Pick-up Position

fluffhead4020 · January 21, 2013, 10:50:37 PM

Hey, I got a quick question: I was restringing my guitar today and noticed that my neck pick-up is slanted. Meaning that it is not equidistant from all six strings. Like my 1st 3 strings (high E, B, G) are farther away from the pickup because of this than my Low E, A, D.

Using logic, it would make sense that it would not pickup the full frequency of the strings that aren't close to the pick-up right? Just trying to see if it is necessary to put a piece of wood or something underneath my pick-up to make it level.

Any help would be appreciated-thanks.

Heady Jam Fan · January 22, 2013, 04:49:57 PM

Sometimes this is done intentionally, like if you find your guitar too bright, specifically if the higher frequency strings are too loud, slanting the pickup the way your is positioned will balance that out. However, I suspect this was not on purpose since a humbucker in the neck position shouldn't be too bright. Adjusting the slant should be pretty easy - no chunks of wood required. You should see one or two screws below the pickup (on the side with the higher frequency strings) - just adjust the screw until the pickup is the same height on both sides or until it sound best to you. This is probably one of the easiest things to adjust if your not 100% thrilled with your tone.

the_great_lemon · January 22, 2013, 08:32:25 PM

Quote from: Heady Jam Fan on January 22, 2013, 04:49:57 PM
This is probably one of the easiest things to adjust if your not 100% thrilled with your tone.

^THIS...I do this all the time to change how my guitar interacts with my pedals and amp. And like Heady said, there should be screws on either side of the pickup that adjust the height. Good luck!

IamWILSON · January 22, 2013, 08:49:33 PM

Great advice above... and very true!

If you want to (or more likely, need to) take it a step further, the 6 pole's in the pickup (they look like a screw on the pickup that is directly underneath each string) can individually be adjusted to bring it closer or further away from the strings. For example, if you noticed that your B string always pops out louder than your high E string, you would just screw that pole for the B string in a little more. Just keep playing and twisting until you're getting the desired response from each string/pickup combination.

Oh yeah, that advice is only for humbucker pickups. Single coils don't have that option. Or at least all the single coils I've ever played haven't anyway.

Heady Jam Fan · January 22, 2013, 09:09:27 PM

^Good stuff there too! Kinda the fine tuning part of the pickup, I usually find a fairly small turn can do the trick if need be. And if the screws aren't already flat on the pickup (screwed in the whole way), I try to pay attention to how far I've turned them, maybe doing a 1/2 turn at a time so I can go back to where I started if I want.

Usually for pickup height in general, I like the pups fairly close, but its too close if you find the strings are hitting the pickup sometimes (you'll hear it) or if the magnet seems to be pulling on the string and decreasing sustain.

fluffhead4020 · January 23, 2013, 01:33:49 AM

I do have humbuckers, so all this information is very useful. I did adjust the screws and successfully made is level again. Thanks for all the help, y'all.

Happyorange27 · January 23, 2013, 01:06:09 PM

I purposefully have my humbuckers at an angle. In an effort to make the neck and bridge a bit more similar, I slant the neck pickup closer to the high strings and a slant the bridge closer to the low strings. Now making sure the volumes are still pretty equal within a pickup selection, it is my way of balancing out my overall sound. Just something I experimented with and I like it.
I don't know if you all would agree, but Trey switching from bridge to neck isn't always a drastic sound. Maybe because his pickups are a bit closer together than mine. Anyway that is what I was after; not such a drastic change.

Heady Jam Fan · January 23, 2013, 02:23:52 PM

Quote from: Happyorange27 on January 23, 2013, 01:06:09 PM
I purposefully have my humbuckers at an angle. In an effort to make the neck and bridge a bit more similar, I slant the neck pickup closer to the high strings and a slant the bridge closer to the low strings. Now making sure the volumes are still pretty equal within a pickup selection, it is my way of balancing out my overall sound. Just something I experimented with and I like it.
I don't know if you all would agree, but Trey switching from bridge to neck isn't always a drastic sound. Maybe because his pickups are a bit closer together than mine. Anyway that is what I was after; not such a drastic change.

I agree, not sure if his bridge pup is further from the bridge (or distance as you mention) or what, but that is why I ended up using Lollar Imperials over Duncan 59's or Schaller Golden 50's - the Lollars were more balanced while the bridge on the other two pups were thin and weak sounding on my guitar. I tried a lot of the stuff mentioned in this thread to balance them, but it was clearly not enough. Trey has such fine-tuned hearing that even a subtle change to us seems to be a big change to him.