These poles don't really turn up all that often - probably the pickup that instantly comes to mind when you see them, is the Seymour® Duncan® Invader® if i'm being honest - i certainly cant think of anything other then that, and pickups that essentially copied the look!

Being M5 (with a weird 0.75mm pitch which makes them look like 10/34 UNF!) they have a "real" diameter of around 4.75mm (3/16") - and that makes them exactly the same diameter as a traditional humbucker slug pole - SO - if your planning on using these on your build, they are a replacement for pole SLUGS, and need the bobbins to match.

The logic behind these things, beyond the weird and wonderful look, is that they're intended to increase the inductance of the pickup (and, presumably, increase the "capture" at the bolts head - BUT - I've not tested that assumption, so take that with a pinch of salt!)

In a very short and sweet breakdown of humbuckers and inductance, Humbuckers (and all pickups) are induction coils - they induce a signal, and that is measured as the pickups inductance (the Henrys). The higher the inductance, the darker the pickup becomes, and the more aggressive it is.

There are a few different ways to "increase" a pickups inductance - primarily, you wound wind them higher, but thats not always advantageous! So the other way, is to increase the iron content within the coils! And thats where these sort of pole screws come into their own! Whilst they look like bolts, they have a similar iron content to slugs, and as such, will increase a pickups inductance when compared to a 12 x M3 bolt version, or a 6 x screw, 6 x slug arrangement.

They're actually, weirdly, quite rare believe it or not, because, whilst the rest of the world has moved on, and adopted stainless steel for most "nut and bolt" applications, pickups, obviously, need ferrous steel to give the maximum amount of "transference" between magnet and string.

So there you have it - a mild steel, pole bolt thats designed to fit into a slug bobbin, and is absolutely ideal for high output, high gain humbuckers.

Worth noting that these are 14.5mm long too, so they're only really suitable for pickups that are using 5mm+ tall bar magnets - any smaller, and they'll foul the base plate (and there isn't enough room between bobbin mounting screws and pole screw holes on modern base plates to drill them out unfortunately)

Please be aware - the photo of the hex key and bobbin is purely to demonstrate how they mesh together, and no additional parts are supplied with the pole.

Quantity - 1

Colours - Nickel and Black

Material - Steel (C1018)

Weight - ???g (each)

Thread - M5 x 0.75mm

Thread Length - 14.5mm

Thread Dimensions - 4.8mm (w) x 14.5mm (L)

Head Dimensions - 8mm x 2.5mm (accepting a 3/32" hex wrench, but 3mm also fits!)