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  • Pickup adjusting

    Hi!
    I noticed that many guides recommended 1.6mm (for humbucker) pickup height (after pressing on the last fret).
    But this setting isn't good with floyd rose, because if I bend note by floyd rose, at some point string touching pickup polepieces.
    1,6mm always sound muddy for me.
    I've always liked lower seting pickups (even 5mm and more, after pressing on the last fret), for me it sound better, less muddy, more natural.
    Does any of you do that too?
    I wonder can I set pickup sound on point 8 volume for rythm, and have boost to point 10 for solo?
    Do any of the professional guitarists do that?
    Last edited by CarlosG; 01-19-2020, 07:38 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Pickup adjusting

    There are no rules. You should adjust pup height to wherever you like it. That is the rule to follow.
    Originally Posted by IanBallard
    Rule of thumb... the more pot you have, the better your tone.

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    • #3
      Re: Pickup adjusting

      Uh huh. General height for volume balance to your taste. Then bass and treble sides to eq to your taste.
      The things that you wanted
      I bought them for you

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      • #4
        Re: Pickup adjusting

        I've found that I tend to have better results EQing from adjusting the individual string polepieces then angling the entire pickup. You have to do a little of both, but people often forget about adjusting string volume to make the pickup more balanced.
        You will never understand How it feels to live your life With no meaning or control And with nowhere left to go You are amazed that they exist And they burn so bright
        Whilst you can only wonder why

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        • #5
          Re: Pickup adjusting

          I like how Guitardoc said it. Find what works for you. Pole piece adjustments and pickup heights are preference.

          The closer the strings are to the pickups the ... my euphemism. The closer your ears are to the speaker the louder the music becomes.

          To see how much pole pieces can affect your tone this is a great video I found and recommend it as much as possible as I've got a bookmark folder full of useful videos to help people out on here. Many people I knew wanted different pickups for a brighter tone lets say and if they tried steel strings or different picks such as graphtech tusq bright picks which are surprisingly good I'd tell them to try this out. There is some before and after situations too to hear.

          I could think of some wiring mods to help fine tune the EQ of the guitar as I must have crossed the 300 diagram point some time the last while as it's been an on again off again hobby the last 10 years.

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          • #6
            Re: Pickup adjusting

            Everyone getting a new guitar or new pickups could benefit from 45 minutes with a screwdriver just testing different pickup heights. It is amazing how much 1/4 of a turn can change the sound and feel of a set of pickups.
            Administrator of the SDUGF

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            • #7
              Re: Pickup adjusting

              So, would the rule of thumb with a new set of pickups (for a Stratocaster) be to mimic the bridge curvature and then adjust from there? I just bought a set of SD "Everything Axe" for my Stratocaster and I thought I'd start there, play for a while and then adjust as I go - thoughts? TIA

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              • #8
                Re: Pickup adjusting

                Originally posted by cement_head View Post
                So, would the rule of thumb with a new set of pickups (for a Stratocaster) be to mimic the bridge curvature and then adjust from there? I just bought a set of SD "Everything Axe" for my Stratocaster and I thought I'd start there, play for a while and then adjust as I go - thoughts? TIA
                Many Strat pickups don't have adjustable poles. But I start with the bridge pickup, and get it closer to the strings, and gradually move it away until I don't hear their effect on the string vibrations. Then I balance the other pickups to the bridge one, listening for the effect on the strings.
                Administrator of the SDUGF

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                • #9
                  Re: Pickup adjusting

                  Thanks! I'll start there.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Pickup adjusting

                    Originally posted by Mincer View Post
                    Everyone getting a new guitar or new pickups could benefit from 45 minutes with a screwdriver just testing different pickup heights. It is amazing how much 1/4 of a turn can change the sound and feel of a set of pickups.
                    I generally know if I like them or not immediately. But I'm not done adjusting them for 2-3 days, maybe more. Then I live with it for a while and sometimes go back and fine tune again.

                    One thing I would suggest is don't neglect the value of making small adjustments to only one side. If my bridge humbucker sounds too bassy, a quarter turn down usually fixes it. Etc. I spend a lot of time just getting the balance right, even after I think I have the height about where I want it. You can OCD things to death trying to get both sides the exact same height, especially with humbuckers. But I have no problem at all dropping one side only to get them to balance out. I usually do that before I even touch the pole pieces (and sometimes I don't touch those at all depending).

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                    • #11
                      Re: Pickup adjusting

                      Originally posted by Mincer View Post
                      Many Strat pickups don't have adjustable poles. But I start with the bridge pickup, and get it closer to the strings, and gradually move it away until I don't hear their effect on the string vibrations. Then I balance the other pickups to the bridge one, listening for the effect on the strings.
                      This is pretty much what I do as well . . . but usually I end up adjusting the bass side of the bridge closer, middle flat, and the treble side of the neck closer at final tweaking.
                      Join me in the fight against muscular atrophy!

                      Originally posted by Douglas Adams
                      This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Pickup adjusting

                        Originally posted by GuitarStv View Post
                        This is pretty much what I do as well . . . but usually I end up adjusting the bass side of the bridge closer, middle flat, and the treble side of the neck closer at final tweaking.
                        Usually, that is the way I end up, too.
                        Administrator of the SDUGF

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                        • #13
                          Re: Pickup adjusting

                          years ago , I was looking on this forum, & don't remember the actual measurement , but someone stated to use a nickel (5 cent coin) so ever since I hold the string down at last fret (with the nickel wedged between pup & strings, guitar in playing position , & lower the pup till the coin falls out , same on the treble side , But some times I use a dime (10 cent piece)on treble side.. it gets me really close , & then tweak from there , it works for me..

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                          • #14
                            Re: Pickup adjusting

                            On non-Floyd guitars, I start with 2.38mm for all pickups, then lower the low E side of the neck to 3.18mm. Then tweak from there. (Technically those are Gibson factory specs. I start with those and move on from there. It’s give me an initial apples to apples comparison when I switch pickups.). For Floyd super strats, I don’t have one at the moment so I don’t have a method for those.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Pickup adjusting

                              Originally posted by rammer69 View Post
                              years ago , I was looking on this forum, & don't remember the actual measurement , but someone stated to use a nickel (5 cent coin) so ever since I hold the string down at last fret (with the nickel wedged between pup & strings, guitar in playing position , & lower the pup till the coin falls out , same on the treble side , But some times I use a dime (10 cent piece)on treble side.. it gets me really close , & then tweak from there , it works for me..
                              I have also used this method with good results.

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