A GENERAL POST ON P/UP HEIGHT!!!!!

[Deleted]

HI TO ALL FRIENDS,& MEMBER"S

I am posting this ''chart'' as many ask about this!!!!,I hope it helps those who need it!!................barry.. ,CHEERS..

THIS I have scanned from the manual that came with my ,, ''US-STRAT''...a few years ago...

[ha2he]

Hi Barry,
I've seen this before but never thought of posting it here for all to see.
Well done.
Regards,
Tim.

[olemuso]

Thanks Barry, makes interesting reading. Gonna measure mine now

[tca]

Hi Hoadlies, what sort of p/ups do you have on your Strat? I have a Mexican Strat with standard P/ups and I'm considering changing them ina an attempt to get closer to 'that sound' - Tonerider Pure Vintage have been suggested - what do you think? - Rgds, Clive

[Deleted]

HI CLIVE & ALL ,,,,, I have and happy with C/S ''fat-fifties'' in my favered guitar the squier that I revamped a good while back ,I have a ''US''-fender strat as new but it is not any where near as good & I am waiting to be able to afford a set of the above for it as well ..

Charlie recommended these F/FIFTIES & I & have tried 2x other sets in my us-strat but the sound is not as good as my squier!!

AS for the tone-rider's I don't know but a few guy's do use them maybe they will kindly ''comment''

THE fat-fifties have a fuller& thicker tone in my book??

CHEERS ............good-luck-clive ,Its taken 3 years of trial & error for me here to finally arrive at the sound I like ,I spent a lot of my mere budget on the not so good gear & I feel the best thing I did was revamp my squier ,including the p/up's mentioned above I at the time did not realise how good they actully were as it was early in my relived hobbie & now I think I was lucky to have bought them when I did way back then .....................barry..

[tca]

Thanks Barry, I'll take a look at F/Fifties, must be the business if Charlie recommended them.

Rgds - Clive

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Clive,
Not everyone likes the Fat 50s. I recommended them to someone once and he didn't like them after trying them.
I think they would be fine if the guitar has a good acoustic lively sound.
Regards,
Charlie

[tca]

Thanks Charlie - what's your opinion of the Tonerider Vintage jobs?
C

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Clive,
I haven't tried them. I can only go by reports from others who seem to like them.
I know that one person has just had some pickups custom made to similar specs to the Fat 50s, by John Collins in Australia, and he says they sound much better than Toneriders.
Regards,
Charlie

[tca]

Charlie, thanks for that - I suppose for around £65 they are worth a try. Only problem is that no-one in the UK appears to have a right-handed set in stock, so it appears I'll have to wait.
Rgds - Clive

[jacques]

Guys,

On PU-height. I have before me a pic of Hank playing his red strat with gold hardware (magazine = GuitarTechniques march 2008 my girlfriend bought me). It's a a4-sized pic so everything is rather well visible.

My newbe (so be gentle) eye's see the following; you all might allready know this, but to make sure:

PU (staggered) are set in a straight line, eg lower-e-string height to me looks equal to higher-e-string height. Bass side and treble side have same heights.

Neck PU seems a tiny little bit visible above neck height, due to the picture. It might be aswell possible the height of the neck PU is equal to the neck (pickguard to start of the neck). Middle PU a wee bit higher, and bridge again a wee bit higher.

Things you all know: bridge pu selected, all knobs max (10).

The curve of the tremelo-bar curves just above the bridge, very narrow.

He uses a black with metal/redcoloured neutrik (?) cable. Looks large.

The pick is just a tiny little bit visible between fingers, to make it less flexible I presume.

[peterbower]

Pickups and the sound they make can be very subjective to guitarists. My Jap HM which has an ash body and is acoustically very vibrant and sustains for ever sounds great with CS50's.
My best sounding guitar [to my ears] is my 84 Tokai Strat, which is a copy of a US 64. It has a an Alder body, a veneered rose wood neck and steel trem block. The pups are copies of Fender's early 60's pups and just sound so authentic. I would never change them.
Peter

[Charlie Hall]

Hank has used Kinman pickups for some years now. I looked at one of his guitars in December 1999 and was amazed to see how close his pickups were to the strings. This apparently can be done with Kinmans due to the unique design.
Regards,
Charlie

[Deleted]

HI ALL ,,I will say that I have used my US strat a bit more that the ''JC AUDIO'' scatterwound alnico5 vintage set are very good after trying some other's ,,IT now sound's much-like my favored ''squier-project guitar with C/S fat-fifties...& they cost less as well ,check-out the wanted to sell etc page on this site & he has a site link there...,very well made as well...

CHEERS ...............barry..

[Tone]

Hi

Someone remarked recently that the pickups on my Custom Shop '60 NOS Strat (special CS jobs apparently) seemed to be set far too low although the guitar has always sounded fine to me. Anyway, I checked the measurements as per the Fender manual and, sure enough, the gap between the top of the poles and the underside of the strings was far more than recommended. I carefully raised the pickups to the "correct" height and, guess what, the sound was awful - lots of distortion and nasty overtones, particularly on the G string and higher up the fretboard. So I very quickly put the pickups back to where they were before.

It just goes to prove that you shouldn't take everything you read as gospel and if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Cheers.

Tony

[peterbower]

Tony
It sounded fine to me the last time i heard it. The pickup heights recommended in the Fender manual are probably for a US standard Strat, but these may not necessarily be right for other types of pickup or different gauge strings.
Peter