Raising pickups - 101

[Cold_Fever]

My Gibson LP is muddy when playing low E and A strings. I used to think it was the amp but maybe its my guitar. I have played through a Mesa/Boogie F-50 and a Marshall DSL-100, same result.

 

I believe raising the bridge pickup toward the E and A strings might help.

 

How to raise? Do you raise the pole screws under each string or raise the entire pickup on one side only?

 

Thanks

[GretschGuy]

I am going to assume that you have a LP with a 9 1/2" radius. My '59 has this and I don't have a LP like yours.

On my neck pickup, I set the bass and treble sides to 1/16"

On the bridge I set them to 3/32"

I am setting 'polepiece height' not pickup height. A good place to start is to match your polepieces to the radius of your fretboard.

There is a really great book that you can buy for about 20.00 called 'How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great'.

Dan Earlwinr wrote it and it gives tips for setting up all different kinds of guitars.

It even comes with some snap out plastic gagues in the back. I usually have someone look after my guitars, but I have this on my bookshelf for when I want to tweak something.

[AtomHeartMother]

It's only $14.58 here:

http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=proframe&prod_id=952603#

[aeonrevolution]

So if I was to just screw with my pickup heights a lot would that be bad? Because mine are all over the place lol. I'm always taking a screw driver to them to move em around.

[blueswoman]

I've found raising the polepieces give almost a brighter sound. Lowering them, a smoother sound. Sometimes the bass side of the pickup can overpower the treble side. Try lowering your bass side a bit first. I set mine by ear. Usually I'll get the treble side to where I like it - the most sustain. there's usually a sweet spot where it gives the most sustain. Then I'll adjust the bass side. Then, if there's a string that has less output than the others, I'll raise the polepiece a bit for that one.

last week at rehearsal, the other guitarist had a new Gibson 500T pickup in bridge and he said it was too bassy. I was surprised, because I have several guitars with that pickup in it. So I looked at it, and he had the bass side raised higher than the treble side. We lowered it to a touch below the treble side and he was very surprised at the difference.

I have often wondered how many perfectly good pickups have been pulled out because they were too low or too high.

[AtomHeartMother]

I don't think anything bad will happen. I'd refrain from screwing them all the way out or all the way down often as you might end up losing the screw or possibly damagine something. The worst that could happen is that you strip the screwdriver slot on the top of the screws or the screwdriver slips and you scratch up the pickup/guitar.

[lessonsthatrock]

Raising pickups does change tone a little, but not enough to fix a problem. It helps, but it's like throwing a band aid at something that need stitches. With that, I would probably just suggest new pickups. I think raising/lowering the height of pickups sweetens the sound but doesn't dramatically change it.

[tlbonehead]

common belief is that slightly lower pickup with the poles raised give netter note articulation than poles down and pickup higher to get to that same distance. Personally, on HBs, I think keeping them fairly low sounds a lot clearer, as a general rule.

[Bro Blue]

Where the hell did this come from?

[tlbonehead]

Where the hell did this come from?

this being?

[IBDBB]

I've found raising the polepieces give almost a brighter sound. Lowering them, a smoother sound. Sometimes the bass side of the pickup can overpower the treble side. Try lowering your bass side a bit first. I set mine by ear. Usually I'll get the treble side to where I like it - the most sustain. there's usually a sweet spot where it gives the most sustain. Then I'll adjust the bass side. Then, if there's a string that has less output than the others, I'll raise the polepiece a bit for that one. last week at rehearsal, the other guitarist had a new Gibson 500T pickup in bridge and he said it was too bassy. I was surprised, because I have several guitars with that pickup in it. So I looked at it, and he had the bass side raised higher than the treble side. We lowered it to a touch below the treble side and he was very surprised at the difference. I have often wondered how many perfectly good pickups have been pulled out because they were too low or too high.

 

 

and it is crazy the lack of knowledge of their instrument some guitarist's have isn't it?

I couldn't imagine paying someone to do simple tech work for me...but there are many people out there that do it, and get ripped off.

[Bro Blue]

this being?

 

 

A thread with the OP in April of 2005.

[tlbonehead]

A thread with the OP in April of 2005.

holy spit. Never saw that!

[Citizen Cain]

Hahaha! Necro-posted by lessonsthatrock

 

My opinion is that if you give your pickups a lot of love and attention, but be firm with them when needed, they'll grow up just fine.

[CoqBelliqueux]