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Hi I just bought this new guitar with seymours (hot rails neck and Original trembucker bridg) and was wondering about the pickup height. Wich pickup height in (mm measured from the strings to the top of the pup) do you use with these pickups? I know its a personal preference matter but I need examples to start messing with this.. directions would be nice.. how it affects sustain and tone and these kind of things. Thanks

Lowering it will warm it up and take off some high end. You will also loose some of the appaerent output. I found sutain increases when you lower it but you may not like the loss in volume.

I find a good height that has sizzle, harmonics are there and it is full enough sounding

start around 3/32quot; or around 2.5mm or 3 green tortex picks for the bridge pup

moving it closer will get you more output and a thicker tone but youll lose sustain as there is more magnetic pull on the strings

lowering the pup will get you a cleaner, clearer tone and less string pull

going to low will cause you to get a thin weak tone
going to high will cause wolftones (weird ringing overtones) on the high frets

thank you jeremy.. does you keep the same distance from the little e string to pickup as you keep the big E? or should I get it closer to the high strings?

i usually start about flat then end up lowering the low e side a little to get proper balance

The one thing to look out for is raising the pickup too close to the strings or you can get quot;Strat-itisquot;.

This is far less of a problem with standard humbuckers or any pickup with a bar magnet because the magnet itself is much farther away from the string than with Strat/Tele pickups, but you can get a touch of quot;Strat-itisquot;, especially with stronger magnets like Alnico 5 and ceramics.

Strati-itis is much more of a problem with neck pickups because less force is required to move the string the farther away from the end of the string you get. This is why you will find that conventional wisdom has the neck pickup a bit further away from the strings than the bridge pickup.

You lose some bass and upper mids when you lower the pickups but the treble is sweeter and more chimey. The pickup becomes more rude in the midrange as you bring it closer.

Keep in mind that raising or lower the pickup DOES NOT HAVE THE SAME EFFECT as raising and lowering the pole pieces. Adjusting the poles does alter the magnetic field, but it does not affect the position of the magnet itself.

Pole piece adjustments give you more subtle results and in the case of your standard humbucker where only one coil is adjustable, raising the poles will add brightness because it makes it sound a touch more single-coilish by emphasizing one coil over the other.


Originally Posted by jeremystart around 3/32quot; or around 2.5mm or 3 green tortex picks for the bridge pup

I realize the distance measurement is meant as a starting point and you should fine tune with your ears, and I know you are suposed to measure with the string fretted at the last fret, but whenever this issue comes up I always wonder:

If you are measuring the height of a covered humbucker, is that 3/32quot; to the top of the screw pole piece, 3/32quot; to where the slug poles would line up, or somewhere in the middle?

I don't measure anything...guitar related that is.

I usually put both pickups (I'm a humbucker guy) as high as they will go without putting too much pull on the strings.

the stratitis that zhang is talking about is the same as those wolftones i was talking about, and he has a good point about the pole pieces. thats a trick i use on neck pups to get a little extra clarity quite frequently.


Originally Posted by jeremythe stratitis that zhang is talking about is the same as those wolftones i was talking about, and he has a good point about the pole pieces. thats a trick i use on neck pups to get a little extra clarity quite frequently.

On a Strat, you can have the bridge pickup closer to the strings than the neck or middle. The string is harder to pull out of tune near the bridge because it moves less and is stiffer near the bridge. Also, the pull is cumulative and what I've found is that if I move the middle pickup a little further away from the strings than the neck pickup I can then move the neck pickup a little closer to the strings. I usually have the bridge pickup closest to strings, the middle pickup the furthest away and then the neck pickup closer to the strings than the middle pickup but not as close to the strings as the bridge pickup. Lew

Yeah man this is a job for the sick ones.. I am almost deaf trying to get the right sound from it(my amp is a 200 watts rms 2x12quot;).. i am almost there... just a balance thing but the tone is great now thank you all for the help.

Every duncan i have tried has a quot;Gquot; or quot;sweet spotquot; when it comes to height settings
my new custom pup likes to be a bit away from the strings then she opens up and MOANS