How high do you set your firebird pickups?

[zsullivan38]

I bought some firebird pickups from guitar madness on eBay. The bridge sounds great, but the neck is giving me trouble. It sounds good until I hit the bass strings with any force, and then the sound gets super boomy. It's strange: it muddies up the whole sound because they are so boomy, but I can tell the treble strings are still very clear. Part of it may be how I'm playing, but it definitely feels like part of it is pickup height. I feel like I've tried every possible height, though, and always get varying degrees of that strange boominess - which to my understanding is the opposite of how a firebird neck pickup should sound. Anyone who has a firebird neck pickup, how high do you set it? Right under the strings? As far as possible?

I guess it is possible I got a bad pickup, but I don't know what "wrong" inside a pickup would cause this. There is a large output difference between the two pickups, so I'm leaning towards the neck pickup needing to be very low, but was hoping someone could point me in the right direction before I start testing it millimeter by millimeter.

Thanks,
Zack

 

[dougstrum]

Both my teles with firebird necks are about 8/32" or 6.35 mm. The one in the yellow guitar is set a bit lower.

 

[zsullivan38]

Both my teles with firebird necks are about 8/32" or 6.35 mm. The one in the yellow guitar is set a bit lower.View attachment 1393453View attachment 1393455

Awesome, thanks for the help!

 

[jdl57]

I bought some firebird pickups from guitar madness on eBay. The bridge sounds great, but the neck is giving me trouble. It sounds good until I hit the bass strings with any force, and then the sound gets super boomy. It's strange: it muddies up the whole sound because they are so boomy, but I can tell the treble strings are still very clear. Part of it may be how I'm playing, but it definitely feels like part of it is pickup height. I feel like I've tried every possible height, though, and always get varying degrees of that strange boominess - which to my understanding is the opposite of how a firebird neck pickup should sound. Anyone who has a firebird neck pickup, how high do you set it? Right under the strings? As far as possible?

I guess it is possible I got a bad pickup, but I don't know what "wrong" inside a pickup would cause this. There is a large output difference between the two pickups, so I'm leaning towards the neck pickup needing to be very low, but was hoping someone could point me in the right direction before I start testing it millimeter by millimeter.

Thanks,
Zack

I have that same Guitar Madness pickup. I installed it on a Brent Mason partscaster I put together with genuine Fender neck and body. The other two pickups in the guitar, there are three, are Seymour Duncan stacked noiseless "single" coil. I needed a placeholder in the neck while waiting for my mini humbucker to be built by Sunday Handwound. I bought the Guitar Madness pickup because it was cheap. It completely overwhelms the other two pickups, I cannot physically get it far enough away from the strings to suit me. And, yes, it has boomy bass. If your pickup is bad, so is mine. I can't wait for my new pickup to arrive.

Seriously, this is a $20.00 pickup. Don't expect greatness. I'm not sure your problem is fixable—mine wasn't. As it stands, it sounds much better than it has any right to. While I have been told that cheap pickups are indistinguishable from expensive pickups, I am not convinced. Buy yourself a $190.00 Lollar, and I bet your problem goes away. I apologize for the nasty tone in that last sentence.

I ordered from Sunday Handwound because I have a set of Jazzmaster pickups from the guy (I don't know his name, but I'm sure it is a one man shop), and I love them. His Firebird is $125.00 with free shipping, your choice of output and cover material. You can get a Seymour Duncan for $119.00. The Lollar is indeed $190.00. Good luck with your project.

 

[dougstrum]

Perhaps the guitar madness pickup is not true firebird construction with the magnets in each coil.
Possibly they are built like a minihum with a single magnet at the bottom and iron pole pieces in the coils~
That could be part of the problem.

 

[zsullivan38]

I have that same Guitar Madness pickup. I installed it on a Brent Mason partscaster I put together with genuine Fender neck and body. The other two pickups in the guitar, there are three, are Seymour Duncan stacked noiseless "single" coil. I needed a placeholder in the neck while waiting for my mini humbucker to be built by Sunday Handwound. I bought the Guitar Madness pickup because it was cheap. It completely overwhelms the other two pickups, I cannot physically get it far enough away from the strings to suit me. And, yes, it has boomy bass. If your pickup is bad, so is mine. I can't wait for my new pickup to arrive.

