Pickup Height Les Paul?

Niallseroreilly

Whats your preference?

Rich31k

I’ve just started experimenting with this. Thought the neck pup sounded too dark, so I’ve lowered it quite a lot and raised the poles. It’s made a heck of a difference (Burstbucker Pro on Les Paul Standard). What’s your experience been?

Niallseroreilly

Rich31k said:

I’ve just started experimenting with this. Thought the neck pup sounded too dark, so I’ve lowered it quite a lot and raised the poles. It’s made a heck of a difference (Burstbucker Pro on Les Paul Standard). What’s your experience been?

Had the neck pickup quite high, was wanting a bass heavy tone, so I could get a jazzier tone, but I find them it quite loud, gonna start to experiment to see the different tones I can get.

RandallFlagg

With PAF style pickups 4mm from bottom of unfretted string to top of pickup on the neck pickup and 2mm on the bridge pickup. measure and adjust both outer strings. 

Corvaldt

I am having this dilemma also at the moment (nice problem to have). About 6 months into my new Les Paul and ready for some tweaking! I think I might drop the bridge a bit as it needs tamed, maybe by a mm or two. 

johnhe

For aggressive tones, I like the pickups close to the strings. For more vintagey tones, I like them backed off quite a bit. It make a big difference to the sound in my opinion. I always go by ear, rather than by someone else’s recommended measurement to be honest.

Yamaha77

Start  with neck pickup flush with the mounting ring then adjust the bridge for volume balance and picking response. Adjust poles for individual balance and cut.

Slash'N'burn

My neck pickup was quite low when I got it ('57 classics, paf type) it sounded great, clear no muddiness, since I had it setup both pickups have been raised, especially high at the treble side - so i'm going to drop them back down and have a play/listen. Too close and the pull of the pickups can actually reduce sustain.

Have a look at youtube videos of people playing the old bursts, the paf pickups always look set really low. for reference I read somewhere that Slash has his neck pickup at 5.5mm from the bottom of the strings, and bridge 3.2mm.

rlw

Realistically, who can measure 5.5mm or 3.2mm accurately and reliably on something as moveable as a high E string?

Slash'N'burn

rlw said:

Realistically, who can measure 5.5mm or 3.2mm accurately and reliably on something as moveable as a high E string?

It was probably converted from inch measurements, as fractions marked on a ruler.

rlw

Slash'N'burn said:

rlw said:

Realistically, who can measure 5.5mm or 3.2mm accurately and reliably on something as moveable as a high E string?

It was probably converted from inch measurements, as fractions marked on a ruler.

But still bloody hard to read and measure.   Somebody gave me a couple of picks which I use to measure string height over frets but even then the string deflect so easily that 1.2mm could easily be 1.5mm......................

Sound is the only way, although obviously a rough measure is important too.

ESBlonde

Wind the pickup all the way down away from the strings. Now pick a few strings and listen to the decay, increase the height 1/2 turn and repeat, at one height the note will start to decay and then bloom again before dying off, thats the sweet spot. You need to get the balance accross the strings right too. You can repeat this on the neck PU or just balance it against the bridge for volume.

rlw

ESBlonde said:

Wind the pickup all the way down away from the strings. Now pick a few strings and listen to the decay, increase the height 1/2 turn and repeat, at one height the note will start to decay and then bloom again before dying off, thats the sweet spot. You need to get the balance accross the strings right too. You can repeat this on the neck PU or just balance it against the bridge for volume.

That's a good tip.  Works for P90s too?

Adey

Is it just me, but with most pickups these days having just the usual two adjustment screws, it's impossible to set the pickups parallel to the strings. They normally end up at the angle they want, not what I want.