How high do you set your firebird pickups?

[dougstrum]

I put the pickup in the blue guitar together from parts I had it's reads 5.7 k
The epi firebird in the yellow guitar is 7.5 k

Both guitars have plenty of snap and definition on the E & A strings.

 

[zsullivan38]

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

Just never had to lower one that much before... If it wasn't on a guitar with a raised bridge, it would be below the body. Pretty extreme.

 

[telemnemonics]

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.


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.

I have three from GM and took them apart, initially to replace the tone dulling brass cover with nickel silver.
They look like Firebirds with solid metal slabs in the coils, the whole length of the coil is open like a Firebird, but the metal is iron not alnico.
I ended up buying alnico bars for Firebird pickups that fit the openings, but then had a microphonic pickup I had to remove and pot a second time.

Not bought and taken apart recently ones.

 

[Grandfunkfan]

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 my neck pickup flush with the mounting ring. Probably a little more than a quarter of an inch. Lower is better especially if you have a short scale guitar. The lack of string tension is already gonna create a boomy tone and the neck pickup being too close makes it worse. I'm sure everyone has there own way of doing it, but I get my neck pickup set first. Once it's dialed in I go to work on the bridge pickup to get some balance and complimentry tone for the middle position. BTW, you don't have to be too gradual with your adjustments with these pickups, there not as sensitive as a single coil. If you're worried about getting to far out, take a measurement of your starting point and you'll have a point of reference to get back to. The other thing that helps is, taking breaks after a half hour or 45 minutes then give your ears a rest and listen again. It's real easy to lose perspective after a while. My final test after I think I have em set is to check the next day. Good luck.

 

[Heartbreaker_Esq]

My Gibson Firebird from 2017 apparently has mini-hums rather than "proper" FB pickups. And I have noticed a similar issue. When balancing the volume of pickups (I pretty much always play in middle position), I never turn the neck up to 10. Somewhere between 8-10 on that volume knob gets pretty wooly from the neck pickup.

I bought mine from a buddy of mine, and when I got it, the neck pickup was nearly flush with the body of the guitar. I've elected to keep it there, as I think moving it closer would only add to the issue, and it works well where it is.

 

[Rob DiStefano]

USE YOUR EARS to set the distance between the top of any pickup to the bottom of the strings. Do not care what others do, do what is best for You. You can measure and save that pickup-to-string gap as a record if that makes you feel comfy, but totally not necessary since you can always reset to what your Ears Prefer.

 

[SPUDCASTER]

Probably where I like the sound of it.

"Grab a screwdriver and let yer ears be yer guide".......Fezz Parka

 

[edvard]

Another thing to do is wire the neck pickup in parallel; that'll knock off some volume, and let more highs through. That will only work if the pickups have 4 conductors, which the GM Songbirds do. I wish the Epiphone FB720s came in 4-conductor, I accidentally ruined one trying to access the inside wires. Grrr...

 

[zsullivan38]

USE YOUR EARS to set the distance between the top of any pickup to the bottom of the strings. Do not care what others do, do what is best for You. You can measure and save that pickup-to-string gap as a record if that makes you feel comfy, but totally not necessary since you can always reset to what your Ears Prefer.

Tried that for quite some time before making this post... Issue was, it was getting so far down that I thought something might be wrong with the pickup. Kept thinking "surely it would never need to be this low" because it was getting so far away from the strings I felt like it was about to lose almost all of its output. Turns out it did just need to be well lower than I've ever had to set any other pickups, which others with similar pickups clued me into in this thread. It did lose a little output from being so far away, but that wasn't a bad thing in this case.

Another thing to do is wire the neck pickup in parallel; that'll knock off some volume, and let more highs through. That will only work if the pickups have 4 conductors, which the GM Songbirds do. I wish the Epiphone FB720s came in 4-conductor, I accidentally ruined one trying to access the inside wires. Grrr...

I like that idea of running the neck in parallel... I might have to give that a shot. My other thought was to throw in a 1meg tone pot. I got it sounding pretty good with it set really low, but I think I could get it even better doing one or both of those things.

I have three from GM and took them apart, initially to replace the tone dulling brass cover with nickel silver.
They look like Firebirds with solid metal slabs in the coils, the whole length of the coil is open like a Firebird, but the metal is iron not alnico.
I ended up buying alnico bars for Firebird pickups that fit the openings, but then had a microphonic pickup I had to remove and pot a second time.

Not bought and taken apart recently ones.

Never caught that the description states "sets of bar poles". That is an interesting distinction compared to because it does not claim that they are or are not bar magnets... Were the magnets you bought to fit in there standard mini humbucker bar pole piece sized?

 

[Rob DiStefano]

Tried that for quite some time before making this post... Issue was, it was getting so far down that I thought something might be wrong with the pickup. Kept thinking "surely it would never need to be this low" because it was getting so far away from the strings I felt like it was about to lose almost all of its output. Turns out it did just need to be well lower than I've ever had to set any other pickups, which others with similar pickups clued me into in this thread. It did lose a little output from being so far away, but that wasn't a bad thing in this case.
......

Every passive transducer (pickup) has its output/tone limits within its build. Nothing less than your ears matters. If any pickup can't deliver sound that's in yer mind's eye, then it's either the wrong pickup or yer chasing windmill dragons.

 

[TwoBear]

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

Firebird 5G Ultra Wideband? Sneaky rats at the telephone company trying to get me to change services-my Bank tried that a long time ago with a toaster-still got it, it’s a Sunbeam! Oh my, do you think it was the car company? Everybody is in cahoots! Ha

I’m sorry I got to fooling around and forgot to mention that it’s cool you got your pick up working.

They usually do sound good lower in my opinion. What strings you’re using can affect that. And I don’t think anyone suggested changing or swapping positions of pick ups? If so I apologize for missing that.

 

[TwoBear]

Just never had to lower one that much before... If it wasn't on a guitar with a raised bridge, it would be below the body. Pretty extreme.

I don’t think extreme at all. We know what we like to hear, and if I can lower a P.U. without having to buy another one, and it sounds great, I’m in! Added, bonus is more sensitivity (Maybe debatable, but for me, I guess it’s a different range low to high, pick softer and hit harder) and you can turn up your amp louder too!

 

[Zepfan]

What caps and pots do you have presently?
500k pots and .022 caps are what most use. 1 meg pot would probably get you into Filtertron territory.
One thing I've used on a few is a tone circuit with 2 different value caps and a no tone/volume only option.