Pickup adjustment

[Salutemysolution]

O.K I've seen this mentioned on here a few times. How exactly does adjusting the pickup height affect the overall sound of a guitar? I've thought about trying it but would rather have an idea what effect it will have first.

[pushover]

O.K I've seen this mentioned on here a few times. How exactly does adjusting the pickup height affect the overall sound of a guitar? I've thought about trying it but would rather have an idea what effect it will have first.

 

I'm no expert, but I've played with this alot trying to get a sound I liked out of the Schallers that came with my 157.

 

UP, or Closer to the strings means louder, deeper, fuller sound. To the point where it gets just plain muddy.

 

Down, or further from the strings mean quieter, thinner, more tinny sound. To the point where the pickup comes off the mounting screw and falls into the body cavity and where you start to swear and curse cause now you've got to pull things apart to get it back right again

 

There is also supposed to be a science associated with adjusting the pickup poles, but I have no idea about how to do that right.. Just trust your ear.

[Steiner]

In my early attempts to do this, I had the pickups too close to the strings and subsequently could not intone the guitar.  There comes a point where the poles interfere with the tune of the string.  That took me a long time to figure out - Merry Christmas!

[big bob]

you want the strings as close as they can get w/o having the magnets in the pup effect the sustain of the string.

Dan Erlwine has written some great articles about just this subject, including measurements of famous guitarists set ups.

[yoslate]

Guitar, plugged into a clean amp, set at moderate volume, and all the amp tone controls on"5," + ear + trial and error with p'up height (then across all six strings' pole screws, if you like) = what you're looking for. 

 

I tend to keep pole screws just barely above flush with the cover, and I don't monkey with them much.  Most of my adjustment involves the pickup only.  And as everyone has cautioned, not too close to the strings, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the p'up magnet's effect on string vibration and intonation.

[les paulverizer]

Pup's are nothin' but microphones, and they work/behave just like any other type of mike.

If you're singin' too close to the mike while your voice gets indeed louder at the same time what comes out is not that pleasant; too muffled and lackin' clarity.

Also, good singers know, instinctively, how to vary the distance from the mike accordin' to how loud their delivery is; just look at Steven Tyler, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones,....different genres but real S-I-N-G-E-R-S nevertheless; they never movin' to and away from the mike, constantly.

The same applies to pup's; the "louder" the pup "S. Duncan JB, DiMarzio Tone Zone,  and others) the further away from the strings they should be.

Like Yo'Slate! has stated earlier, your ears are the ultimate judge.

I used to use High Power Pup's, like the ones I mentioned before, for a number of years, until I started usin' Lower Power ones, and I'll never go back!

What prompted me to switch was actually the purchase of my H150; it's such a "pure" axe, "The" Les Paul I've been searchin' for, that it just kinda..."brought" me to this type of pup.

I've installed Seymour Duncan Antiqiuty's and, bein' of the Lower Output kind, obviously allow me to bring 'em a little closer to the strings, but not too much, hey!

[pushover]

Actually.. I want to partially dissagree with Les P. Most of what he says about the symptoms is correct, but PuP's are magnets rather than microphones. As such they have a magnetic field around them and it is the vibrating of the metal strings that modifies those electric fields that produces all of the sound. Having the PuP's too close will stifle the ability of the strings to vibrate like they would without having the PuP's there just because the magnetic field is too strong, and that is what causes the muddiness, and an other problems like intonation. Microphones do have magnets in them also, but in their case the vibration is caused by movement of air, and since the people who sing and sway in front of the magnets moving closer and further away as they since are not (usually) magnetic, I think the effects are slightly different.

[backline]

I had a friend play my guitar through my amp while I screwed the pickups in and out. That helped me quite a bit to get the general level for the tone I wanted.

 

Then, I usually wind up slanting them so they're closer to the strings on the treble side (or lower the bass side a little). With nickel wound strings this isn't as important to me as with nickel plated steel wound strings.

 

After taht I may raise the polepiece on the high E of the neck pickup, and on a jazz guitar (full hollowbody archtop) I generally sink the B string polepiece into the pickup a little to get a balance. Then I adjust the remaining polepieces for balance with each other.

 

On bridge pickups the polepiece individual adjustments seem less effective to me, though I may slant the bass side away to keep from "ka-chunking" the strings into the pickup with my palm while digging in.

 

My bridge pickup almost always winds up closer to the strings than my neck pickup.

[Salutemysolution]

Thanks for all the responses...that really gives me an idea about the overall effect. One reason I was really curious about this is that I feel like the Duncan 59s may be a little muddy. I've seen a lot of people write about this on here. It just seems like the more I play them the more I feel like this. I thought maybe some adjustment would help, but I'm kind of hesitant to do it.

[yoslate]

I thought maybe some adjustment would help, but I'm kind of hesitant to do it.

