Introduction and pick up height

OllyShep

Hi guys! 

My names Olly, I'm new to the forum. Before we begin, a little about myself. I live in Northern Ireland, and I have been playing guitar as long as I can remember. My dad is largely into music, and mostly plays mandolin. I have built up quite a few guitars over the years, notably my Martin LX1E, and the guitar I need a little help with, which is a custom Strat style, with Kahler tremolo and EMG pick ups. I play most music, however my favourite style to play is mainly heavy metal, such as GNR and Metallica. 

Back to the point, I have had the custom Strat for a few years now, but I have never properly set it up. I am the kind to learn and do things myself, as opposed to paying for a pro to do it. I am going to spend an afternoon this week totally overhauling the guitar, adjusting the truss rod, action, intonation etc, however I do not have much idea about adjusting the pick ups to the correct height. I have looked on countless forums for more information, but most posts seem to be about Les Paul style guitars with 2 humbuckers, or Strat style with 3 single coils. My guitar is set up with a single coil EMG in the neck, a second single coil in the middle, and a humbucker in the bridge.

What would be the best way to set this up, and what sort of things should I be checking? 

Olly. 

Rabs

Well I don't think in general there are any standard settings... mostly because we are all different and all want different sounds from our guitars.

What I do is just do it the simple way..  Plug the guitar in to an amp (clean) and lay it down on a table or your knees...  Strum the strings and listen for what you want to hear..  If you don't like what you are hearing lower or raise the pickups a bit and strum again till you do.

The only real rule is that if you have the pickups too close to the strings the pickups can actually pull on them a bit which can either cause buzzing or just general deadness in the strings...

Apart from that... just trust your ears 

What I generally look for when listening is being able to hear the full range of sounds from lows to highs... You know a nice rounded sound..  Not too bassy, not too bright...  But if you are a heavy player you may want it more bright which is why it is actually best for a player to set that themselves...

The kicker I have found is that my taste is constantly changing as I learn more, so the sound that's in my head changes too, thus the eternal chase for tone

HAL9000

Welcome.

As @Rabs says, too close to the strings and the magnetic pull will dampen the strings, or will even pull them enough to affect the intonation.

I've found that setting the pickups so that the poles are about 3/16" below the strings is a good starting point. I then usually drop the bass side about another 1/16" to balance the string volumes out a bit. Finally, if any pickups are noticeably louder (ie a humbucker v a single coil) then I will gradually lower that pickup until switching between pickups doesn't result in any unwanted changes in volume.

richardhomer

Probably worth mentioning that most EMGs have very low magnetic 'pull' and can be set much closer to the strings without causing intonation issues or poor tone.

guitars4you

richardhomer said:

Probably worth mentioning that most EMGs have very low magnetic 'pull' and can be set much closer to the strings without causing intonation issues or poor tone.

They can be set closer due to less magnetic pull, but if to close and you hit the strings harder you'll still hear a nasty initial attack, especially on the bass string side - if you tolerate this then fine, if not then time to back of a touch on the height, again more so on the bass side - You'll hear it - no use setting the guitar up with say soft strokes, then hitting hit hard when actually playing it - set it up as you mean to play it

@ollysheep - you state I am going to spend an afternoon this week totally overhauling the guitar, adjusting the truss rod, action, intonation etc, however I do not have much idea about adjusting the pick ups to the correct height.

a guitar is not a bike or an engine, so whilst it might need some cleaning and maintenance, you do not need to re-set intonation and truss rod if they are already okay - You might want to clean bridge saddles and ensures bridge height and intonation screws still adjust and clean accordingly, but if truss rod is fine then no maintenance required

Fez

As @guitars4you points out you may find no adjustment is required and "if it ain't broke don't fix it" applies. While it is good to check the guitar over once in a while you may well find that a clean up and a new set of strings is all it needs to bring it back to life. Rosewood fretboards often benefit from a little boiled linseed oil or lemon oil while you have the strings off.

Roland

I prefer to adjust the pickups with the guitar in a normal playing position. There are reasons for this. First, I can actually play the guitar when testing, and secondly because it's easy to see the pickup height. 

As as others have said, start with the neck pickup, and lower it. 1/4" string clearance on the bass side is a good starting point if it will go that far. Then adjust the treble side until you get the bass/treble volume balance that suits your playing. You need a clean amp for this. Next set the bridge pickup height so that you get the right bass/treble balance, and the right volume balance with the neck pickup. Start with a clean amp, and when you are happy with the clean balance then check it with your normal overdriven sound. You need to check with both clean and overdriven amp settings because they usually have different EQs, and the neck to bridge balance may be different. The height you settle on may be a compromise. Now you can start raising the middle pickup until you get the volume balance which you want. This is even more of a compromise on a Strat because you've got neck to middle, middle to bridge, and the two in-between sounds to consider (neck and middle, middle and bridge).

steamabacus

I'd recommend buying a copy of "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great" by Dan Erlewine - an excellent reference manual for basic guitar setup. There is also the older "Guitar Player Repair Guide" by the same author which covers pretty much every guitar repair/setup situation (it is assembled from Guitar Player articles so is not the best laid out book but it's pretty much all in there).

RandallFlagg

Welcome @OllyShep I hope you enjoy the discussion on here. 

I start with the manufacturers recommended specs for pickup height and then, as posted above, at a fair playing volume, adjust through an amp with no effects or reverb to balance the volumes and tweak the tone. I take a few goes at this as ear fatigue soon occurs when listening so closely.

OllyShep

Thanks for all the comments and advice guys!

@RandallFlagg Unfortunately since the guitar was a total custom build I have no manufacturers recommendations.

I will tweak about with this over the next few days and let you know how I get on!