Pickup height
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:25 am
Saw thison the Bareknuckle forum and thought it was quite interesting, so thought I'd share.
I've always been interested in pickup heights, but much more so since getting involved with BKPs. With what I've learnt recently, I've actually found that I can seriously improve stock or non-BKPs with pickup height adjustment now.
I think improve is seriously subjective though - we all want slightly different things out of our pups, so I take everything I read here with a pinch of salt, but it's all worth a try to see what it does for me. Maybe he was experimenting at the time? But if it works, it's right...
My current thinking is as follows:
If the pup has adjustable poles, set them all level with the cover first - I'll only adjust them nowadays if I have a perceived loud or quiet string after the other adjustments. I used to fiddle with these all the time and used to get in a terrible mess.
I start with the treble side of the bridge pup. I do get it as close to the strings as Twinfan does (didn't used to, but I found BKPs like this more than other pups I've used over the years). I set the bass side slightly lower because I know that's roughly what I'm going to want (from previous experience).
Then I balance the neck (and middle if it's a strat) by comparing its output to the bridge - nothing to do with measurements on this one for me! If the neck ends up too high (catches the strings or produces magnetic problems), then I get it as high as possible then lower the bridge by output comparison. Again, the bass side of the pup(s) gets set slightly lower. BTW - I use a very clean sound for output comparison, I do it by ear mainly, but I'm also watching meters on a mixing desk - trust the ears first though
That's the initial settings - I then I live with it for a bit (days/weeks, depends on how I feel), tweaking as necessary, going right back to the beginning if it gets out of hand!
During the tweaking phase, I use the pup heights to control tone - at least this is my perception of what I'm doing. Like Twinfan, I fine tune by ear, but I tend to think in "quarter turns" of the screws - it really is that sensitive.
I learnt this "tone control" thing with my Mississippi Queens - closer to the strings means fatter, more output, less perceived treble. Further from the strings is thinner, more clarity, and more perceived treble. It really shows up on MQs, so I experimented with the others - seems to apply to them all (non-BKPs as well). So my simplified rule of thumb is "If I want more bottom-end, raise it, if I want more clarity or bite, lower it" - I can do this to any side of any pickup, and then I have to rebalance the pup outputs. There's quite a bit of extra fiddling to get the inbetween sounds, when more than one pup is selected, just right, but you get the picture...
Following this routine, my strat has the bass side of the pups at least 3-4mm lower than the treble side (each pup is different). I'd happily accept a bigger difference if the tone dictated (and the screws can manage it)... I wanted the top strings fatter and the bass strings clearer, and that's what I've got - sounds excellent now.
My MQs (Gib Explorer) have a similar difference, slightly less pronounced maybe. My Riff Raffs (Epi SG) have an enormous difference between bass and treble side, but that's a work in progress. Both guitars have more pronounced slant on the bridge pickups. My Mules (Tokai Love Rock) are almost flat - seems nicely balanced at the moment. My Blackguarded Tele has the bridge almost flat but the neck has definite down-slant on the bass side.
I've only learnt this "tone control" aspect recently with my MQs, and I'm so glad I have, albeit some 30 years late. When I was young I heard old strat players saying you get "better tone" with the pups further from the strings - better than what?! You try adjusting your pups and it is different but you lose some stuff as well, but you live with it, wondering whether you can hear what they're hearing... Then you get others saying you get better output jamming the things up against the strings - again, better than what?
Now I've figured out that pickup height is just a "tone control" for me, and I've figured out exactly how it works on my guitars, I can get my own personal "better" without having to trust other people's apparently conflicting advice.