UPDATED: Can I have my pickups set too high? PICS ADDED!!

[tele_jas]

I have my neck pickup set pretty high to try and match the volume of my bridge pickup.... Is it possible to have it too high? I'll try to take a pic of it later today and post it in a reply. It could honestly almost be a 23rd fret, but the strings dont hit the pickup when I pop them.

[Brian blaut]

Yes, you can set it too high. The magnetic pull can effect the strings if its too close, effecting the string vibration and effectively pulling them down, so to speak. You get weird overtones, bad intonation and the like, especially on the low E. It also depends on your pickups too. Ceramic pups are more magnetically powerfull then say, Alnico ones. Lace sensors allow you to get real close.

Brian

[Pete Galati]

Even with the chrome cover on the neck PU, the closer you set it to the strings, the more the string pull from the PU's magnets will interfere with your sustain.

You could try moving the bridge PU farther away from the strings.

If you like it with the neck PU set close to the strings, don't worry about it. Set it up so that it works best for you.

Pete

edit: Brian's answer's better IMO. It took me so long to type, that his showed up.

[Dacious]

The Fender spec for pickups with strings fretted at the last fret is 5/64" treble side string-pickup pole, and 6/64" bass side.

Fuzzy I think it was had a good rule of thumb: 2 nickels treble , or 3.

It is not uncommon depending on the pickups for a mismatch in volume. If the neck is 'too loud' drop it evenly on both sides a turn at a time until it matches the bridge. As the pickups are raised you'll get more output but less definition in general and vice versa when lowered.

Generally you can afford to have the brige pickup a fraction closer to the strings as the neck pup has more 'pull' on the strings.

Magnet strength is a function of gauss, or how highly charged the magnet is, as well as material. Alnico magnets can be just as much a nuisance for wolf-tones, the sort of off-tune warbling when the magnets pull on the strings. Strats can certainly suffer from wolf tones due to three sets of poles under each string.

[tele_jas]

Heres a pic of the strings and the pickups. The pickups are Fender Vintage Noiseless.

[tonfarbe]

This is too high!
Despite the fact that I like to set my pickups realy low, so the guitar can "breath",
I remember the Vintage Noiseless neck pickup that I once had in a long gone Fender Tele
as one of the most clearest and loudest "traditional" pickups for this position.


What kind of pickup do you have in the bridge postion?

[Pete Galati]

It looks too high to me too. Edit: I set the neck PU so that the radius of the pickup cover is about at that top of the pickguard. But I'm pretty far from being a Tele expert. I think my first Tele just came that way.

This is about how that guitar is set up now:



That cheery sunburst Tele in a recent thread appears to be about the same.

Pete

[tele_jas]

Originally Posted by tonfarbe

This is too high!
Despite the fact that I like to set my pickups realy low, so the guitar can "breath",
I remember the Vintage Noiseless neck pickup that I once had in a long gone Fender Tele
as one of the most clearest and loudest "traditional" pickups for this position.


What kind of pickup do you have in the bridge postion?

And that pic was taken after I lowered it just a bit on my lunch break today!! The pickup is almost even with the fretboard (not the frets, but the wood).

I'm running Fender Vintage Noiseless in the bridge as well.... They are pretty hot pickups, maybe I need to lower the bridge one instead of raising the neck to match the volumes?