To tune a pickup... You get up close to the string and then you back them off slowly as the string resonates you hear it oscillate. You may have to pluck the string multiple times The Sweet spot is for the oscillation no longer exists through the amp. That is where you get the most out of the pickup, response sustain, clarity tone! -Peace
@@xldsyt It depends on how the humbucker is constructed, it happens most often with single coils because the polepieces themselves are the magnets while the magnets in a humbucker are usually underneath the bobbins
Great explanation of how to get closer to the sound you want from the guitar. This guy sounds like he knows more about this than 99% of the other guitar RU-vidrs out there. Big thumbs up and subscription!
This is a really good video because it describes the difference in sound between high set pick ups and low set pick ups, rather than just showing how to set them up.
Those are good tips that many guitarists seem to be unaware of. Humbuckers often have adjustable screw posts that can be raised or lowered to balance the volume between strings. In addition, raising the screw posts can add clarity, brightness, and enhance articulation. While lowering them produces a warmer, rounder tone. Always remember to take measurements from your pickups to the bottoms of your strings before you start, so you can easily return them to that position if you're not happy with the results. Also, small adjustments, 1/4 to 1/2 screw turn can make a big difference in tone.
I loved the way you explained in easy-to-understand terms what the results of lowering the pickup is. Thank you! Also appreciated the two channel guitar setting!
I bought a lightly used 2014 Les Paul R8 VOS in 2018. When I first plugged in and played, it sounded great... after noodling around a bit more, I found that the difference in tone from bridge to neck pickups was a bit lacking. The prior owner had cranked up the pickup heights, possibly because some people think "more is better". Lowering them both to a proper, balanced height really opened up the airy, 'woody' tone that should be in the neck pickup on a vintage LP and not the 'wooly', muddier tone of later year, higher gain LPs. The bridge went from a bit too hot to a classic "Telecaster on Steroids" bright, bighting tone and the balance between the Bridge and Neck was perfect while the tonal differences were as broad as the day is long. I can't help but think that the last owner might have done this chasing a tone they didn't find in that direction (which some people do, almost counterintuitively) or they just didn't like the vintage LP tone vs. the later year 80's distortion that called for higher gain tones and hotter pickups. Once readjusted, it was as an instant heirloom LP that has 'that sound' I had in my head from the egde-of-breakup blues and overdriven classic rock tones I'd heard and preferred all my life. If you have a tool to measure string and pickup heights, don't be afraid to experiment - you can always return 'home' - and definitely challenge yourself if you've been told to raise the pickup heights to get a hotter sounding pickup as you'll be leaving behind qualities you can't regain elsewhere in the signal chain.
There's some misunderstanding here about what actually changes with pickup height. It is true that the note fundamentals through maybe the 3rd harmonic increase in strength when the coil is closer to the string, but the perceived increase in highs is from the attack to sustain ratio increasing as well as the string pull effect on harmonics at different points. Of course, it doesn't sound like the highs are increased in this video because the high-end ducks when a tube amp is driven harder and the impedance on the tubes along the entire signal path increases. The perceived increase in sustain when pickups are lowered is also more about the attack to sustain ratio evening out than the minute effect of string pull at one point. I'd set the pickup height to what sounds right to you regarding attack/sustain ratio and use a clean boost to adjust the level into the first gain stage of your amp.
this was the ultimate video on this topic thank you. I struggle with a low watt tube amp which limits my dynamic range a little, but I think dialing in the height of your pickups is a seriously overlooked control over your tone.
As a Owner of a highly flamed Les Paul in Iced tea burst just like the 58 i this vid at the end of the day the 58 plain top has its own special allure! The more i see the PT's the more i like them.👍
It is the coil that “captures the sound” not the magnet. The magnet creates a field that is disrupted when strings move. The changing field then induces a current the coil(s) which creates a voltage across whatever load is connected.
They have tested that magnetic pull thing on strings sustain ,and I mean by loading up with like as many pickups they could fit,,and it seems like it is still some leftover hoodoo from the early days.The mags are not strong enough to to make any noticeable difference even on the high E
The key to getting great tone with a HB is to lower the pickup overall and use a screwdriver to raise the pole pieces and get tons more sparkling tone and dynamics!
Hi! Yes, single-coil pickups often get a bath of wax too. This is done to prevent microphonic vibrations generated by the contact between metal parts within the pickups and for the longevity of the coil.
I have a LP tribute with 490s. It was overbearingly loud compared to my strat. So, I went in to a shop to see if I could dampen the sound by putting the nickel shields on, the guy said, you don’t need that, you need a “pro setup” ok fine,…100 bucks later I get my guitar back and he has raised the bridge pup height significantly creating the exact opposite effect of what I wanted. I hate guitar shops, they are intimidating and bully you around, I wish I could just go in and say this is what I want and they do it, instead of the run around.
