PAF Pickups: How to adjust PAF Humbucker Pickups (Perfectly!) 

I am forever grateful that you used the metric system instead of some weird ass confusing .5 5ths of a quarter 32nd of an inch BS

I’ve spent countless hours fine tuning this until i realize that I’ve been at it all day and didn’t even actually play. It’s an obsession that only pays off if you can just stop and play at some point lol

The "boomy" neck pickup in a Les Paul can be problematic as you end up with a fuzz-wolf note if you play with enough distortion...especially on the bottom end. I end up lowering the pole pieces a bit as well as lowering the bass end of the pickup but I keep the top side higher to get searing Gary Moore leads...I always test the tremble end up to the 22 fret bend up to E as this is good indication for me that I have the pickup too high...It should scream on the bend if its good enough, it disappears in output if its too high OR too low....So, that my guide. My 2 cents..Great video!! A good tip: Don't be alarmed if your neck pickup ends BELOW the ring on the bass side....Gary's Stripe 59' is in a similar fashion....Sometimes it's necessary.

Thanks for sharing this. Frankly, I've driven myself crazy with this aspect of tone-chasing. And, now that I've watched this, I'll probably waste more time splitting hairs again soon! The other variable is that each guitar, and, each pup sound so different at different amp volumes and gain settings.

people don't realize how important pickup position is to tone. i decided to lower my neck pickup. i found a nice airy tone, but you have to get it just right. any bit of turn for heigh adjustment ruins it. so damn sensitive.

I like seeing the process, but I have a difficult time hearing many of the differences in tone and volume in the video. I've been looking at videos to try and help me with adjusting a mini humbucker in the neck and balancing with a tele bridge. Very informative demo, thank you.

You'll never really be satisfied, you eventually just settle or break your guitar...

WOW , an American !!! I watched 8 or 10 videos before I got an American. I was beginning to believe that only Britts knew how to adjust there pick-ups !!! LOL

Nice approach but I wish you had spent time on the under appreciated middle position! My preferred method is to dial-in the bridge first, same way you did, then adjust the neck based on the middle setting. Looking for the maximum “chirpy” center. Play the main riff from The Ocean for reference! The neck pickup usually is fine and can be fine-tuned with its pole-screws. My $0.02!

Thank you for this, loved the fullness of my timbuckers but struggled with the lack of clarity, now it sounds perfect

I really respect the amount of research you have put into your PAF pickups - You have given me a couple Ideas in reference to bobbin design and winding im going to explore - Thankyou!

This is finally everything i wanted to know about this ! Best you can find in the whole damned big Internet Many thanks , perfect ! and i never, ever write comments.....

Thanks man!!!! Shalom from Flathead Lake MONTANA USA!!

Thank you for taking the time to provide this excellent and detailed video. I’m going to get right on this with my guitars.

I found the volume needs to be cranked up a bit so you can feel and hear the clarity or out of control tones that the sound is blurred and lose all clarity ! Strumming will help you also just so you can hear it out of control totally ! Then your normal playing style you stay with will tell you how dynamic or weak some notes become , then adjust the height up on the pickup just before it becomes less clear sounding but still strong or lower the height when it sounds to blurred or the notes glare to be harsh ! Slide players will set the height to suit there touch and style of tones they seek and tend to play with pickups nearly full volume !

i ajust a paf a way that it sounds almost like a single coil.. hight pole pieces and drop down de pickups.. pole pieces higher on small strings.. gives me alot of dynamics and vintage sound.. its personal but i like humbuckers for that precise tone that i get with them.. no noise. dynamics like a single coil. good punch on small strings.

This was a great explanation of how to adjust pickup height. Especially dialing the middle position and the poll screws. I could hear the differences and agree with their descriptions. Your little lick rubbing off on me was a bonus.

Thanks for your help! Made my LP go from ‘meh’ to awesome!

Finally a gentleman who gets it. Soooooooo many so called pick up/guitar “set up” persons only use a number,/masurement, and that is not the best way to go. And wayyy to many set the pick up to high, and dont get the best out of the instrument. Get a good starting point, and then tune by ear. It can take some time, but its worth it.

This is the most important thing for a grate sound .Works only in a good amplifier and it is also personal depending on the way the player uses the pick ...

Ah, good to know you are just as insane as I am :)

Thanks for such a thorough video! You recommend starting with all the pole pieces just above the cover and flat, with no radius. I will try this. For whatever reason, I always tried to match the radius then adjust from there.

