A read-after-write magnetic head with closely spaced, parallel read and write gaps is disclosed. A magnetic circuit comprising a pair of core pieces is provided for each gap. A coil is mounted on the outer core piece of each pair and each outer core piece is held in a core piece holder which extends over substantially all of the outer core piece except for a core piece tip in order to reduce flux leakage between circuits. Both of the inner core pieces for each gap are held in place by a center core piece holder of unitary construction. Two shields are located within the center core piece holder and are shaped to cooperate with the magnetic head housing to complete flux paths surrounding each of the read and write portions of the head.