For a similar reason (my problem was with so-called luthiers and guitar techs wrecking my guitars and charging me a fortune), I learned to do it all myself: fitting new bridges, tail pieces, pickups, frets, nuts, pots etc. It sometimes feels like a massive pain in the butt, but if I take my time I can do it (and I had no skills in this regard, previously). The difference has been amazing. One LP came back completely unplayable from a luthier. He couldn’t even fix what he had done, and advised I sell it (WTFF?). Now, after I rebuilt it, it plays better than it ever did. I also dealt with ‘worlds most famous luthier’ for a while, but found his arrogance insufferable…
Not entirely true. Lowering the neck on a Strat combined with lowering the middle pickup even more will give you more “quack” very reminiscent of the tone of Mark Knopfler. If you want more overdrive or a beefier tone buy hotter pickups.
I can't tell you I'm certain, but I'm pretty sure manufacturers set-up guitars for what's best in regards to shipping, in most shops I would expect any guitar you pick up to need some amount of set-up.
Good explanations, with one exception: Theres no actual proof that pickups that are closer to the strings reduce the time that strings vibrate (...the sustain) because of extra "pull" on the strings. This supposed effect apparently in not able to be reproduced in the lab, as are the other (volume & tonal) effects.
Great video but there is one tip here I would argue against. It doesn’t make sense to set your pickups to different heights to get that two levels of drive for rhythm vs lead. Just lowering the volume control on the neck pickup will achieve the same thing. Ideally you want to balance the output of the two pickups so that you have a good middle position tone. If you have the neck pickup too much lower than the bridge, the middle position will just sound like the bridge position, or if you have the bridge pickup too much lower than the neck, the middle will just sound like the neck position.
Hi! Well, although your argument is totally valid, you’re also missing some of the points we mention throught the video. Yes, when you lower the volume control you’re indeed reducing the output gain of the overall frequency response of the pickup, however what changes by altering the height of the pickup is the curve of the freq spectrum as well as the gain. So not only you get a drop or an increase in output, the EQ becomes more mid forward the closer the pickup is to the strings, or more scooped (smiley EQ type) the farther away it is. These EQ curves play a vital role in how the sound cuts through in the mix for rhythm and leads. It also affects how the amp responds, more mids coming from the guitar means pushing the amp harder in that freq area therefore more saturation. On the other hand, when the amp sees less mids and more of a scooped EQ with lower gain there’s more headroom available. Your point works well on Gibsons but with guitars that have one master volume like a Strat this is not possible. Yes the weakened middle position on a Gibson is one of the small trade offs needed to achieve this. Hope this clarifies it a bit! Thanks
Great video. I saw another one on lowering pickups, so I gave it a try. My guitar is a 1956 LP Standard conversion w/ added hum bucking pickups. (No, I didn't mod it! Never would). The sound is incredible that could stun an elephant but now 45 years later, so much of the mud has disappeared, I could play dinner jazz on it. Sounds beautiful. While any pickup sounds good in my guitar, it's awesome to have new, beautiful tones to discover, rather than switching guitars. Big props for this video.
I do enjoy going down the tone rabbit hole. I'd be interested to know by how much the pups were raised and lowered in these examples for a frame of reference!
There is a "sweet spot" for both pickups for each string. If you find it it will really wake the guitar up big time. Both pickup heights drastically effects the tone of the other pickup aswell. There is a way to find those exact heights but it takes a good bit of time usually. If you find the exact spot you'll get a little boost of mids in the tone and you'll feel more vibration in the guitar body. The magnetic pull on the strings has a huge effect on tone if you get it exactly right. If you find the right spot, the bridge pickup will be slightly higher than the neck pickup. There is only ONE best height for both and it doesnt matter what genre music either.
@@ericsplittgerber5154 the spot is right where when adjusting the height up your tone goes from really bright crisp (high frequency) highs to where it turns muddy and the highs start dying off. It is exactly between the two. 1/4 turn too far up or down on a height screw or a pole piece screw and the spot will be gone. Once you get close start adjusting 1/4 turn an a time and trying it. You'll hear a bump, or boost in the mid range. You'll want to set your adjustable pole pieces if you have them to the same radius as your strings. You can tell me what magnets you have in your pickups and what type of guitar and pickup type and i can give you ballpark pickup height measurements and then you can fine tune from there 1/4 turn at a time.
