Installing Soaps on a Burner?

[Tim Bishop]

Well, on the Burner, if I remember right, the spacing is 9mm at the Nut and 16mm at the bridge. With that spacing the strings would not line up over the poll pieces on the Smith P/U's for a Smith 5. Would it work, maybe, but I wouldn't do it. Why? Because I like precision and accuracy. I use the poll pieces on the Smith Soap-bars to "dial-in" each string up and down the neck for a consistent output level. The adjustments I make are small, however, my ear hears the the benefit of this adjustment (if needed). If you have strings falling outside the range of the poll pieces, I suspect you may have some challenges with output level consistency up and down the neck.

On my '99 burner 6, I have the Smith flat-top soap-bars. With the flat-top's there's no need to adjust.