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Pickup height

Adin Shepherd

Music Theory Bragger
Nov 11, 2019
480
2
927
Melbourne, Australia
  • #2
    The only guidelines I could suggest is that if the pickups are passive don’t have them to close to the strings. Passives have a much greater magnetic pull than their active counterparts and if set to close can cause issues with the vibration of the strings, which in turn, effect things like sustain.
    I would suggest starting with them set at around 2mm from the strings and play a bit, set them a little lower and play a bit, repeat until you find a happy balance between output, sustain, tone etc.
    If your pick ups are actives, check your battery too.
    Hope this helps.
     

    Dan Shipway

    Slim Shady
  •
    • Nov 11, 2019
    726
    158
    9
  • #4
    I tend to go for loudness and clarity but without over distortion or lack of play-ability (I use EMG Zakk Wylde for reference so being too high isn’t too much of an issue for magnetic pull) However you have a sustainiac so I would assume that the higher they are the better the effect.
     

    Jake Young

    Free Bird Player
    Nov 11, 2019
    193
    1
  • #6
    Usually you can look up the factory specs of your specific guitar and they usually have a recommendation. I like my bridge pickup pretty close to the strings. Actually almost as close as I can get it without the strings touching it when really digging in. So when setting my height for humbuckers..I raise it, put my hand in palm muting posisition and push down pretty hard..if it’s too close I back it off..then repeat. Then I push down again and play. If it doesn’t touch when hard palm muting I play some open string real aggressively and make sure it doesn’t touch then.. Haha this approach works for me and the band I did the teching for 10 years. There’s a lot of factors that comes in to play but this will get you pretty close to where you need to be
     

    Noah Berends

    Campfire Attention Holder
  •
    • Nov 11, 2019
    408
    86
    Fort Wayne, IN
    13
  • #7
    Regarding the Sustainiac, the height of either pickup will make a huge difference to how the Sustainiac functions. Bringing either the bridge or neck pup closer to the strings will make the sustain effect come in much faster and much more intense, and therefore a bit harder to control (fret buzz can also occur given real low action). When you give the pups more distance, the effect will ease itself in more and be easier to control and not as intense. I believe I remember from experimenting also that when you bring the Sustainiac closer to the strings the “normal” mode began to have some harmonic response without it being in the harmonic mode, so if you want it clean definitely give it a bit of distance. In my Sustainiac-loaded Schecter I keep the Sustainiac unit itself relatively around stock height and the bridge pickup just barely raised from stock (although mine is a Duncan FullShred so it probably has different subtle specs than the Invader).
     

    Jake Young

    Free Bird Player
    Nov 11, 2019
    193
    1
  • #8
    I missed the part where you mentioned you had a sustainiac also…I owned a guitar with a sustainiac for about a year and struggled with finding a good balance between the two at first.. So I emailed Maniac Music (the guys who make the sustainiac) and also Syn’s tech Kevin to see if he had pointers…I posted their responses in a different thread that I just bumped back up so it would be easier for you to find! So it should be close to the top
     

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