@@jeremiahfiek5495 Super fascinating! Thanks for the help. I have a JB in a Les Paul bridge that I'm trying to get just right, and in my strat I have a set of SD Cory Wong Clean Machines (essentially Antiquities with Alnico 4s and a stacked alnico 5 humbucker in the bridge) How do you set your amp when adjusting pickups, clean or with the tone that you intend to use with them? What's the approach if you want them to be versatile then? Thanks again!
@@ericsplittgerber5154 does your les paul have a neck pickup? Reason i ask is because the height of the neck pickup has more effect on the bridge pickups tone than the height of the bridge pickup does. Sounds crazy, but if you try raising & lowering the neck pickup while playing through the bridge pickup you'll see what im talking about. The magnetic pull from the neck pickup is a really big deal. I usually set the amp to high gain to dial in pickup heights because it amplifies everything that im listening for. I'll also add that there is only ONE ideal adjustment for pickup and pole piece heights on each guitar. It is the same spot whether playing jazz, blues, classic rock or all out death metal. And those adjustments are not for evening out volume or gain, they're for dialing in the magnetic pull on the strings. Whether or not thats how they were designed, thats what you shoot for.
Most Humbuckers even have adjustable pole pieces for balancing the tone of the pickup...if yours is slightly bass heavy or lacking mids..lower the ends or raise the middle pole pieces ( A TINY AMOUNT GETS MAD RESULTS HERE, start with QUARTER TURNS)
If you really want to understand 😎 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5JMsRX6SGlw.html To keep it simple: If it sounds right, it is right. So it's the ear, not the ruler. The only thing to consider: You may not ad clarity via any amp, but you may amplify bass. So when in doubt, give a little more distance.
Pick up height effects your gain more than anything. Not saying there's not a extremely small difference but speaker choice DOES create alot of the tone....js
I modded my epi ag special with an epi p90 bridge pickup, looks great to me but the p90 is screwed to the body leaving no major height adjustment other than the pole pieces. I didn't like LP or SG humbucker bridge pickups dull sound.
It entirely depends on preference, style etc. Some guitarists like further away because of the thinner sounds...some like it close. Then there's the Randy Rhoads which was a humbucker extremely close to the strings and it makes the amp sound like it has a blown out speaker. That's actually my preferred sound lol. Yeah shitty taste but I'm rock n roll like that.
One issue i have and maybe there is someone who can help I have a harley benton explorer with some hbz humbuckers combined with a fender champion 20. The thing is that when i play on the bridge pickup and play GBE strings, they sound too high pitched no matter what setting i do. Lower the volume from the guitar, the tone, add more bass from amp lower the volume, it will sound loud and high pitched compared to the other strings. Should i lower the pickpup on the side of GBE strings?
Sad state of affairs...we all learned this at 12 years old in the 70s...and tried every possible adjustment...which is NOT absolute...'cuz we had Guitar Player Magazine...then Circus magazine brought on makeup and posing..and ended education...until GIT taught mindless scales...so keep up the good work!
How do you deal with the problem with Humbuckers on LP 335, LP Custom (3 Humbuckers) and PRS SE Santana whereby the middle position sounds exactly the same as the neck pick-up with no tonal variance 🙏🏽
Let's review some basic physics about how pickups work. Magnets in pickups do not capture anything. They are isolated from the output circuit. They are there to provide a static magnetic field. The coil sees a static field and produces no current. When I string vibrates in this static magnetic field, it disturbs the field. The coil senses the time-varying magnetic field and generates a current to oppose the field change.
Why are there Stratocaster pickups with flattered poles and some others aren't? And why I can't raise or lower the poles on Stratocaster pickups by stock? I am confused...
Hey, it has to do with Fender and their early days of building guitars. The earlier designs featured flat pole pieces. As the '60s approached you start to see pickup designs with staggered pole pieces. This all has to do with early more rudimentary pickup design and then "design improvements" that Leo gradually implemented.
Take a set of Seymour Duncan Full shred and lower them and they get twangy and really country sounding...raise them up and they get more metal the closer to the strings (great trick for getting chicken picken licks is to DROP the FULL SHRED until you get a twang) (a guy in a guitar shop handed me an Epi LP with some Full shreds dropped to the height I mention here (chicken picken height I call it )...and I was like WHAT PICKUPS ARE THESE?>>WHEN he told me I thought he was lying...so I bought a set and put em in my Jackson and sure enough...same phenomena..although I do have them lowered somewhat (to reduce drive..not for the twang this time)..THEY ARE REALLY LOUD SNUGGED UP TO THE STRINGS>>LIKE REALLY TOO LOUD
At parties, sometimes people will tell Sebastian that there's a difference between electric and acoustic guitars, and he will nod, like a total gentleman. Only you will know your sacrifice.