A couple of weeks ago, my lovely wife gifted me a 2020 Gibson Les Paul Standard Unburst. A beautiful guitar! Wanting to do the right thing, I took it to my local music shop where I take all of my equipment and had the luthier set it up. I picked it up yesterday. I came home, fired it up and it sounded just great, as it always does. Today I watched this video. I then took my new guitar and spent about 90 minutes doing exactly how Jon Gundry explained to do. When I was done I couldn't believe the tone that I heard. Just Unbelievable!! I've never own a guitar that sounded that good. I've heard a lot of great sounding Les Paul's in my life time, I'm 65 years old, but I've never own one, until now. Don't get me wrong, my guitars have put out beautiful tones in the past. But this new one I spent the time with and did it to the best of my abilities, I was rewarded. Now, I will gladly do my other guitars knowing what awaits me. Thank you Jon Gundry, I very much appreciate the time you spent making this video so we can all enjoy a great sounding guitar. You have a friend in me for life.

Very useful tips on pickup height adjustment.. helped me to finally adjust the pickup heights on my HH mustang and SSS Strat according to my needs.. thank you so much!

Thanks for the video, setting up the pickups is often underrated. I tried removing the cover and lowering the screws for the bridge pickup so they were level with the slugs in the outer coil and moving the whole pickup towards the strings. The idea being I wanted to hear more from the slug coil and get a fatter bridge pickup sound. Does this sound feasible? I was surprised you didn't have Gibson Historic, I don't know anything about the heritage guitar so excuse my ignorance. What is the story with Heritage guitar?

It kind of annoys me when I see comments on videos/posts about setting pickup height saying "I've never used/never use measurements, just set it how it sounds good". Generally speaking, people looking for advice on setting pickup height are inexperienced with setting it and are looking for a neutral/balanced place to start from. They haven't formed an opinion on what sounds "right" or "good". Also, if you've always set your pickup height according to what sounds good to you and have never taken time to try someone else's settings or listen to their explanation of why they set it a particular way, it means you're speaking from a position of ignorance and probably shouldn't be patting yourself on the back about it. For instance, it is intuitive that when you set pickups lower the volume will be lower, but it isn't necessarily intuitive that it will lead to greater clarity. If someone has been setting their pickups and thinking "that sounds good to me" but only been taking into account volume balance, potentially they could have spent years swapping out pickups looking for a set with greater clarity/articulation when all they needed to do was lower their pickups a tad. Yes, taste is subjective, but to a point. If you like what something sounds like, post a video of it and get 400 dislikes and 0 likes, it most likely doesn't sound good in as close to objective terms as is possible. There's probably someone out there that finds the sound of nails on a chalkboard soothing, but due to the overwhelming amount of people that don't feel that way, you can safely make the statement that it objectively isn't a soothing sound. Someone inexperienced with setting pickup height may also not realise problems that can arise when setting the pickup too high. Due to the magnetic pull on the string, it will actually alter the pitch slightly, which for the vast majority of people is undesirable. Without this knowledge and without prior experience, they might think "I really like how fat my pickups sound when I raise them". They might later find they're having what they perceive as an intonation problem and start fruitlessly trying to fix it because they don't know what is causing it.

Thankks a lot ;) VERY EFFICIENT TRICKS PAL

My bridge ainico 5 humbucker sounds too open. How can I focus it better? My neck is perfect.

Thanks for using Metrics.

Sometimes when u lower the neck pickup on a les paul too much u begin to lose to volume and bridge pickup seems to be louder, so u really have to go by ears to have a suitable preference to ur playing style. Seeing the way u adjust those pickups can make someone slightly mad or OCD

does pole screws affect brightness?

Les Paul neck pickups are usually too boomy and I think a pickup with less bass and more mids and highs is a solution.

I 'll would like to set my gibson like slash. Can you give some tips. Grettings. From mexico

Great video. Once you hit the sweet spot, the magic happens. It can take a while. The sweet spot has little marge within 0,2 mm. You’ll hear it when you’re there. Awesome. Thanks for these other way of setting up PAF’s

I use the ernie ball skinny top heavy bottom which has a thick 6th string I adjust the base line heights and since the 6th string thick the bridge pick up is lop sided..the high e is much lower than the low e..that is ok? my setting become close as yours...

thanks for the great video. One of my guitars is a Robin Savoy, with a BBQ Bucker in the bridge, and a Genuine Texas in the neck. both have vintage construction and the neck pick up is middle-of-the-road output and the bridge is more on the higher output. Over the years, making adjustments and trying different strings, things just haven't been sounding quite right. Did some tweaking per your video last night and I'm really liking the sound on getting out. Thanks!

