Help with strat pickups

[mane]

I have a late eighties 57 reissue Fender strat.

The original pickups have staggered poles.
The first and second strings are much quieter than the rest, so much that I had to replace them, I put a Lindy Fralin blues set.
These are hotter and creamier than the fenders and there's similar output from string to string now, but I prefer the sound of the original pickups.

Does anybody know if there's a way to level the polepieces without breaking the pickups?

Thank you.

Mane

[Structo]

I don't think I would try.
Usually the magnets used in single coils are sand cast.
That means the sides of the magnets are rough, if you try to push them down, the sides can catch the wire and break it.

If you try to grind the tops of the magnets flush, you can sometimes lose magnet power due to the mechanical vibrations.
Besides, you would probably screw up the flat work when you did it.

I would just try to balance the string volume with the height adjustment.

The staggered poles are a remnant of the old days when they would use a wound G string so that pole is usually higher to help bring the volume back up.

So you could try lowering the bass side and raising the treble side but that's about it.

[mane]

Thank you Tom.

I read that Eric Johnson pushes the magnets to some degree in some strat pickups and sometimes they break.
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