I absolutely agree with what’s been said in this video. Tapping on the guitar to show that the pickups are picking up sound from the body should be enough evidence that this is the case. Secondly, the fact that guitar makers choose certain woods should support the point. And they’ve been doing this for over 50 years. I set pickup height almost every time I play. Just a quarter turn up or down mostly, depending on how things sound and what I’m playing. I’ve got magnets to degauss pickups that pull my strings too much. 3 of 5 of my electric guitars never need pickup height adjustments. It’s the strats that walk a fine line. Good video!
Magnets don’t hear wood friend. When you hit the guitar you make the components of the pickup rattle and make sound. They rattle because there is no wax to keep the parts together. Magnets picking up wood sounds is guitarded..😫😫
He’s not saying the magnets pick up the sound of wood. He’s talking about pickups that have gone microphonic, which happens to unpotted pickups. Yes, they CAN pick up the sound of tapping on the wood, because they are, in addition to picking up the string vibrations electromagnetically, acting as microphones. If you talk into a pickup that’s gone microphonic, you can hear your voice come through your amp, just like if you were talking into a vocal mic.
@@darwinsaye you can hear your voice because your voice makes the internal parts of the pickup rattle. Metal parts. He said exactly that. He is guitarded If you hit the guitar and keep the strings from moving you can’t hear absolutely anything
I hate to have a dissenting opinion here, but unpotted pickups do, to a small degree, pick up the sounds produced by the wood as well as the sounds of the metal parts like the bridge and tailpiece. I'm not sure if this happens more when you lower a pickup, but it does make the tone sound more woody. That may just be the perceived effect and not due to the pickups picking up the tone of the wood, but it could be. Unpotted pickups take some getting used to if you are accustomed to using potted pickups. They pick up the pick noise a lot more and produce sort of a swishing sound and pick up the sound of static electricity throughout the body of the guitar. I don't really care for them and prefer potted pickups mostly because of the microphonic feedback unpotted pickups are susceptible to.
@@markn4526 how can a magnet pickup wood???? Please please google magnetic pickup. Please just do it🙏🙏 Pickups don’t HEAR sound. The MOVEMENT of the strings excites the magnetic field and it is transformed into electricity. Wood ??? Electricity??? Seethe point?? That’s why they were invited. To pickup the movement of metal strings and no sounds around. This way no other sound interfere with the guitar. IT’s genius. Otherwise they would have put microphones in electric guitars. Please google “ magnetic pickup “! Just for fun.👍🤝
@@vintagepipesnightmares If you talk into most UNpotted pickups your voice will come thru the amp...i.e. microphonic. How does that happen? Wood produces or reproduces sound energy/vibrations transferred from the vibrating strings. That's why the type and grade of wood effects guitar tone. An UNpotted pickup can pick up that energy /vibration from the wood in the same manner.
The thing is:tone really depends on what you like, your setup and even the room. I know it sounds crazy (or not) but it is completely different sound you get on a room full or things vs an empty one (or a bed room vs a bathroom). Also, cconsider the "advice" on this video is... subjective. I actually like the strats with low pickup height. Then I started noticing on most videos (Clapton, Mayer, and pretty much anyone who play blues-inclined rock) they have really low pickup height on their strats. So, basically look carefully for the people you like their sound, and look at their pickup height😅 it would have saved me years
@@souzafilho Without doubt the speakers affect the tone more than anything. Find out what specific speakers are being used in the tones you like. This will get you most of the way. Also record your the results, if you have a studio set up. Things will sound different once it’s compressed. RU-vid sound is not the same as what you will hear. Also listen to isolated guitar tracks of famous songs that are all over RU-vid. They sound really raw out of the mix. The speakers though are vital to the tone.
An unpotted pickup apparently "picks up more resonance off the wood". He then proceeds to hit his guitar with his fist to prove that, a technique widely used to play guitars these days by players who don't like using the strings (not). And apparently lowering pickups closer to the body "picks up" more of the body resonance ?! Please leave guitar physics to people who actually understand guitar physics.
I think the idea is that the strings will vibrate because they are not waxed in. If there was a single wire (like a Fishman), and it vibrated exactly opposite to the string, and there would be no sound at all. So the wire vibration has to have some effect on the sound.
