This is mostly just sharing some findings about pickup placement--I was considering a pickguard with some sort of variation in the location of the strat bridge pickup, so I did some expirimenting with what I have.
There are articles and info on the web I've found useful as I started experimenting:
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponse/
http://archive.ampage.org/threads/6...umbucker_location_very_critical-1.html#335777
I should note that I compared and found some of these measurements close, some virutally the same accurate, and some significantly "off" compared to my own, for whatever reasons unknown to me.
The way I did it is, I measure from the nut - 1/2 the scale length is from the nut to fret 12. I also used metric (mm) since it often helped in precision and ease of understanding. Percentage of scale length is useful in terms of translating measurements to equivalent for standard "Fender" (25.5) and Gibson (24.625/24.75) scale lengths. Since most guitars/people intonate at the bridge/saddle, I measured from the nut and used ideal scale length (instead of actual which varies with string, gague, etc.) to get consistent results. No matter how one intonates, a pickup's distance from the nut/12th fret is typically constant.
My surprise finding - the slanted bridge pickup on a strat, even on the High E, is in a location that is slightly, but notably 'less harmonic' (closer to the fretboard) than the standard(?) location of a "screw" coil of a humbucker.
Very small differences of a few Millimeters really matter in this area and application. since as you get closer to the
For example,
I measured the centerpoint of a particular bridge HSS strat's HB screw coil to be about ~293.5 from the 12th fret (about 95.3% of the idealized scale length)
The center point of This strat's HB slug coil was located ~268mm from the 12th fret. (91.3%...)
On my SSS strat, the center of the angled bridge pickup as located at the HIGH E string was only ~288mm from the 12th fret (94.45%...)
- That is, *it was slightly but notably CLOSER to the 12th fret than a HB screw coil bobbin, even on the high E! This was the #1 surprise for me!*
Same strat, the center of the angled bridge pickup as located at the LOW E string was ~288mm from the 12th fret (93.2%...)
I should note that I used the scale length percentages and compared to my ES-335 style with it's scale and bridge pickup, and the locations were generally similar--if anything, the 335-style was further from the 12th fret than this by percentage.
So with this HSS strat, and maybe most, if you can picture it, the angled strat pickup would sit almost directly in the middle of where the HB is routed on the low E, and about 1/2 way between the mid point and the slug coil of where the HB is routed on the high E string.
====
Extra info for those inclined:
I drilled the pickguard a bit to move an installed SC around within the HB route--both straight and angled--with about 5 spots on each side ranging between where the screw coil and slug coil would usually be situated. I certainly found that you can really get notably different feel/sound out of the bridge pickup just within the range of locations within there. We are talking +/- 5mm being significant here, which is a rather small percentage of the scale length making a very noticeable difference.
There's a wide range of usable tones in this pickup window (literally and figuratively). It seemed that that--especially along the far extremes--there were placements that some might go "wow!" that others would say "too far!" with a lot of usable mileage between the extremes.
Interesting, to me, was finding that this seemed to be at LEAST as significant as any pickup change might be--and especially in conjunction.
I also went in thinking that the high string side of the angled strat bridge pickup might benefit from being moved toward the neck, or the pickup being straightened, or even trying a reverse angle. All of those options do sound usable to me, but before and after these expiriements, the stock angle/location went from being something I thought of as definitely meriting a change, to instead gaining a strong appreciation for "stock."
It does occur to me that maybe I'm just used to it where it is and that I am biased--and I do use the tone control liberally on (bright/clear/fat) bridge pickups---but I have FAR less to virtually no GAS to get a new pickguard with a different bridge pickup location compared to before...for now.
However, I also still see other pickup locations as offering fantastic variations/options, and may consider them down the line a bit. I just found that it at least actually works quite well where it is to my ears, now that I've compared some variations!
If anyone else undertakes careful measuring in a similar manner, I'd love to see the differences, be they due to my errors, or due to common variations in tolerances etc.
There are articles and info on the web I've found useful as I started experimenting:
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponse/
http://archive.ampage.org/threads/6...umbucker_location_very_critical-1.html#335777
I should note that I compared and found some of these measurements close, some virutally the same accurate, and some significantly "off" compared to my own, for whatever reasons unknown to me.
The way I did it is, I measure from the nut - 1/2 the scale length is from the nut to fret 12. I also used metric (mm) since it often helped in precision and ease of understanding. Percentage of scale length is useful in terms of translating measurements to equivalent for standard "Fender" (25.5) and Gibson (24.625/24.75) scale lengths. Since most guitars/people intonate at the bridge/saddle, I measured from the nut and used ideal scale length (instead of actual which varies with string, gague, etc.) to get consistent results. No matter how one intonates, a pickup's distance from the nut/12th fret is typically constant.
My surprise finding - the slanted bridge pickup on a strat, even on the High E, is in a location that is slightly, but notably 'less harmonic' (closer to the fretboard) than the standard(?) location of a "screw" coil of a humbucker.
Very small differences of a few Millimeters really matter in this area and application. since as you get closer to the
For example,
I measured the centerpoint of a particular bridge HSS strat's HB screw coil to be about ~293.5 from the 12th fret (about 95.3% of the idealized scale length)
The center point of This strat's HB slug coil was located ~268mm from the 12th fret. (91.3%...)
On my SSS strat, the center of the angled bridge pickup as located at the HIGH E string was only ~288mm from the 12th fret (94.45%...)
- That is, *it was slightly but notably CLOSER to the 12th fret than a HB screw coil bobbin, even on the high E! This was the #1 surprise for me!*
Same strat, the center of the angled bridge pickup as located at the LOW E string was ~288mm from the 12th fret (93.2%...)
I should note that I used the scale length percentages and compared to my ES-335 style with it's scale and bridge pickup, and the locations were generally similar--if anything, the 335-style was further from the 12th fret than this by percentage.
So with this HSS strat, and maybe most, if you can picture it, the angled strat pickup would sit almost directly in the middle of where the HB is routed on the low E, and about 1/2 way between the mid point and the slug coil of where the HB is routed on the high E string.
====
Extra info for those inclined:
I drilled the pickguard a bit to move an installed SC around within the HB route--both straight and angled--with about 5 spots on each side ranging between where the screw coil and slug coil would usually be situated. I certainly found that you can really get notably different feel/sound out of the bridge pickup just within the range of locations within there. We are talking +/- 5mm being significant here, which is a rather small percentage of the scale length making a very noticeable difference.
There's a wide range of usable tones in this pickup window (literally and figuratively). It seemed that that--especially along the far extremes--there were placements that some might go "wow!" that others would say "too far!" with a lot of usable mileage between the extremes.
Interesting, to me, was finding that this seemed to be at LEAST as significant as any pickup change might be--and especially in conjunction.
I also went in thinking that the high string side of the angled strat bridge pickup might benefit from being moved toward the neck, or the pickup being straightened, or even trying a reverse angle. All of those options do sound usable to me, but before and after these expiriements, the stock angle/location went from being something I thought of as definitely meriting a change, to instead gaining a strong appreciation for "stock."
It does occur to me that maybe I'm just used to it where it is and that I am biased--and I do use the tone control liberally on (bright/clear/fat) bridge pickups---but I have FAR less to virtually no GAS to get a new pickguard with a different bridge pickup location compared to before...for now.
However, I also still see other pickup locations as offering fantastic variations/options, and may consider them down the line a bit. I just found that it at least actually works quite well where it is to my ears, now that I've compared some variations!
If anyone else undertakes careful measuring in a similar manner, I'd love to see the differences, be they due to my errors, or due to common variations in tolerances etc.
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