What's the effect of pickup height on humbuckers?

The neck pickup will always be lower than the bridge pickup. Theres more output from the string above the neck pickup. Balancing them is pretty easy though.

FWIW, I start with the neck pickup. I like to get rid of the boominess and smooth out the transients. I usually end up with a low neck pickup. On my LP the neck pickup ( A Suhr Thornbucker ) sits just below the trim ring. I then adjust the bridge pickup to balance with the neck pickup.
 
rcm78 said:
The neck pickup will always be lower than the bridge pickup. Theres more output from the string above the neck pickup. Balancing them is pretty easy though.

FWIW, I start with the neck pickup. I like to get rid of the boominess and smooth out the transients. I usually end up with a low neck pickup. On my LP the neck pickup ( A Suhr Thornbucker ) sits just below the trim ring. I then adjust the bridge pickup to balance with the neck pickup.
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Can you lessen boominess in the neck pickup by any pickup adjustments?

I've raised the pole pieces, maybe made some difference, but not enough. They're only a little above the top of the cover. Maybe I didn't go far enough, but I'm a bit reluctant to make major changes on a higher end guitar (for me anyway, a Collings City Limits). It was used, so maybe I shouldn't be so precious about it's current state, but still.
 
Dave Merrill said:
I flat out love the bridge pickup on my new-to-me Collings City Limits. Detailed, ballsy, responds well to the tone control, just great.

However, while the neck pickup sounds good on it's own, in comparison to the bridge pickup, it's a bit quieter, and lacking in bite. With much gain, and I don't mean super high gain, it tends to get kind of vowel-y, nice sound, but I'd rather get that by turning the tone control down, and have full up be a different thing.

Both pickups are Throbaks, too expensive to experiment with replacing them.

Would raising it closer to the strings possible help? Any other ideas?
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Pickup height = volume

The general rule is to set the bridge pickup height where it sounds best to you, then volume-match the neck pickup by raising it or lowering it (do this with drives or compression active in the signal chain). From there, you can do a couple of tweaks to adjust the tone. If the neck pickup has too much low end, you can lower the bass side of the pickup, and vice versa, if it doesn't have enough low end you can raise the bass side (you may need to raise or lower the overall pickup height again to adjust volume). You can also adjust the pole screws. The pole screws in a humbucker are magnetized, but they aren't magnets. They have a very low magnetism, but raising or lowering them can have a subtle effect on tone. Raising the pole screws can "thin" out the tone, while lowering them can "fatten up" the tone.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Can you lessen boominess in the neck pickup by any pickup adjustments?

I've raised the pole pieces, maybe made some difference, but not enough. They're only a little above the top of the cover. Maybe I didn't go far enough, but I'm a bit reluctant to make major changes on a higher end guitar (for me anyway, a Collings City Limits). It was used, so maybe I shouldn't be so precious about it's current state, but still.
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I don't normally adjust the pole pieces. I lower the pickup. Boominess is very subjective. I expect there to be some but I lower the pickup until it sounds good to me.
 
I can’t figure out why with virtually every set of pickups I’ve tried, the neck always overpowers the bridge. Yes the neck can be lowered and that’s what I do. But why don’t pickup makers just make a true match?
 
The neck position naturally has a lot more low end, so the added boominess can make it tough to balance in some guitars.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Can you lessen boominess in the neck pickup by any pickup adjustments?
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Yes.

Dave Merrill said:
I've raised the pole pieces, maybe made some difference, but not enough. They're only a little above the top of the cover. Maybe I didn't go far enough, but I'm a bit reluctant to make major changes on a higher end guitar (for me anyway, a Collings City Limits). It was used, so maybe I shouldn't be so precious about it's current state, but still.
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Raise the pole pieces a half turn of the screwdriver at time while simultaneously lowering the pickup height a half turn at a time, and test at each step. Keep count. That way you can always restore the original state. :)

I have found the bridge pickup rarely needs the pole pieces raised, excepting to stagger them a bit to even out string balance. On the bridge pickup, I usually level them at the pickup cover or a half turn above the open coil's top surface, then lower the G and E and raise the D and e.

For the neck, raising them all a couple turns (plus/minus the string balancing adjustments) unbalances the volume of the two coils a bit, which lends just a touch of single-coil clarity to help fight the woofy/boomy/muddy/unclear sounds you don't want. Season to taste, and, again, count the half turns so you can go back.... :)
 
Hi Dave,

I used this for my les paul and it's great

Dave Merrill said:
Actually it does look like the bridge pickup is closer to the strings than neck, at least from that pic, don't have the actual guitar out right now..

Makes me want to move neck closer.
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Lowering pickups does reduce bass response but also everything else. Too low and you loose a lot more than volume . Maybe a slight drop and a small eq cut in the frequency that's bugging you on your amp.
 
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