The corner of a magnetic recording head at one edge of the gap therein is modified by being set back, rounded off, etc., to produce a slowly varying response when a magnetic flux reversal in a magnetic recording medium moving in relation to the head passes the modified corner. A fast response is thus produced only when a flux reversal passes the corner at the other gap edge, obviating nulls in frequency response and yielding the benefits of a large gap without sacrificing resolution. Linear processing of waveforms produced by the head provides a sharp output pulse in response to each passing flux reversal.