The correct Pickup Height for your Guitar 

Here is what I found. If you roll the volume off and it sounds like you turned it all the way to zero, before you hit zero, then PU's are too far away. Set it on about 2 and adjust them to the level you think 2 should be, or want 2 to be. Then check what it sounds like on 10. Mine hit spot on. 2 should be pretty quiet, but not gone. And it shouldn't be loud, or even moderate, 5 should be moderate. Work up from 2, and 10 will work it self out.

Who knew Ned Stark had such good guitar advice

Its like what sounds better. Putting your ear right up against the speaker? Or giving yourself some distace to get all of the tone. Boom. There you go.

Dude! Dont trust Littlefinger!

I was mesmerized by the spinning screwdriver and didn't hear a word you said, Bummer.

Great video, Dave! ...New subcriber here. Excellent tip.. lower your pickups and definitely adjust them when playing with live volume and playing with the rest of the band! Been doing that for over 40+ years! Most of the time I have to raise only the high E screw a tad closer to the string. Old fart

"The Boys Are Back In Town Down At Dino's Bar And Grill " :)

Whoa ! When did Ned Stark pick up guitars ?

I just lowered the pickup on my SG to about 4mm on the bridge. The difference is huge. It’s much easier to coax dynamics out, and I’m also hearing a far richer tone. Less output, but a lot more clarity and harmonic content.

I have guitar with active pickup and it's not my cup of tea. I lowered bridge super low and the neck is deep beneath pickup ring and finally they sound more i want them to.

I bought a new guitar a couple of weeks ago and I could not figure out why I couldn't get the intonation set and stable. Then I noticed the pickups were set too close to the strings from the factory......soon as I backed them off to about 1/8th of an inch hey presto intonated fine.

adjust the pole pieces to match the contour of the neck then raise or lower the pickups. the output sweet spot will produce leveled harmonics between the strings !

So this is good stuff So I had a friend who I used to listen to and he always set his guitar trebbly But when the bar filled the sound bounced on the people and Bassed and he sounded great. It also depends how high your speakers are off the floor .and are you one who goes to the back of the hall with a long cable and listens to your self . It all personal preference but if the sound is good Great and if your awsum Great Very interesting Points good vid

I've always been primarily an acoustic guitar player, so dynamics are a huge part of my toolkit.. after watching this, it's got me thinking that one of my electrics in particular really suffers from everything being the same volume all the time, which makes it feel pretty lifeless. I'm definitely going to experiment with it's pickup heights.Thanks a lot for this vid, really digging the channel. All the best from here, Robbo.

Very helpful and eye opening! Thank you so much!

“More trebly sound” - I find the opposite, and if you think about it, it makes sense. Bass frequencies require more energy to travel, and as you back the pickups off, you lose bass frequencies first. Backing off tends to have more of a treble and “focused” (piercing) sound. That being said, I like the way you set them and tend to do about the same

What shall I say, I followed your advice and... Ta... Tahhh: I brought the PU's down and my LP sounds perfect - still have to check it with the band!!!

I find it useful to record inbetween height adjustments. So I can listen and compare what sounds better.

He's not wrong here folks, when you play live and the pups are too high the guitar will actually sound muddy, however in a practice low volume environment high pickups will sound better and brighter.

I definitely like your approach. Adjust to your taste not what they tell you too. I've always raised them as high as possible, but now I'm going to bring them down and experiment. Thank you. 🎸

I'm going to give it a go Dave, pickups I'll try 6 and 8 mil then I'll try 8 mil then I'll try throwing them out the window that doesn't work. Again thanks I wish you were around when I rolled my first joint.

I never liked the tone i had in my telecaster. The tone of the single coils was way to bright and cold sounding, specially in the bridge position but also in the neck position. I read somewhere about pickup height regarding telecasters that they recommend to lower the pickups so they got furthers away from the strings to get a more balanced tone. They where totally right. The tone of my telecaster had much more sustain, more dynamics, more balanced sound it was so much more fun to play. Yes, it will give you lower output, but you can always add more gain. So i didn't need to swap the single coils as i thought.

To close to the strings and the string will vibrate unevenly across the length of the string creating disonance(yucky harmonic overtones) which causes cancelating vibrations. Yes it will reduce the sustain. You can demonstrate this by amplifing the effect by holding a strong neodymium(sp?) Magnet close to a string.

Really like your informative non-pretetious way of explaining things. If you wanna spin your screwdriver, spin it until people's heads explode!! Fuck em!

With my D Activators, they're boomy up close and way clearer lowered. My sh5 customs aren't adjustable. Kinda bummed about that because there's a clearer output difference and raising definitely affects that imo.

I agree and I play on a high gain Agile 8 string. It works across the board with guitars, regardless of the pickup I believe. I backed it down just to pull it back up JUST enough to where it sounds truly proper with all strings. Currently using a Seymour Duncan Pegasus for my bridge and it 100% helped, the voicing is so much more professional sounding

Great vid buddy 👍🤘👍💪😎🎸 Finally!! Someone else that also see/shares similar views with pickup heights 😂 just subbed to ya 🤘 my channel is a Luthier/Tech style channel that's completely catered to all of us Guitar Geek Enthusists! Tech tips, gear reviews etc

The manufacturer said "round eye....your amp sucks....i had to go into body....i trying outrunnin highs til 1/8 below decorative cover or more....

