend you always keep the original parts should you decide to sell or trade the instrument at a later date). But there’s another option and it’s not for the faint of heart! See, the polepieces are held in place by friction, which means they can be adjusted. To do this, you’ll need to remove the entire pickguard. Once you have it off, you can set a few pieces of wood in the right place so that you can place the pickguard, face up, on top of them. You’ll need the wood to be about as far apart as needed so that each of the pickups can in turn be set down with wood bracing on either side. Take some duct tape or electrical tape and place a small piece on top of the third polepiece (which should be the highest). We’re doing this so we don’t damage the top of the polepiece. Now take a small hammer and gently tap the magnet until it is at about the same height as the B-string magnet. Repeat for each remaining pickup, then reassemble your Strat and you’ll immediately hear the difference.
Keep in mind that you should not attempt this if you’re a novice who has never done any sort of modifications. Also please note that we’re telling you how it can be done and not suggesting it needs to be done. However, we’ve personally done this on at least a dozen Strats without any problems. If you’d like to have this modification done, but don’t feel up to the task, please consult a qualified guitar tech.