Compensating for different pickup output by heigth?!

[Erlend_G]

Hi guys!

One of my friends recently changed his stock Epiphone Les Paul brigde pickup to a Duncan Distortion. He says he's happy with his stock neck humbucker, except for that it has alot lower output than the DD in the brigde. He asked me to find an answer, so here i am making threads.

Anyway, would it be adviseable to compensate for the differences in output by placing the DD further away, and the stock neck humbucker closer to the strings? Would this make a world of difference in tone, or just smooth out the output differences?

Thanks for any replies,
-Erlend

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: Compensating for different pickup output by heigth?!

Bridge pickups differ in output to make up for their location near the bridge where the tone is 'thinner'-- closer to the bridge.

What I think your friend may be experiencing is the aggressive nature of the Distortion bridge versus the neck pickup. Changing pickup heights may not be the proper compensation for output variances, but may be what he wants.

I suggest he look into a more powerful neck pickup that will be still lower in output than the bridge, but closer to equal sound output, evening things out for him.

Hope this might work out for your friend.

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Compensating for different pickup output by heigth?!

Well, the problem is, that a SD pickup costs about 200-300 USD here in norway. So, i don't think that he will afford a new neck pickup.

Anyway, what i'm wanting to know, is if changing pickup heigths greatly changes the overall tone of the pickup.

 

[OlinMusic]

Re: Compensating for different pickup output by heigth?!

I used a Tone Zone for pop rock for a long time by lowering it and angling it away to decrease the bass

It worked quite well, and that was the Tone Zone, which tends to be pretty out of control with the mids and lows. I still got the same fat character, only it had a sweeter twang.

Needless to say I left it behind a long time ago and haven't gone back since.

So there's an answer for you.

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Compensating for different pickup output by heigth?!

Ok, thanks!

I'll try helping my friend tomorrow.

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: Compensating for different pickup output by heigth?!

Well, the problem is, that a SD pickup costs about 200-300 USD here in norway. So, i don't think that he will afford a new neck pickup.

Ouch.