How to adjust pickup height

[MartinBarre]

I'm not talking about humbuckers, that's self explanatory. But my SL3 has a couple of stacked humbuckers/single coils and I have no idea how to adjust the height on them. They both sound very similar to me and I'd like to try moving the neck pup down and the centre pup up. How do I do it? The screws at the sides seem to attach the pups to the body.

BTW Sorry if this has been answered a million times - I did search but I'm not sure exactly how to word this so found nothing.

[JACKSONFREAK]

just turn the screws that are on either side of the pups. To raise th emiddle one. turn the screw counter clockwise. and to lower the neck turn them clockwise. There should be either a spring or a latex tubing under the pups to keep them stable. Some of the pups had a foam block under them also for stability.
Gil

[straycat]

+1.Its good that you ask questions more people should do that.

[MartinBarre]

So I just adjust them exactly the same as any other pickup? I just asked a REALLY stupid question then didn't I?!
I did try turning the screws at the sides of the pups but it seemed to me they didnt adjust them, rather they were actually attaching the pups to the guitar body. Very strange.

[dg]

Singles in a rear-loaded guitar will either have springs on the screws or some foam rubber behind them to hold the pickup up in the cavity. I've bought a few used guitars that had the foam, and it can get compressed over time & not do a good job when you try to raise the pickup. It's easy to replace, and foam weather-stripping works great.

[straycat]

Thats what I use too dg.I have seen rubber,springs,foam etc.It looks like Jackson used whatever they had on hand at the time.

[fett]

I remember when I was new here and I ragged on the fact that one of my Charvels had foam.:ROTF: "No springs for you!!!" As I recall, someone suggested latex tubing cut in half length-wise.

[JACKSONFREAK]

I remember when I was new here and I ragged on the fact that one of my Charvels had foam.:ROTF: "No springs for you!!!" As I recall, someone suggested latex tubing cut in half length-wise.

Hm never heard of it being used that way. I've always seen it used around the pickup screws. In place of springs.
I learned something today
Gil

[ddr]

Singles in a rear-loaded guitar will either have springs on the screws or some foam rubber behind them to hold the pickup up in the cavity. I've bought a few used guitars that had the foam, and it can get compressed over time & not do a good job when you try to raise the pickup. It's easy to replace, and foam weather-stripping works great.

Thanks guys,
Not a stupid question, you saved me a trip to the shop. I just popped in some strips of 3/16" thick weatherstripping and I am good to go.

[Trussrod]

If I wanted to lower the neck pup on my DK2 I would have to remove the pup and cut the springs since they can only compress so much. Otherwise I'd crack the pup cover from the added tension. Just a thought...

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

My experience was that the fully-compressed spring was about the same height as the wire running underneath the pickups.

As someone who gets annoyed with middle pickups (I pick pretty "deep" sometimes) I actually replaced the middle Classic Stack in my SL1 (which has really tall, staggered poles) with a Hot Stack, which has a single flat bar pole piece and is a few hundredths shorter.