Pickup Height Adjustment

I found Lindy's adjustment a bit hit-and-miss. On a 5-position Strat I will start with the neck pickup, pretty much as he did. But then I go for position 4 - neck and middle. Now I adjust the middle pickup for the degree of strat Quack I want - that is achieved by exact balance. The middle pickup is now right, so I hit position 2 and adjust the neck pickup, again for quack.

His way, frankly you are just hoping that the Strat will sound the way a Strat should.
 
DonP said:
I found Lindy's adjustment a bit hit-and-miss. On a 5-position Strat I will start with the neck pickup, pretty much as he did. But then I go for position 4 - neck and middle. Now I adjust the middle pickup for the degree of strat Quack I want - that is achieved by exact balance. The middle pickup is now right, so I hit position 2 and adjust the neck pickup, again for quack.

His way, frankly you are just hoping that the Strat will sound the way a Strat should.
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I've found strat pickups vary widely in how strong the magnets are. If you adjust the pickups too high you have all sorts of problems, especially with intonation and "wolf tones". I start with all the pickups very low, almost even with the pickguard. I then adjust the intonation. As I adjust the pickup heights higher I keep checking the intonation. With some pickups adjusting for the best tone will make it impossible to set the intonation correctly. Intonation on a strat is hard enough to get right so I go for intonation over tone most of the time.
 
Kerry Brown said:
I've found strat pickups vary widely in how strong the magnets are. If you adjust the pickups too high you have all sorts of problems, especially with intonation and "wolf tones". I start with all the pickups very low, almost even with the pickguard. I then adjust the intonation. As I adjust the pickup heights higher I keep checking the intonation. With some pickups adjusting for the best tone will make it impossible to set the intonation correctly. Intonation on a strat is hard enough to get right so I go for intonation over tone most of the time.
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Good idea!
 
Kerry Brown said:
I've found strat pickups vary widely in how strong the magnets are. If you adjust the pickups too high you have all sorts of problems, especially with intonation and "wolf tones". I start with all the pickups very low, almost even with the pickguard. I then adjust the intonation. As I adjust the pickup heights higher I keep checking the intonation. With some pickups adjusting for the best tone will make it impossible to set the intonation correctly. Intonation on a strat is hard enough to get right so I go for intonation over tone most of the time.
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Intonation will only tell you if you have the pickups way too high. It won't tell you when they are right - that does take tone.
 
DonP said:
Intonation will only tell you if you have the pickups way too high. It won't tell you when they are right - that does take tone.
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It's a balance with some guitars. I've seen the best tone with the pickups high enough to affect intonation. Sustain can also be affected. It depends on the guitar and the pickups. I agree most of time the best tone is not high enough to affect intonation but I always check, especially with strats.
 
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