I agree, i got a sd invader attached to a bc rich mockingbird with a mahogany wood, at first it was darker sounding fat and bassy which i dont like then i lowered the pickup about half an inch to the strings and lo and behold!!!

I just saw another video. He presses down on the highest fret 22 and measures from the pickup on both bridge and neck 2.4 mm. Will try that and your approach. I have Seymor Duncan tb6 distortion and jazz on neck.

another thing to do is record yourself from the back of the room or next to your amp then play it back out of your amp remember the more you drink the better you sound to your self personal preferance

You were totally right with this. My bridge pickup sounded like a bag of ass till I lowered it. Raised the middle and neck pickups a bit too. So even as a bedroom player, the sound difference is enormous. Thanks mate !

I set my pickups to 3mm or 2mm on like a strat but my Dean Vx Flying V I set my neck pick up 1mm under the fret board height an the bridge to 3mm sounds good for both types of playing live or home so I don’t have to keep moving them. An like EVH said if it don’t sound good then turn up the volume to 10 😂

To me the correct height is when your feet touch the ground!

Let me clarify for everybody,There is no correct pickup height It is completely subjective.What sounds good to your ear is what is correct.

All I could think was “Adderall would probably stop the twirling”

I trust you more because of your british accent

You are right, the pick-up breaths better when you lower it

Thanks man! I was having trouble intonating. My intonation was wishy washy. I keep going over my neck relief and string hight. I couldn't get my intonation decent. Then I came across your video and tried it. And now im getting clear notes and my intonation is consistent. I'm just messing around with it now trying to get more accurate. Thank You!

I recently replaced the bridge pickup in my Jackson Dinky with a Seymour Duncan sh6 distortion trembucker and quickly set them to Jackson's recommended pickup height which is about 1.6 mm from the from the strings when fretted at the last fret. Because they are very high output they had a lot of crunch and gain right out of the box with these settings but like you mentioned... The Dynamics or very weak and I did notice a huge drop in sustained compared to the stock Jackson pickups which were very similar output but had a different tone to them, voiced more like a Seymour Duncan sh4 JB. The Jackson pickups had slightly muddy low-end and a very treble high-end with a lot of mids. Your experiences that is presented in your video backs up exactly what I experienced... I back the pickups off away from the strings and I quickly lose some of the output but the Dynamics greatly increased while still maintaining a tight low-end that the sh6 Duncan Distortion is good for. I like a good mid-range hump in my tone and backing off my pickups allowed my high-end to sing just a bit better without being so percussive while keeping my low and tight. Now I feel that I have the best of both worlds and the sh6 Duncan distortion is a lot more versatile in this position being backed away from the strings just a bit just as you state in your video, thank you. Now I can pull off anything from classic rock, dirty Blues to 80s metal the modern metal while before with the pickups closer to the strings... That particular pickup wasn't much good for anything other than high gain stuff like Metallica's and justice for all album out-of-the-box.

Get to the point. How low is low? What is normal? I went for 2.5 bass, 1.5 treble. Then, following this video, backedd off a 1/4 turn.

I hate that "as close to the strings as possible" "more louder is more better" school of thought. Pickups sound so much better with space

Thanks for this video. I toss different ideas around in my head.

Never let your pickups get higher than you are. (rule of thumb)

Way too high

i get more low end with the pups closer to the strings......and get more treble and lower output. when lower pups from strings and palm mutes sound horrible.....i found with my di marzio evo bridge pup....one time i experimented lowering the pup, but raising the pole pieces gave me tons of treble almost like a single coil.....had to do that with my black winter neck because it was too muddy.....helped it a lot

often wonder about it. thanks for sharing.

Another point to add here is the type of pickup. A pickup with massive magnets like a Seymour Duncan Invader or Iron Gear Hammerhead needs to be set lower into the body. Too close and the magnetic field can actually affect the string vibrations

I found this because I experienced some bad sound at rehearsal and pick ups seemed to be the problem after testing pedals etc. I really like this, makes sense, you dont need to measure with a ruler really. Thanks!

TY Brother ! As you said, it really is a matter of taste, rather a precise measurement ,,,

Thanks for explaining it in layman's terms M8 . otherwise it takes most of your time trying to figure out what the heck they trying to say 😭👍

you're right, sometimes people want the treble sound. I got it for the low E and stuff, sometimes when playing live somehow the solo played on the lower strings doesn't have enough bite to it. Tho I want to get real TV Jones'es for my guitar sometime. :)

Good video mate I came over from David Winters channel liked and subbed and learned something thanks brother.

Excellent video, thank you! :) Keep it up!

EXACTLY what I ws trying to find out! Understand your explanation completely. And thanks a billion. MachOverspeed

👍🇺🇸❤

Great vids Dave. Spent thus afternoon putting the original Maxon low output humbuckers back in my 1980 Greco LP Custom. I swapped em years ago for a Gibson set, I think 490/498 set - too compressed, no air. It now plays and sounds better than my 2000 Gibson LP Standard. And looks prettier! Inspired to do this by your vids, you are confirming my suspicions...

