Pickup Heights Please Help!!

[maiden666]

hi i have a dk2 with d design pups in a hss.just had a fret dress and action lowered right down and trem blocked but when i got guitar home i noticed guitar sounding harsh,could this be the pickup heights if it was what settings should i use or just lower humbuker all way down and do it by ear from there.please help dave

[KBRR]

well when you get your guitar action lower the guitar responds differently , you get more string buzz and ofcourse tone is affected due to the strings being closer to the pup. Try adjust your pup start low and work your way up until you get a sound you are happy with .

[dg]

I've usually found that Duncan's recommended settings work pretty well for me, with a slight tweak to taste. They recommend 1/8" for neck pickups and for the bridge they recommend 1/16" at the high E and 3/32" at the low E. For higher output pickups I tend to lower them just a bit from there.

[Mr Metal]

Start from there (Duncan settings) and lower it to see if it sounds better or worse. Don't get it any closer to the string though....You'll get magnetic pull (the strings would want to stick to the polepieces) which robs sustain and sounds terrible..........I personally like them lower than the Duncan recommendation..............

[fett]

The vibration on a string produces a figure 8. If the pup is too high it breaks the bottom. If it is too low the full 8 doesn't provide the full signal to the pup. The bottom line is to adjust the pup height so you get a full 8 and the best sound.

[scotty]

This is a good thread. I think I am going to learn something.

[straycat]

I adj each pickup to about the same vol using the height screws then tweak the pole pieces to the point where you hear the note "bloom" and hold the note before it decays.The neck pickup is easy getting the bridge takes some tweaking but spend some time and your guitar will sound great.