Pickup Height

[rnolan]

So learnt a new rule of thumb the other day, well new to me LoL.  So my guitar builder advised (while slightly lowering the Bridge PU in my JPLP) that the distance you want between the PU and string is approx 1/3 of the height of the PU coil.  Further you obviously loose output, but closer (as mine was) chokes the strings.  And sure enough, when I got home and tried it, my bridge burst bucker (which I never liked before) sounded much better .

So I always used to try to get the PU as close to the strings as possible chasing higher output

[Dante]

I've never heard of that ratio, very handy. I have experimented (probably too much) with all my pickup heights....it makes a huge difference 

[Iperfungus]

I use ears to define pickups height, from guitar to guitar.
I've no a precise rule...but this cannot be explained: it's just how THAT guitar plays at a certain point....her G-Spot! 

[Iperfungus]

I've never heard of that ratio, very handy. I have experimented (probably too much) with all my pickup heights....it makes a huge difference

A BIG difference, indeed!
You can kill or revive a guitar.

A few years ago, a friend of mine brought me his friend's Strat.
The owner of the guitar wanted to replace the pickups because he said the guitar didn't play.
I told him "wait and let me work".
I just adjusted the height of the pickups correctly and the voice of the guitar started to come out.
My friend's face fell in amazement and his friend kept those pickups.

[Harley Hexxe]

I'm with Max on this one...

   I used my ears to tell me where the pickups need to be for decades now. Sure, there are those places that will tell you that your pickup needs to be such-and-such distance from the string, but all of these references, including the one Richard just got, are basically starting off points. You need to use your ears to fine tune your sound, and that will be different for everyone because we all know what we want to hear from our guitars.

   For example, on almost all my Strats, my pickups are angled under the strings, meaning the pickups are much further away from the strings under the bass strings and closer under the treble strings. Why would I do this?
Simple, there is more mass with the thicker strings than the thinner ones, so with strong pickup magnets, there will be more pull on those strings than the thinner ones. I get a better volume balance and better clarity across all six strings.

  The only guitar I haven't done this to as much is the Elite Strat. Those pickups are a completely different animal. I'm still experimenting though. My ears will tell me when it's right. This is what works for me, but it may not work for anyone else.

[Dante]

Me too - each guitar gets their own treatment. Some are trebly, so that side is lower, some are more bottom-endy, they are angled the other way to compensate

I always like the way Ibanez put 3 adjustment screws in their old pickup rings, so you could adjust the angle of the pickup laterally to align with the angle of the strings

[Iperfungus]

I'm with Max on this one...

   I used my ears to tell me where the pickups need to be for decades now. Sure, there are those places that will tell you that your pickup needs to be such-and-such distance from the string, but all of these references, including the one Richard just got, are basically starting off points. You need to use your ears to fine tune your sound, and that will be different for everyone because we all know what we want to hear from our guitars.

   For example, on almost all my Strats, my pickups are angled under the strings, meaning the pickups are much further away from the strings under the bass strings and closer under the treble strings. Why would I do this?
Simple, there is more mass with the thicker strings than the thinner ones, so with strong pickup magnets, there will be more pull on those strings than the thinner ones. I get a better volume balance and better clarity across all six strings.

  The only guitar I haven't done this to as much is the Elite Strat. Those pickups are a completely different animal. I'm still experimenting though. My ears will tell me when it's right. This is what works for me, but it may not work for anyone else.

Exactly!! 
I use to angle pickups on many guitars, humbuckers as well, based on strings diameters: lower on bass side, higher on high side.
That works!

That's almost useless with active pickups or Lace Sensors, for instance.

My friend and Master Galeazzo Frudua teached me a trick to set pickups height, but you need to use a 50W tube amp at high volume on clean channel: playing a certain E major chord string by string, you start feeling a certain pressure inside your ears and that's where you've to stop setting, 'cause that's the right height for those pickups on that guitar.
You cannot always do that, if you don't want to be put in jail, of course.
But now I know how to HEAR the right setpoint even at low volume.

[Harley Hexxe]

Max,

    That's a very interesting concept using a 50 watt amp at stage volume and the 'certain' E chord you refer to.

    I'm wondering if it's the same open E that I've been using since the 80s. I play the chord with my 1st and 2nd fingers fingering an Em, but I add my 4th finger on the octave E note on the D string, (4th fret). This gives me a chord where all the notes in it are Es and Bs.

   I'll have to try that trick when I get into repairing my  MT-100s, and tune in my guitars to that.

   Thanks for sharing that tip 

[Iperfungus]

Max,

    That's a very interesting concept using a 50 watt amp at stage volume and the 'certain' E chord you refer to.

    I'm wondering if it's the same open E that I've been using since the 80s. I play the chord with my 1st and 2nd fingers fingering an Em, but I add my 4th finger on the octave E note on the D string, (4th fret). This gives me a chord where all the notes in it are Es and Bs.

   I'll have to try that trick when I get into repairing my  MT-100s, and tune in my guitars to that.

   Thanks for sharing that tip 

The chord I use it's a E7 major chord with added F# at 4th fret on the D string.

[Iperfungus]

This one!

[Harley Hexxe]

Oh okay,

   That's a E(add9).

  The chord I use is E5