Pickup height

Someone who's more versed in this than I am may have a completely different answer...but here goes :)

I've been playing around with my new Epiphone Les Paul Classic (man, I just love typing that! LOL) and trying to find a "good" height for the pickups. What I've found, frankly, is that the tone of the guitar seems to change very little whether the pickup is closer to or farther from the string. There's a subtle difference, but nothing tremendously Earth-shattering.

What I did hear was a difference in the - I'm not sure how to describe it - "punch?" of the pickup. The closer it was to the strings, the more responsive it seemed to be, and I got more output at lower volume levels...but it was also more microphonic in that it picked up a lot more pick and fret noise than at lower heights. This, I'm sure, is directly related to the strength of the pickup's magnetic field when the string is right up on it vs. having a little more breathing room.

I've got them set now so the neck pickup is closer to the strings than the bridge pickup, and both are slightly angled so that the higher strings are closer to the poles than the lower strings. This seems to balance the volume of the strings pretty well. I have do idea what the exact measurements are, and even if I did they probably wouldn't be right for anyone else anyway. :) Basically they're just set where they sound the best to me, and where I feel they give me the best performance.

(now waiting for someone to come along and tell me that I've done it COMPLETELY wrong.) :lol:

-Rick

k...i'll play around with the set up tonight. Thanks for your advice and quick response....any more from anyone :lol:

my neck pickup is a little lower and higher on the treble side, where as my bridge pickup is a little higher than the neck pickup and lower on the treble side. I like the way this sounds because I find I can get better pinch harmonics out of it....

it is basically personal preference... I dont know much about pickups, but I bought a pickup for my acoustic that sits in the soundhole and the manual just says that if u want more volume put it closer to the strings and farther away for less. More treble put the treble side higher that the bass side. I'm guessing its the same with all types of pickups, but electrics have the tone know that u can change around so.....

Play with it untill you find what you like

Of course it's a matter of personal preference, but from my research and subsequent experience, there is a "sweet spot" where the pickup sounds balanced and a little bit punchy, but before it gets uncontrollable and feedback prone(commonly referred to as "wolf tone").

A lot of young guitarists make one critical mistake here, and that is play testing, unplugging, then adjusting the pickup height, play test, unplug, adjust, play test, unplug, adjust etc. What I feel is the correct way to do it is to actually adjust the height while plugged in. Play a chord and then adjust and then play IMMEDIATELY afterwards, and this gives you a better A/B sort of testing. You can tell exactly what element of the tone is being adjusted.

Without this, most people will find that their memory of tone is extremely weak, and thoughtful adjustments can't be made.

Good luck.

Again, thanks everyone for your great advice.....