Originally Posted by: chris_m_bellwas is the difference between staggered pole pieces and flat pole pieces?[/quote]

Staggered is a leftover design from earlier Strats. The stagger was there to compensate for smaller radius necks, wound G strings & clean, loud amps without modern gain structure or pedals, effects, etc.

Actually the earliest Strats & Teles had flat magnets! The stagger was an "upgrade". :)

Since modern guitar players mostly use unwound G strings, pedals, effects & gain structured amps with much more compression, the flat magnet setup came more into common use.

[quote=chris_m_bell]How do each effect tone?

Since staggered results in more of a traditional Strat "bell-like" timbre or tone this means that some people still like & use it. The result is a slightly uneven volume between each string. Whereas flat is more balanced.

There are a bunch of websites, videos & discussions about this topic on the web. But, of course, ultimately it's personal preference! Hope this helps!