Staggering
Done plenty of that! But no more. Reminds me of that song, "Things I Used To Do".
Actually, a lot of pickups are non staggered, obviously. I would think that non staggered pickups would be excellent on a flat neck. If you raise up the pickup with the staggered pups you might experience strings hitting the highest poles or being too close and sounding bad and then the outer strings being farther away from the tops of the poles will cause a differential in the picking up of the pickup, an unevenness. The staggered pups are for small radius necks, right? If you lower the staggered pup down where the high poles sound right, the lower pole pieces might be so low that you experience a noticeable output difference from the outside strings. On a ten inch radius this would not be noticeable I wouldn't expect, but on a sixteen inch radius I think there would be a noticeable difference to your ear.
I might be wrong on this, but I think with a flat neck you would be better served by a non staggered pickup. If only from a mechanical viewpoint as in the strings hitting the higher poles if you raise up the pups or sounding poor because they are too close to the strings.
Just some ideas,
Duffy
Duffy
South Williamsport, Pa.
"So let us stop talking falsely now, the hour's getting late." (as by JH)