I agree with your video. But I've only been playing for 40 years.

it the magnets you got in and you are right the height between the string and the pick up if you lower the pickup it make you amp work better and sound

A very helpful post thanks. I turned to RU-vid to answer a question I had about pickup height, already knowing what I know. You totally reinforced what I was thinking, and now I need to go and twiddle screwdrivers! Cheers! btw nice Goldtop Classic! GW

Great video I’ve always had my pickups nearly touching the damn strings . What I wish to know is , was the 6 ahd 8 mil away from the bottom of the string or raised from the top of the cover , surely it’s the measurinejt between strings and pickups right , excuse my naive comment , sometimes we just do what every one else does

Intro song sounds like Pantera's I'll Cast A Shadow

I'm adjusting my humbucker, but after doing so it's not level. Any idea what could be causing that?

For some reason my pickups keep popping up and down (Not the metal bit) But the plastic part, what can I do ?

well i agree with you dave less is better

Thanks for taking the time to record load sharing this, I am just about to lower my pups. Gordon Smith makes some nice guitars eh.

For PAF-type pickups, I completely agree, but for high-gain pickups I like to go a bit closer to the strings. If I have high gain pickups, I'm not going for subtlety.

I adjusted my bridge pickup and got more sustain. I know some people say it should be the other way around, but I measured the thing and indeed there’s more sustain. (stock cheap humbuckers with cover)

Very helpful. Thank you for the clear explanation. It makes sense. Thanks for posting.

Great video and very good explanation for adjusting pickups properly. Thanks!

Nonsense

My pickups are tightened as far as they can be and there's still 3/4" space between the pickup and the string. Any solutions? Different springs or height screws? Deeper cavity? Anything? Pretty sure it's the pickups because the old ones had no problems.

@Dave Barlow - You are absolutely correct on the spacing and how it improves the dynamics and the sound. (I learned this the hard way!)

I dropped the humbuckers in my Epi Les Paul and it's transformed it from a decent to a very dynamic guitar, with natural full sound compared to previously. I always thought Humbuckers needed to be close but it makes sense ofc because a strat is better tonally with low pickups imo. I've only played at a moderate home volume, through a 1 watt tube amp (with very good overdrive) and the difference is clear, it makes playing this guitar much more enjoyable. Thank you.

What is the optimal height for pickups for a B.C. Rich warlock or does it not matter? Mine appears to be set at 6.3mm or 8.4mm

Excellent advice, I was given the same advice by an older Guitar tech with a Strat and a set of Fender Texas Specials that I loved, he dropped them so low I was lost for words but when I got home they sounded awesome! I have just Subscribed, g'day from Melbourne Australia.

A good music term "less is more"

@jerry D that is right but also wrong, there are certain type of pick ups and pick up heights that match a certain genre

scott grove for the win! great video again man! thanks b.

The magnetic pull on the strings is a real thing. Get your pickups close and then check your intonation. With a standard clip on tuner you'll see the needle jump up and down real hard if youre too close. Back it off until it stops and then you'll know how close you can get said pickup. There's a lot of variation for this region, some high output pickups, like hotrails, have to be pretty far from the strings. Adjust by ear from downward from this point.

You know that's funny j Walsh went round and round for a couple of years about this cuz he set them all the way up and I kept telling him you're squirting the sound 🎶🤣🤘

helped me out alot! cleaned up my sound!! thanks for the input!!!

scoopy dooby do ? erauh

So basically nobody knows lmao

If i click to the back pickup the volume is noticeably lower. I want the same volume clicking between pickups at least. Right now the rear pickup is a lot lower than the front. Is that why

Hi Dave im getting new high to my pickups! The measurement its fron the top of the pull piece or the cover of the pickup? Thanks!

Thank God he didn’t have a click-top pen in his hands!

I like your videos.

✌🏼😎🤟🏼

pickup height effect output for sure. well if it too close the string hits the pickup when vibrates. how person picks depend how much it moves too. for treble that what tone knob to reducing the treble. I have my tone knob at three.

I just got done building a couple of DYI guitar. I popped off the chrome covers. They didnt match in colors ...So I mounted 2 fronts on 1 guitar...and 2 rears on the other.hahaha I like the way both of them sound.lmao They sound slightly different..about as different of comapairing a Gibson to Cibson.lmao

I should've watched this before i had guy install dimarzio dp220 in bridge. The Guy raised the pickup but it sounds like💩💩now im to scared to adjust it.

I´ll try tomprrow 🎸🤘

I noticed on the Les Paul you wrap the strings around the stop tail piece. I have heard that it makes the strings feel possibly one gauge lighter, have you found this?

I have an ibanez s370 with after market seymour duncans. It's frustrating finding my pickup height on these.

"This one goes to 11"

Great videos

Nice vid! :)

So...I just ordered a set of strat pickups from Iron Gear. They owe you money. Without your vids, I would have never considered them.

yup...i take mine down a bit..for less pronounced pick attack output...if that makes sence...it seems to pull some mids out?? i like it...