I'm curious why single coil pickups on strats are skew but humbukers seem to be level with the bridge?
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Sign up to join this communityThe bridge pickup is angled that way to slightly emphasise treble frequencies on the high strings, and bass frequencies for the low strings (for that pickup). It's not a design decision that use of a single coil pickup leads you to inevitably - for example, dynasonic pickups in a Grestch are straight:
As are the single coils in Fender's own Jazzmaster and Jaguar:
One reason to not angle an older-style humbucker is that it would look awkward, due to the greater height - the strat pickup gets away with it aesthetically due to the rounded short edges and slim dimensions. Making a differently-shaped humbucker for angled mounting would mean greater manufacturing cost (The angled pickup on a strat is the same dimensions as the straight ones).
Another reason to mount humbuckers straight is that humbuckers aren't only chosen for hum rejection, but also when a warmer, bassier sound is desired. If that's a choice you've made, you may not want to negate it by having a twangier treble response.
It is possible to have a humbucker that will fit in the angled slot - such as this product by diMarzio:
They seem to acknowledge that the response that comes from the angled mounting may not be desired, stating:
We took into account the likelihood of installing The Tone Zone® S in the classic slanted Strat® bridge position, warming up the higher frequencies and brightening the low notes a little.
Fender actually recently designed some offset Squier models in the Paranormal series that have skew humbuckers. These are a bit weird-and-wacky, but it is the first time I saw it. I added the video to show you more details.