 

Some adjustment will help.  Full speed ahead, damn the torpedos...grab a screwdriver, and have at it.  Might help to count and keep track of 1/4 (or 1/8th) turns of each screw so yo can go back to where things were originally, though.  Have fun!

[big bob]

Thanks for all the responses...that really gives me an idea about the overall effect. One reason I was really curious about this is that I feel like the Duncan 59s may be a little muddy. I've seen a lot of people write about this on here. It just seems like the more I play them the more I feel like this. I thought maybe some adjustment would help, but I'm kind of hesitant to do it.

I took the 59 out of my stat dlx because I thought the same thing (muddy)I replaced it with a dimarzio pro paf, allmoast the same output as the 59 but not muddy.

[backline]

I took the 59 out of my stat dlx because I thought the same thing (muddy)I replaced it with a dimarzio pro paf, allmoast the same output as the 59 but not muddy.

 

 

Most overwound PAF type pickups sound a bit muddy to me, but I agree DiMarzio PAF's are nice. I have no experience with the SD's.

[GuitArtMan]

Pup's are nothin' but microphones, and they work/behave just like any other type of mike.

If you're singin' too close to the mike while your voice gets indeed louder at the same time what comes out is not that pleasant; too muffled and lackin' clarity.

Also, good singers know, instinctively, how to vary the distance from the mike accordin' to how loud their delivery is; just look at Steven Tyler, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones,....different genres but real S-I-N-G-E-R-S nevertheless; they never movin' to and away from the mike, constantly.

The same applies to pup's; the "louder" the pup "S. Duncan JB, DiMarzio Tone Zone,  and others) the further away from the strings they should be.

Like Yo'Slate! has stated earlier, your ears are the ultimate judge.

I used to use High Power Pup's, like the ones I mentioned before, for a number of years, until I started usin' Lower Power ones, and I'll never go back!

What prompted me to switch was actually the purchase of my H150; it's such a "pure" axe, "The" Les Paul I've been searchin' for, that it just kinda..."brought" me to this type of pup.

I've installed Seymour Duncan Antiqiuty's and, bein' of the Lower Output kind, obviously allow me to bring 'em a little closer to the strings, but not too much, hey!

Traditional electric guitar pickups are not microphones.  You can't talk into a pickup and get sound out of it, nor will it work with a non-ferous material - such as nylon strings.  A pickup is a coil, wound around a magnetic core, that has a current induced in it when a ferous material (string) interrupts the magnetic field. 

 

Pickups should always be adjusted to  taste.  Louder pickups should not necessarily be adjusted farther away from the strings because then they wouldn't be louder would they? 

[les paulverizer]

Traditional electric guitar pickups are not microphones.  You can't talk into a pickup and get sound out of it, nor will it work with a non-ferous material - such as nylon strings.  A pickup is a coil, wound around a magnetic core, that has a current induced in it when a ferous material (string) interrupts the magnetic field. 

 

Pickups should always be adjusted to  taste.  Louder pickups should not necessarily be adjusted farther away from the strings because then they wouldn't be louder would they? 

 

You might be right ok, ya have a point (or two) and you obviously know more than me about pup's and mike's and how they're constructed and work, but the fact is that if you scream into (it generally works better with an unpotted/slightly microphonic) pup, and if the guitar sportin' that pup is plugged into a loud amp, then you will indeed manage to get your voice through; sure, it'll be muffled and waaaaaay quiet compared to what would come out if you used a conventional mike, but it will, in a funny kinda way, come out.

I've seen it done, I was there.

Apparently Neil Young's tech says that Neil's Gretch pup fitted to his emplyoer's famous black Les Paul is so microphonic that you can do it nooooo problem; I haven't personally witnessed that though...

When it comes to "loud" pup's, they're not louder only cuz ya keep 'em closer to the strings; doin' that will make a-n-y pup slightly louder.

A DiMarzio Tone Zone will a-l-w-a-y-s be louder than a low/medium power pup if ya set them both at exactly the same distance from the strings.

I'm talkin' from personal experience here cuz I always went for "loud" pup's in the past thinkin' that "the stronger the signal the better the response", but I was wrong as I forgot about the mighty Tone.

Now that I've switched to low power pup's on all my guitars but one, an heavily customized, pretty old Gibson Les Paul with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, in order to obtain the best possible performance I have to set 'em slightly closer from the strings than I did previously; then again, it's ever so true that, like you say, everything should always be adjusted to taste and taste is very personal but, in an ocean of generic/undistinct sounds, I know a "Tone" when I hear one, lemme tell ya.

[backline]

...haven't personally witnessed that though...

 

 

Danny Gatton used to howler into his pickups occasionally and it would come out the amp.

BUT, point taken, they are NOT microphones. But a speaker can be, and a microphone can be a speaker, since the principle is the same (with a dynamic mic anyway).

 

I did a science project in Jr. High as a boy, with my old Heathkit tube amp. I'm amazed I didn't electrocute myself, looking back. But hey, it was the early sixties: so you died a little...