Seriously, this is a $20.00 pickup. Don't expect greatness. I'm not sure your problem is fixable—mine wasn't. As it stands, it sounds much better than it has any right to. While I have been told that cheap pickups are indistinguishable from expensive pickups, I am not convinced. Buy yourself a $190.00 Lollar, and I bet your problem goes away. I apologize for the nasty tone in that last sentence.

I ordered from Sunday Handwound because I have a set of Jazzmaster pickups from the guy (I don't know his name, but I'm sure it is a one man shop), and I love them. His Firebird is $125.00 with free shipping, your choice of output and cover material. You can get a Seymour Duncan for $119.00. The Lollar is indeed $190.00. Good luck with your project.

I didn't expect it to be great, but they had gotten pretty good reviews, so I thought it was worth a shot. What was really surprising was just the difference from bridge to neck. They are wound to almost the same resistance and are of the same construction, so one would think they'd sound similar in regards to EQ. I am pretty happy overall with them for the price, just very strange that they are so different from the neck to the bridge. The bridge definitely sounds a lot better than it could/should for a $20 (less actually since I bought them as a pair) pickup.

I am glad to hear it's not just me, though. I'll have to decide where I want to go with it... I've been finding that I kind of like a single coil neck and humbucker bridge. Well, not a humbucker humbucker but something like a hot rails or firebird etc. Will have to decide if I want to put another better firebird in the neck or go with something like a P94 or jazzmaster pickup. I do still have some adjustment room to drop this GM firebird pickup lower, so maybe I will just put it insanely low into the body and see how it sounds. It's not awful, just kind of hard to play with any gain when I have to be very delicate with my bass strings.

Perhaps the guitar madness pickup is not true firebird construction with the magnets in each coil.
Possibly they are built like a minihum with a single magnet at the bottom and iron pole pieces in the coils~
That could be part of the problem.

I was actually surprised to find that these are - or at least explicitly stated to be in the description on the listing - constructed like actual firebird pickups and wound to be similar resistance to the vintage spec. Before this, I had given up on trying to find an affordable firebird pickup constructed correctly.

 

[elpico]

Epiphone's firebird pickups are always available very cheaply on ebay, although I guess they don't meet you requirement of "wound to vintage spec".

This'll be a bit left field, but have you ever tried the bass control Leo starting adding after he left Fender? Instantly transforms boomy neck pickups. Might be something fun to play with while you decide where you want to go with the pickups.

 

[Zepfan]

First thing to do is lower the bass side of the pickup.
You may have minibuckers posing as Firebirds or on of those newer Artec made Firebird pickups with ceramic magnets in the coil bobbins.

 

[dougstrum]

@elpico mentioned the Epiphone firebird pickups.
There was a long thread on them a couple of years ago. They're not expensive and have proper firebird construction, that is what I have in the yellow guitar.
Not boomy at all.

 

[SixStringSlinger]

Epiphone's firebird pickups are always available very cheaply on ebay, although I guess they don't meet you requirement of "wound to vintage spec".

@elpico mentioned the Epiphone firebird pickups.
There was a long thread on them a couple of years ago. They're not expensive and have proper firebird construction, that is what I have in the yellow guitar.
Not boomy at all.

And unless I'm mistaken they're only different from vintage spec in that they're a touch hotter, but nothing crazy.

 

[bender66]

Perhaps the guitar madness pickup is not true firebird construction with the magnets in each coil.
Possibly they are built like a minihum with a single magnet at the bottom and iron pole pieces in the coils~
That could be part of the problem.

This. I recall GM altering the description a couple yrs ago alluding to a "proper" FB pickup when they touted it as FB all along. Unless they provide images of the internal build I still think it's got slugs in bobbins and a mag on the underside. It's be easy to remove the cover after you get your new pickup. I've got an import "FB" here minus the cover as an example.

I didn't expect it to be great, but they had gotten pretty good reviews, so I thought it was worth a shot. What was really surprising was just the difference from bridge to neck. They are wound to almost the same resistance and are of the same construction, so one would think they'd sound similar in regards to EQ. I am pretty happy overall with them for the price, just very strange that they are so different from the neck to the bridge. The bridge definitely sounds a lot better than it could/should for a $20 (less actually since I bought them as a pair) pickup.