I use a drill and set it just like a feeler gauge.

Enjoyed your video. Besides volume and tone variation by modifying the pickup height, you also get a different perception of overtones and harmonics by playing chords. I have 3 main guitars with humbuckers that I have worked on quite a lot to achieve satisfying results. Question: is the slight buzz normal when releasing contact from your hands on the strings ? I thought it was a grounding problem as 2 out of the 3 guitars don't have it… or is it coming from the pickups ? Unpotted ? Asymmetrical bobbins ? Or else magnet orientation ? Shielding ? I can live with it but it bothers me now and then to hear that slight buzz when I release the grip, or having to zero the volume pot to avoid it. I found a way around it by keeping my settings and using a volume pedal. Just curious to know ;-) Thank you for enlightening me ! Cheers

This is a really fantastic video. Such a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing. I'm curious (and maybe I missed it): What amp was used in making this tutorial?

helo ,how you seting pickup height for hss guitar ?

Help, i don't know whats wrong with my guitar, its sound bassy, the output sounds have more bass in it, so what i do is lower the bass on the amp, but i think somethings wrong

This is soooo typical of what I go though with final setup, but it gets easier after you train your ears and get more experience with a lot of different guitars and setups. And then the next day your ears have "changed" and you do it all over again. Anything to get that sweet spot. I think a lot of players swap pickups out without really mastering this simple but somewhat time consuming detail. I have adjusted a lot of 100 dollar pickup sets and they sound great with the correct setup.

The final result is fantastic!

Must the pickup always remain parallel to the strings? And do you ever start this and get sort of mixed up and start over lol? I can see me muddying everything up to the point I wish I had a reset button 😀 and what are you playing through? I’m sure it’s a tube but what effects and/or amp etc? Thanks so much

krazy question?? and thanks for the great video...If u got a vintage burst you would replace the pickups with throwbacks?? I noticed all the guitars u removed the pups??? are the vintage pickups no longer valid today?? thanks!!

I often raise all the poles on my neck pickups, because I like how it sounds

Thanks. Your video is like being home on a subject somehow threatening for most of us... well for me at least...! great way of illustrating without just saying x.xx her and y.yy there. Loved it

I’m hoping to warm up the bridge pick up of my twin

Wow, great video. Super detailed , and very informative. Thanks so much

excellent video and explanation thank you sir! btw i have your stone bender and overdrive boost, and they are some of the best pedals I've ever played!!!

How about setting your amp to a CLEAN setting at moderate volume before making adjustments? All that fuzz masks the clarity you seek.

That’s crazy. Gibson factory has a method and specs for pickups high and they are not the same high on the lower E and the high E strings. Check the Gibson channel.For distance between the pickup and the strings this is the easy method as a general rule; BRIDGE: Use a dime for the low E and a penny for the high E. Neck: Nickel for the low E and a penny for the high E. Worked great on my guitar.

Nicely explained. I subscribed! 😷🤗❤️👍🖖🤘👋😷

Those pickups in that guitar sound excellent!

Amazing demonstration. Thank you for all your time!

Nice tooltips here on the paf; take care and be safe.

Thanks for this great video! How high do you set your Humbucker Sized P90s? Just got yours! :)

Great video Very informative Thanks

Any advice for adjusting pickups and pole pieces on sg standard with pickups mounted in pick guard

Thank you for the video! Can the pickup height affect string tension and buzz from the strings?

I chuckled when, after talking about “clarity”, you proceeded to do all the adjustments with the amp settings dialed for distortion. I guess it makes sense if that’s the kind of sound you typically use, but it just struck me as funny. Anyhow, I get the basic concepts, which hopefully should apply with the clean amp settings I use. Thanks for the info!

Jon; I love the fast motion bits.. kinda like old movies.. DB BTW, coming to NAMM again in 2019? Pyramid's going to have a booth this next year.

THANKS. Greetings from CHILE.

You had me, on the edge of my seat. Thinking you’d just keep see-sawing the pickups, until the end of the video… whew😂 I’ve watched some five, or six videos that “radius” the pole pieces. Personally, I don’t think that’s a good final solution. It’s merely a good starting point.

Thank you Sir! This is a great tutorial!

Really nice video and good job! And what tip could you give about adjusting p90? On my guitar I can’t leave them with full and warm tone, the sound is very thin too bright for my preference. Should I put the low E side and the high e side and with the same distance in millimeters or the low E side and have to stay lower? Last question: If I place the pickups too close to the strings does that make the tone much lower or higher, thinner or more fat? Thanks

Nice advice thank you.

