A method of manufacture for forming a novel magnetic read/write transducer head of the type utilizing thin film materials. The method of manufacture comprises steps which deposit a thin film magnetic recording head on a selected substrate having dimensions which enable batch manufacture of a thin film magnetic transducer in combination with its supporting slider assembly. The substrate of selected material in thick wafer form is subjected to a series of thin film deposition, etching and plating operations to form a plurality of thin film magnetic heads thereon. Thereafter, the substrate wafer is diced around each thin magnetic transducer head with subsequent finishing and polishing to requisite shape thereby to yield the complete slider and transducer head assembly. A particular form of thin film magnetic transducer head is further novel in that the head utilizes shield and pole pieces that are formed as multi-layer thin film pairs of magnetic material as deposited in order and formation to contain the magnetoresistive stripe and operative elements. The multi-layer pole depositions may be further altered as to number of thin film layers and thickness thereof in order to shape the magnetic fields associated therewith, especially as regards the trailing edge or write pole formation.