Pickup Height vs. Amp Gain

Interesting how the riffs with the pup at its closest still have a lot of gain with the amps gain set at two. I was digging the chord-chugging with the pup at its closest, but single note lead playing always sounded thin and a little harsh. I preferred the medium distance pup for lead playing.
 
The problem with this is that you don't really get much choice with the bridge pickup. You set up the neck pickup for optimum sound and minimum string drag, then the bridge pickup goes where it needs to go to achieve balance. That will generally be closer to the strings rather than far away.
 
I just assembled an LP, so this was a great review for me. I was messing with pickup height this morning. Talk about timing.
Nice reference, as you can see/hear the changes while they're fresh in your mind.
 
DonP said:
The problem with this is that you don't really get much choice with the bridge pickup. You set up the neck pickup for optimum sound and minimum string drag, then the bridge pickup goes where it needs to go to achieve balance. That will generally be closer to the strings rather than far away.
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That's a good point. On a two pup guitar, if the bridge pup is set at that medium distance, the neck pup for the sake of balance might be impossible to set up properly.

Shouldn't be a problem with one of these, though...

2017-01-15 12.30.11.jpg
 
DonP said:
The problem with this is that you don't really get much choice with the bridge pickup. You set up the neck pickup for optimum sound and minimum string drag, then the bridge pickup goes where it needs to go to achieve balance. That will generally be closer to the strings rather than far away.
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If you spend more time on the bridge pup, would it be better to employ the reverse approach, maximizing the bridge for your ideal tone, or is there a reason that it is always best to optimize the neck to minimize drag?
 
RVA said:
If you spend more time on the bridge pup, would it be better to employ the reverse approach, maximizing the bridge for your ideal tone, or is there a reason that it is always best to optimize the neck to minimize drag?
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The problem with this approach is that the neck pickup has to move much further, and you are quite likely to run out of screw thread before you achieve balance. That's why I always work from neck to bridge.
 
DonP said:
The problem with this approach is that the neck pickup has to move much further, and you are quite likely to run out of screw thread before you achieve balance. That's why I always work from neck to bridge.
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That's going to be different from one set up pickups to the other, I'd say. The screws that came with my Seymour Duncans are so long, I can either raise the pickups (even the bridge pickup) so high they literally contact the strings, or I can lower them noticeably lower than the surface of the pickup rings.

But, your point is well-taken and I'm just being persnickety!
 
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DonP said:
The problem with this approach is that the neck pickup has to move much further, and you are quite likely to run out of screw thread before you achieve balance. That's why I always work from neck to bridge.
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I don't find it so. With P90 at least. I always set bridge height first, then adjust neck accordingly. Could never achieve a good quack middle position your way; I always end up with the neck sounding too much like middle position.
 
BGood said:
I don't find it so. With P90 at least. I always set bridge height first, then adjust neck accordingly. Could never achieve a good quack middle position your way; I always end up with the neck sounding too much like middle position.
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OK - I don't really know anything about P90s. I had junior with one in the early '70s but I just played that - never set it up. Since then I've only really been interested in humbuckers.
 
With a good calibrated set you should be able to set each pickup for best sound and feel individually and they should be close to balanced. Then which ever PU you use the least can be tweaked a little more for balance.

Some guitars give up the goods more easily in one position/favor one position than the other and when that's the case I've always found it best to accept that and find a way to work with it rather than fight it... or just flip the guitar it if it's not useable.
 
I took measurements on my SG when it arrived, so i could later duplicaye factory setup. The bridge humbucker was .375" up from the Batwing and the neck pickup was .150" up off the Batwing and almost dead-level side-to-side.

That's my starting point for the new Gibson 490's....IMG_20170122_1479.jpg
 
Do you seriously think that the guy at Gibson that put these pups in, measured the height to the thousandth ? And ... even if he did, it is one of a thousand heights that can produce great tone ... or not.
 
Robert Herndon said:
I tend to run pickups really low....
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I tend to prefer pickups on the lower side my self. If for some reason the pickup doesn't sound right I will move it a bit closer. But, then again, I prefer less hot pickups to begin with. By the way, those are a couple sweet single pup sg's you've posted above JohnnyGoo. And, I've been waiting for the stars to line up to get myself one the worn/satin sg's you've got listed above Robert H.
 
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