Great info and thank you for this very much. You’re a wealth of info!

Thanks!

Great and convincing demo, thanks for sharing. There was a point where I felt you found Oscar ;-) I am curious about the pole screws , I remember reading (Duchaussoir’s) that McCarty was saying the poles screws were very important for the p90 but just for decorum on the HB. Also what is you amp?

Can you make a video clean sound with neck and bridge

yO U can turn the screws & not ruin the pickup? never knew that. - btw, Does have a PAF COvered picup sound more muffled than a Non covered one?

I wish you have Gibson studio guitar 🎸 and show the MM from the neck and bridge high and using a Roland JC120 amp or Fender twin amp

when you making these adjustments. Whats your amp settings at?

i find my es 339 PAF's need to be around 4mm low. Any higher ands they're annoyingly harsh.I'm currently a bed room musician so I'm unsure of whether I'll need them higher to cut through when I play out again. they're Gibson MHS 2 a5. Gibson's recommendations ARE WAYYY too high for my taste

Great video and advice. For the neck pickup, it's 4 and a half mm in height or lower and the high E is a hair under 4mm? What about the low E string? I didn't really get it. Thanks...

1mm=0.03937 of an inch. Roughly a little more than a 1/32 of an inch which =0.03125.

Say the MM that is on now

A newbie question. . . Does the pickup cover rise and fall along with the adjustments you make when adjusting pickup height?

Each to their own thing. I've never understood using any kind of ruler. I can see 2mm or 4mm close enough and the rest of it is all about how it sounds. Balancing the mix between two p/ups is entirely a matter of listening, isn't it? Of course I don't do it often but when ever I have done it, I've used a completely clear and clean sound and new or near-new strings. It's easy enough but I tend to play the guitar normally to check what I'm doing. All the strings, all the way across and all over the f/bd. There's no great hurry to it after all. I don't "see" that radius thing on the pole screws either - the thicker bottom E doesn't mean it gives a stronger signal because the core is the magnetic bit. Same with all the wound strings so matching the F/board radius doesn't mean a thing. Just do it by ear and if it's wrong, it's seconds to change it - or a week later - whatever. Quite often the only thing is to wind in the "D" a fraction on both p/ups because it's magnetically quite a lot stronger than it's neighbours but - small moves. An untidy line of pole screws is an untidy sound. Thanks for the video.

I am just about to buy a set of sle 101 mxv plus for my new les paul 60s neck do I need to change the orange caps inside the wiring cavity.

Thank you Jon

Great.

I would like your opinion on original paf pickups when some original 57 gibsons are played with original pickups the guitar sounds bright I've found being an EE that magnets loose their strength over time and with pickups that usually means a lack of bass I think those magnets should be re magnetized what do you think?

It's all very interesting but I'm struggling to understand the concept of finding the tone and clarity, you want, by setting the pickups and the poles with open strings. Surely, as soon as you start fretting chords that string to pickup relationship will change again. i.e., as you play further up the fretboard, the string to pole distance reduces.

Poles crews should be same radius as the neck I have been told and it made sence to me.

I enjoy watching you and the way you explain it is so easy to follow. Thank you and Merry Christmas to you

Can you get a looper pedal and loop the notes you're playing then take note of the height. This way you can hear how it sounds compared to the new adjustment, then if new adjustment sounds better then loop that then repeat, or does the looper lose sound when it records?

Real simple.. Put them where they sound best to you

What about adjusting the pole pieces with the same radius of the fingerboard?

Thanks! What's the average neck profile on the 67/68 335's? Thick or thin?

Thanks for the informative video. I thought that you should always adjust your pickup's pole pieces to match the radius of your bridge. Not so?

It really does depend on your style, sound type and the pickups you are using but I find so many people set their pickups way too high and its like yelling into a close vocal mic. On my Les Paul I ended up with about 4mm neck and 3mm bridge open string using ears and not measurements to judge.

Why not adjust the pickup until you get the high that you liked, then raise the poles on the low end?

Really helpful!

x1.25 speed required but great vid

Have to buy a mm scale so I don’t have to do the conversion. It’s a pain.

how about SG?

Is it possible to lower the neck pickup, especially a particularly low output one, to the point that you're losing clarity? I've got a set of Bare Knuckle Mules in a PRS that's giving me issues. Bridge sounds great, neck is aaaaaaall bass.

How do you set up the tone controls on the amp?