I am glad to hear it's not just me, though. I'll have to decide where I want to go with it... I've been finding that I kind of like a single coil neck and humbucker bridge. Well, not a humbucker humbucker but something like a hot rails or firebird etc. Will have to decide if I want to put another better firebird in the neck or go with something like a P94 or jazzmaster pickup. I do still have some adjustment room to drop this GM firebird pickup lower, so maybe I will just put it insanely low into the body and see how it sounds. It's not awful, just kind of hard to play with any gain when I have to be very delicate with my bass strings.




I was actually surprised to find that these are - or at least explicitly stated to be in the description on the listing - constructed like actual firebird pickups and wound to be similar resistance to the vintage spec. Before this, I had given up on trying to find an affordable firebird pickup constructed correctly.

The Epi FB720 are real FB pickups with mags in the bobbins and wood spacers. There wound a little hotter than vintage though.

If you're savy you could remove the slugs and install the correct size mags in your current pickups. Mags are inexpensive.

I'm basing my comment on the boomyness you describe. I have a mini in a Firebird VII neck position. It's not the biting FB pickup tone.

 

[telemnemonics]

As @Zepfan said just keep lowering the neck pickup under the wound strings while keeping it higher under the plain strings.

Also it is not a true Firebird, but the same rule applies to any neck pickup with boomy bass strings.

Some players just turn the bass down at the amp.

 

[zsullivan38]

As @Zepfan said just keep lowering the neck pickup under the wound strings while keeping it higher under the plain strings.

Also it is not a true Firebird, but the same rule applies to any neck pickup with boomy bass strings.

Some players just turn the bass down at the amp.

In my research, I found people claiming that they weren't real firebird pickups. This is the current description, and I did find a comment mentioning this change right when it happened. So, if they weren't real firebirds before they are now. Or at least they are purposefully selling them as such with very clear verbiage. It would be pretty slimy to go out of their way to state that they're built this way when they aren't though. I'd be kind of surprised if someone selling the volume they do did that. It would be a better business move to just not sell "firebird" pickups at all if that was the case, or at least not even talk about the construction.

Epiphone's firebird pickups are always available very cheaply on ebay, although I guess they don't meet you requirement of "wound to vintage spec".

This'll be a bit left field, but have you ever tried the bass control Leo starting adding after he left Fender? Instantly transforms boomy neck pickups. Might be something fun to play with while you decide where you want to go with the pickups.

I actually have wired up controls like that before and love them. I just don't have the right pot to put one in this guitar right now and haven't felt like ordering one/figuring out where I'd add a third pot yet. That might end up being the solution.

 

[zsullivan38]

Update: I have the pickup lowered to around 6 or 7 centimeters below the strings on the bass side. It actually sounds okay now. Pretty crazy.

 

[Slamb]

Q pickups in Croatia make really good vintage spec firebirds and they are reasonably priced .

 

[24 track]

I have an Epiphone Firebird 5 LTD I just found out the pickups were made by Samsung, mini humbuckers and they sound great , surprise surprise!

 

[zsullivan38]

I have an Epiphone Firebird 5 LTD I just found out the pickups were made by Samsung, mini humbuckers and they sound great , surprise surprise!

View attachment 1393643

View attachment 1393641

Love a white firebird!

 

[24 track]

Love a white firebird!

Thank you,
I have this strung left handed and it does not look stupid played upside down LOL I did have to install a harmonica bridge on it to get E 1 string into intonation , but she plays fantastic!

White is a special color that is only run once a year because the pigment is so heavy it plugs the guns instantly same with Gibson models.

 

[Zepfan]

@elpico mentioned the Epiphone firebird pickups.
There was a long thread on them a couple of years ago. They're not expensive and have proper firebird construction, that is what I have in the yellow guitar.
Not boomy at all.

Got those in my Epiphone Firebird guitar. They have FB720 number on the bottom sticker. They are a bit hotter though. Just set them a little lower and you can get some good tone out of them.
Don't know what the new Gibson and Epiphone Firbird guitars have.

 

[Zepfan]

Update: I have the pickup lowered to around 6 or 7 centimeters below the strings on the bass side. It actually sounds okay now. Pretty crazy.

It's with any pickup you have, it's all in the pickup height adjustment.
Every guitar is different and pickups will have some variables. So all adjustments should be by ear. High for volume response, but low is were the tone is. So a little compromise in one or the other gets you where you want