Pickup height vs. pole height?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gear_Junky
  • Start date Start date
Gear_Junky said:
RogueTitan, thanks for the input. I hope you can take a little constructive criticism (nothing personal): that essay, although written with newbies in mind, would not be helpful to either a newbie or someone with experience. It doesn't explain what "overadjusting" means (getting it too close to strings) and also "why" it's bad - that makes things very simple and making sense, because, like you said, it ain't rocket science :)
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If you get a pickup too close to the strings, its magnetic field will influence the vibration of the strings in unpleasant ways. You'll hear a sort of warbling overtone especially when you play a single string. This is called "stratitis" by many folks because the single coil pickups on Strats are especially prone to this. Some people look for the sweet spot by adjusting their pickups up until they start hearing this effect and then backing off a bit.
 
rayc said:
Oh, I did look in a couple of books as well as online - the sources were, similarly, ambiguous and lacking scientific rigour and not in total agreement - cross referencing a piece of information before broadcasting it is important unless you qualify it with "I believe...", "I think...", "IMO.." et cetera or in castlerock's case (sorry to use you as an example CR) "it's always been my understanding that..."
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hey, no worries ray. the instant i click the submit button my posts become public property anyway. ;)
 
i think the main reason to it is because of different neck radius, and bridge radius.

while most people measure pickup height by pressing down on the low E/HIgh E string at the highest fret, and measure the distance between the bottom of the string....to the top of the pickup pole piece. This will only be a good balance of distance for the E strings........what about all the ones in between?

thats why you can adjust the pole pieces.....for balance. Now you can measure all individual pole pieces and adjust accordingly.

EXAMPLE: some people like to have a distance of 2 mm between the string and low E/high E pole piece. If you measure the other strings pole pieces, youll notice they are at about 2.5 to 3mm in distance. You can now raise the other strings pole pieces so all strings can measure at 2mm from string to pickup pole piece for all strings. This will give an even balance sound.

.......ever notice why fender strat pickups have the G and B pole pieces raised?....thats to compensate for the neck radius. Fender starts have a bigger radius than most guitars.......this helps balance the sound out.
 
rayc, behind your very hard-to-read written style :) is a quite valid point. but that's what happens when musicians try to talk about scientific stuff (and it's ok that most musicians are not scientists).

but i've always felt that most things in music (at least tone/sound) can be described in scientific terms, because they are all measureable. even the tube amp "magic" is not magic and can be explained/graphed/measured and even simulated to a degree (Tech 21).

Torpid-x came close to the type of answer I was looking for, except it's theory (i have a few), but I was looking for folks who tried and know what happens (can be expected).

And yes, regradless of type of pickup/guitar, the same "changes" can be expected by pulling closer/further, etc.
 
Ok, No hard feelings, but I think your writing style is more pretentious and insolent (in that particular posting) than pompous, but pompous did come to mind before I saw it under your name. I do have a large working vocabulary myself but, effective communication is choosing words that your target audience will understand, touching up with an occasional word, if it is the best way to bring the point home, ask an english teacher.

That said, my theory... is by scientific trial and error, (hey, I'm a tonal scientist ;) ) I used the phrase "single coil tone" by which, I meant a thinner brighter tone with a sharper attack or simply "choppier". I use a bit of this adjustment myself (about 1/8" out of the housing) as the starting point.

My camera is in for repair, when I get it back I will try to post pics of my set-up. I invite others to do the same with an explanation of the tonal qualities they found, if any, and what they like about that set-up. We'll get to the bottom of this mystery yet!

The vid was ok, not really my style of humor, but ok. I liked the ending the best, wish it didn't cut off so quick.
 
Hi Torp.,
In my 1st post I was being a dag - I read looking for an answer & it wasn't there so I tried to be clever. Failed misreably too.
My 2nd post was just improvising on your comment & being as big a dag as possible.
If you suss out almost any other posts by me you might find I'm quite a reasonable bloke and type conversationally.
As said I was being a mega dag. (dag: the fleece under a sheep's tail usually knotted, faeces ridden & fly blown).
I do want to find a fairly clear answer as I bought a 2nd hand guitar that had a VERY odd pole set up - amongst other things two poles had been removed. The guitar had a unique tone & I'm trying to duplicate it.
 
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