Pickup Height

[Nicholas Tooley]

Hey everyone. Was having a dilemma and would love some advice. I have a schecter that has active EMG set, and am curious if Active pickups are suppose to be really close to the strings? I have tried putting them close, but then it loses its sustain, but to low, and it doesnt have enough punch and is muddy. Eventually i want to get passives, but trying to get a decent tone outta these for now. Now im just curious, whats some pickups you guys like?

 

[Noah Rice]

I prefer passive humbuckers. That being said, A7X’s style of music (at least the lead parts) were written with active pickups in mind. Dive bombs, pinch harmonics, tapping, ect are more clearly heard with active pickups although they are definitely not impossible with passive pickups as long as your technique is right.
I would keep the active pickups, leave the bridge as is and only raise the height on the neck pickup and see if that helps clear up your sound.

 

[Hiroshi Nakauye]

Has this been an issue for you since you first had the guitar? Or did it start recently? If its recent, try changing the 9 volt. Low battery voltage does strange things to active pickups. Or maybe angle the pickups. Bring the bass side up higher and lower the treble.

 

[Nicholas Tooley]

Hiroshi, It seemed good for a while, but lately my ear has been noticing alot more little things in my tone. I replaced the battery the other day, but ill try angling them.
Noah, yeah i like the actives for some stuff like dive bombs and tapping like you said, they just sound really sterile to me. Ill probably keep them and the next guitar i get will have passives. But i will try and raise em. Right now theyre kinda low.
Thank you guys for the help/advice. Much appreciated !

 

[Hiroshi Nakauye]

In terms of passives. Maybe look into Syn’s pickup set? As for pickups that I have tried and really liked. The dimarzio crunch lab is excellent especially paired with the liquifire in the neck. The seymour duncan JB/JAZZ combo is a great all purpose set. Lundgren M6 set is a super good high gain set with good clarity. Bareknuckle aftermaths are my current favorite high gain set. The hard part is there are a ton of excellent options to choose from.

 

[Adin Shepherd]

Actives can be set closer to the strings than passives due to less magnetic pull. I have EMG 81s in my ESP, I set them close and one pick up at a time wound them back a bit, played a bit, wound them back a bit, played a bit, until I had a balance I was happy with.
To high and low don’t seem to be working for you so set them somewhere in between and adjust a little from there.

 

[Christopher Lonski]

Adin is correct, active pickups are SUPPOSED to be set super close to the strings because the magnet is so weak. The battery and preamp are what give the pickup its volume and punch. Try backing them off just a little bit, get your bridge pickup where its best for you. Small movements go a long way with pickups, especially active pickups. After that, set your neck pickup so that the volume is roughly equally to the bridge. Its best to do this with a clean tone. Active pickups, by nature, should have a it more sustain because the magnet isn’t pulling on the string nearly as much. Im pretty sure the only way you would lose a significant amount of sustain is if the string is touching the pickup at all and stopping the string from vibrating.