3 tic on which a first flux guide 3 a second flux guide 4 and a third flux guide 5 are formed successively the flux guides are formed from a soft magnetic material such as nife alfesi or an amorphous alloy for forming a read portion an electrically conducting magnetoresistive element 7 having barber pole strips or stripes 8 is situated between the substrate 2 and the first flux guide 3 such an element is described for example in u s pat no 4 052 748 herein incorporated by reference to form opposite the magnetoresistive element 7 the flux guide 3 is interrupted to form a non magnetic space or gap 9 which is bounded by two flux guide parts 3a and 3b partly overlapping the element 7 generally a bias winding 11 for generating a magnetic field for premagnetizing the magnetoresistive element 7 is provided between the first flux guide 3 and the second flux guide 4 insulating layers of a magnetic and electrically insulating material such as an oxide for example sio 2 or al 2 o 3 a synthetic resin or a photoresist are provided on the substrate 2 and between the conducting layers which are present for forming the magnetoresistive element 7 the flux guide 3 the bias winding 11 and the flux guide 4 the joint layers are denoted by the single reference numeral 13 the first and the second flux guides 3 and 4 define a read gap 17 at the head face 1 in which gap a non magnetic material such as an oxide is present likewise as in the space 9 the gap length is denoted by g p the flux guides 3 and 4 which may be magnetically.