Strat pickup height/spacing
Lee M. Bollard
from the strings when the string is depressed on the last fret. The manual
that came with the guitar says this measurement should be 1/16 in.
What do you experienced guitar players recommend for string/pickup
spacing on strats?
William Ferring | ferring@ms.uky.edu
As close as possible without buzzing (especially with EMG's etc).
JP M{kel{
Bollard) writes:
--
There are two things in pickup height. First, nearer the pickup to the
string, stronger the signal: as Fender pu's don't have adjustable polepieces,
only way to adjust volume inbalance between high and low strings is to
raise or lower either end of the pu. Similarly, if you like some pu to
be louder (or quieter) than others, raise (or lower) it.
Another thing is that the pickup shouldn't touch a vibrating string;
adjust the height to prevent that.
In general, there are no fixed right measurements. All depends on particular
guitar, playing style and desired sound. Eric Clapton used to have neck and
middle pu's bass side on the pickguard level, and treble side as high as
possible.
Hope this helps.
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Ian Dickens
Yes, but you don't want the pickups to be pulling the string out of tune.
--
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Dennis O'Neill
> I just got an American Standard Strat and the pickups are about 1/2 inch
> from the strings when the string is depressed on the last fret. The manual
> that came with the guitar says this measurement should be 1/16 in.
>
> What do you experienced guitar players recommend for string/pickup
> spacing on strats?
Depends on the pickups.
For original-style pickups, with exposed magnets for polepieces, I always
found that I had to have to pickups farther away from the strings than I might
have liked, because the magnetic field would interfere with the vibration
of the string, making it sound out of tune (the so-called Stratitis).
For newer-style pickups, e.g., Lace sensors, the magnetic pull doesn't
seem to be a problem, so adjust for balance, i.e., so that one pickup
is not noticably louder than another (unless that's what you want) and
for mechanical reasons, i.e., so that the pickups and strings never touch.
Jim Muller
> Yes, but you don't want the pickups to be pulling the string out of tune.
I've also heard that too high a pickup height will reduce sustain. It
would seem that both of these effects, sustain and tuning, require rather
substantial magnetic impact of the pickup on the string vibration, i.e. a
pretty strong force. Is this a reality? Does it have that much effect?
--
- Jim Muller
Mark The Nose Knows Feit
I've also heard that too high a pickup height will reduce sustain. It
would seem that both of these effects, sustain and tuning, require rather
substantial magnetic impact of the pickup on the string vibration, i.e. a
pretty strong force. Is this a reality? Does it have that much effect?
Yes and no. Magnetic pickups do have some effect on the strings, but
it does more to change the sound than the tuning. If you ever have an
opportunity to play a guitar with an optical pickup (like the QED),
you'll hear the difference almost immediately. For a solid-body, it
sounds remarkably like an acoustic, just without the resonance of the
hollow body.
The vibration of the strings with a magnetic pickup is somewhat
damped, but only in one direction. The string wil move closer to the
pickup when it is headed in that direction, but won't move quite as
far in the other direction since the pickup's magnet is still pulling
on it. The results are almost insignificant, but they _do_ contribute
to the "electric" sound.
--
- Mark
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