@@MisterGuitarItalia I think it may be simple enough to understand that if you vibrate a a magnet near a wire it will induce an electric charge in that wire. This is how electric motors work. In the case of the guitar, the strings are magnetized by the pickup magnet, and when they vibrate, they create a charge in the coil of wire in the pickup. This is sent to the amp. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x9MF60ZO8rI.html
it's called microphonics, because instead of just picking up the magnetic field disturbances caused by the guitar strings, the physical vibrations transmitted through the body are also picked up due to the loose wires vibrating inside the pickup. generally not a desirable thing if you play at high volumes.
@@larrysteinke1839 that is, microphony is a pickup fault. Which relatively few pickups demonstrate. Also, people just assume that it might have something to do with how vintage guitars sound at sub-feedback volumes, because people will believe anything about guitars without evidence if it sounds like it might be plausible. But there is no evidence that microphony is excited by body vibrations generated by string vibrations, as the video and you seem to be trying to argue. So any link to solid wood does not follow. Microphony generates feedback due to high ambient sound volumes in the room exciting the pickup directly.
"Set-up from the factory to what they think sounds best !" Please, Gibson have NEVER issued anything out of the factory that didn't need set-up work, some extensive! There was, is, a time that Crap came out of their factory. You proudly show of your directly from the factory , not set-up $$$$$$ Gibson Custom Shop 1958 Les Paul Standard Reissue VOS Electric Guitar. to give a tone/sound comparison. deception misdirection. Take the time to set the thing up! This video must be for novice. Still great work for that group.
Magnets don’t capture the sound of the strings. The movement of the strings excites the magnetic field and it gets transformed into electricity. Pickups PICKUP movement not sound. I know that people in the field are guitarded so don’t worry 👍
Higher is bigger and louder, easy choice lmao, only problem is yiu may hit the pickup more often and if it gets too close it starts magneting the strings lmao
@@tonilehmann3381 I guess it depends on the instrument. I play distorted bass, mostly riff stuff with an octaver (up, for a faux guitar+bass sound), and I use my Jazz Bass, only the bridge pickup. I find that for this situation, I rather have more gain and a sound that's a bit warmer, since I'm already using only the bridge pickup and lots of distortion, I rather have some more lowend. But for guitar, there's lots of different sounds you may wanna go for, from a snappy reggae chord type of sound to a classic hard rock type of thing, you may want to play around with the height to see what gives you the sound you are looking for. What type of guitar and style of music you play?
@guitarded The best way to good tone isn't avoiding Gibsons and Fenders it's learning how to play your guitar whatever brand it might be. Along with actually knowing how to play the instrument it certainly helps to understand about things like proper setup and what affect your amp and pedals have on your sound.
SOME were not potted in the mid 50’s? Try NONE of them were potted in ANY of the 50’s. I’ve heard Eddie Van Halen invented potting. I’ve also heard potting began in the late 60’s. I don’t know. What I do know is that 1950’s Les Pauls were not potted.
What pickup hight should EMGs be I can't get my bridge to match up well with my neck pickup which is a lot louder even all the way to the body. Might just be a bad bridge pickup it is nearly 20 years old.
Good video. I'm assuming those initial pickup height measurements were taken without fretting the strings at the last fret because they seem awfully low. I have a couple Gibson LP's, an R9 and an R0, both with Custombuckers. They are lower wind pickups with very weak A3 magnets. Due to the weak magnets, you can and pretty much have to adjust them fairly close to the strings to get anything out of them unless you prefer an anemic tone. They are set close right from the Custom Shop. For humbucker equipped guitars, I generally set the pickup height equal distance from the low-E and high-E strings and then fine tune the individual string output with the pole-piece screws. For single coil pickups , I generally set the pickup height to be 1-2 64's of an inch higher on the high-E than on the low-E. The pole-pieces are usually pre-staggered on single coil pickups to balance the string output.
This was so well explained, I now want to go back to all my guitars and reassess. It would be super awesome if a video was made comparing Pup heights, but adjusted for volume at amp to hear what various heights do when pegged to a specific decibel. I've heard the sustain loss theory when raising. I have not been able to detect it with my ears, though physics would say there would be some natural affect. It could be that a human, on an unconscious level, detects the slight loss of rez and reacts by hitting harder to compensate? Which would also affect tone. It would be great if a scientific experiment was posted where resonance was measured with a controlled
when lowering the pickup I would say you are reversing the proximity effect of the pickup, same as when using a microphone. so you will get less bass which is useful for neck pickups.
Not exactly the same. From Neumann: The strength of the proximity effect depends on the microphone’s pickup pattern. It is strongest on figure-8 microphones, and still pretty strong (though somewhat less) on cardioids. Omnidirectional microphones don’t have any proximity effect at all. Guitar pickups (EMF) are obviously different from microphones (SPL), so they aren't really comparable that way. But frequency response does change with pups, as explained by the dude.
