New Member

[freddy]

Hi All,

first I would like to mention that you have an amazing community and very informative , as a new member to this forum I would like to introduce myself my name is Freddy I am 37 YO and I like a lot Jackson guitars mainly the 80's , 3 years ago I have bought the AS san dimas ( import model ) right after it was released , the guitar was nice but I had some "minor" quality problems with it and after 6 months I have traded it for a SG Custom ( 3 PU model ) which I had for additional 6 months but still I was not satisfied from it therefore I have sold it , after long searches for a proper axe I have found a second hand US made AS on the local market it took me about 2 months of negotiations until I have bought it.
now finally I can say that I have an amazing axe that I have bought for a very attractive price (about 45% from the retail value) the only negative point was that the guitar needs a full set up as the previous owner messed with it a bit ( he changed the strings to .11 ) as result of it there is very annoying fret buzz across the neck on the E & A strings apart of that it sounds and plays amazing.

due to the fact that the previous owner messed up with the guitar can some one help me with the pickups height adjustment ( what is the actual height of each pickup ) what should be the neck relief and the action height as I would like to send it to a tech for a proper set up.

thank you in advance.

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[daisp]

Welcome! super nice guitar...I'd say set ups are a personal thing so get him to set it up the way that feels best to you...

[Force]

Welcome & love the guitar. Evey pick up is different, each has ideal height. The main thing to watch is if it's to close to the strings the magnets pull on them & you get oscillation, just mess around til you find what you're happy with.

[Mudlark]

Welcome. I agree with setting the string height to your own preference.

That said, my Jackson owners manual/warranty booklet says 1.5mm high at the 12th fret on both the high and low strings.

[Hayabusa hooligan]

Hello and welcome to the madness a great group here with knowledge that is just amazing
Rich

[straycat]

Welcome.
No set pick up height measurement just whatever sounds good to your ears too close to the strings and they can pull your strings out of tune over time or they will not sustain or ring out very well too far away they get a weak choked out sound so you need to find a happy medium in between too high and too low.
The neck needs to be as flat as possible according to Jackson but again your preference is what matters.
Most Jacksons when I do a set up I try to get the neck as flat as possible.

[freddy]

thank you all for your kind replays , for the moment the action is bit too high for my taste (2.2mm for both sides ) i would prefer 1.2 - 1.5 Max and light gauge strings , with regards to the sound i feel that its a bit choked might be that i need to get used for the SD or should i install a treble bleed in order to open the sound of the SD with regards to the single coils they are amazing and too trebly for my taste ( when i play them clean i set back a bit the tone pot )
with regards to my rig i have two amps one is the Marshal SL-5 combo and JTM145 1W head (limited edition #195 of 200 ) with 12X2 cab loaded with GT12's

[Tetsuo]

The only time I use a tone pot is with single coils. In general they are trebly beasts. Too close as mentioned you will get a loss of tone and sustain because of the magnets. EMG's don't really suffer from this because they have weak magnets. My action is always low but that is preference. I'm a bitch with weak fingers so I need it low.

[freddy]

update,

I have performed the set up and now the guitar sounds and plays 10 times better I have replaced the .11 with EB .9 ( which are my preferred strings ) and there is a huge difference in sound as the pickups sound as they should, one of the things that I have noticed during the setup is that in the near future I will need some fret work as some of them are worn.


thank you all for your support and happy new year.