PICKUP HEIGHT?

J

jackson111

New member
ok I have a question about pickup height. I have recently done a lot of work on my charvel and I noticed my pickups seem to be sitting pretty high. I pushed my low E string down and measured from the pole piece to the bottom of the string and I have about 3/64" or maybe slightly less. with all the work I have done my low E sustain and tone problem has gotten much better. I started to lower my action again and the problem slowly started creeping up the neck again. I would love to adjust the pickup height to see if it gets better, but it is hard mounted to the body. can high pickup height make the string sound tone sound funky. if this is the case I can try to re rout the cavity slightly deeper
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

Yeah if they are too high it will make the sound a bit narf. Sweet spot is the key and with hard mounted pickups often you cant easily change the height.

Why would you need to route? would your guitar not just have spacers foam or something underneath holding them up a bit?
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

I actually came up with a awesome method of direct mounting humbuckers that will also allow you to change the height on demand.

Heres a diagram i made of the method i use. You can do it with either threded inserts into the body or like i did with a humbucker baseplate.
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

I just ran downstairs and looked at them there is nothing underneath them, and they are screwed down tight, but it does look like I will just have to deepen 2 spots a little so the tabs can seat further into the body.
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

Do you have the specs for the factory recommended pick up height? Charvel and Jackson has a cheat sheet for it; it covers the entire set up, actually. The pups sit high for a hotter sound. If you need the guide, pm me with your email, and I will send it your way.
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

I have taken it to a tech and they set it up by the owners manual which says the neck relief should be 0.020 at the 9th fret, and the string height should be 1.50mm at the 12th fret, and I was always pretty happy with it till I played my friends washburn and it had lower action and the neck relief was 0.004. that's why I was trying to set my charvel up like that. that washburn almost played itself
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

Well now you have a better idea of what works for you. If you want, go back to the tech and tell him (her) what you want.

Of course you can learn this stuff as well.
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

oh after paying 85.00 for a setup I got a book and decided to learn myself I have been setting my own stuff up since. after I leveled the frets on my cheap 150.00 washburn wi14 I was able to get it setup like my friends and it plays freaking awesome, so I started to do that to my wildcard and I ran into the quacky fart problem sound on the lowE stirng. my guitar teacher told me my guitar sounded beautiful for a charvel, then I played on of the quacky fart notes, and he said you have a high fret. I said yep that's what I thought but I have triple checked and I no I don't. he took my guitar and looked at pressed down some frets and examined the fret heights, he did this for about 5 minutes kept plaing and said nope no high frets , I don't know whats wrong. he told me to lower the actin and stay away from the lowE below the 14th fret. so I did that night and I noticed the A stirng started doing it, and the low E quacky fart notes didn't start at the 14th anymore it moved up the 10th. and by the time you get to the 22nd fret you con pluck the string and all you hear is plunk. that's when I noticed the pickup was almost touching the string at th 22nd fret. the picture in the previous post was taking with no frets depressed.
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

yeah ayrton around here we had only one guitar shop for years, my friend finally started up a new one, but any guitar work is very expensive, that's why I tired to learn to level frets, they gave me a price of 145.00. I asked about a refret prices start at 250 to 300. I asked if that was for SS they said no we want do SS frets
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

yep 145 to level frets, when you live in a small town and you only got one shop thy can charge what ever they want and either you pay it, or you an hour to the next town larger to get your gear worked on. and the other thing is the dude can do really good work if he knows you. if he doesn't think your good he blames you dislike of his 15 minute setup on you skill level. I heard he was good, dropped of my guitar payed the 85 dollar setup fee, and I walked through the showroom I was getting ready to leave and he ran to the front and said oh I got your guitar ready. I plugged up and played and said its not any better. at this point he told me you cant make a POS charvel play good, you should by a better guitar, and further more its not my fault you cant play. so yeah he doesn't work n my gear anymore
 
Re: PICKUP HEIGHT?

I live and work in a "small town". If people can't afford the work I do it anyway and tell them to stop in whenever...
I have yet to lose a dime.
Word of mouth, bros.

PC
 
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