Original/recommended pickup heights for Cutlass?

[KasperFauerby]

Hi guys,

I've been looking around but cannot find these specs anywhere..

What is the pickup heights that Ernie Ball recommends using for a Cutlass SSS guitar?
When I bought mine the retailer offered to perform a setup, and I'm a bit curious about the pickup adjustments he seems to have made. Would love to know what the guys who built this thing originally thought they should be.

(Also - how exactly do you measure height? Distance to an unfretted string? Fretted at the 12th? Or something else?)

Thanks!

Kasper

 

[DrKev]

Different ways of measuring this. DiMarzio (for example) recommend fretting strings at the highest fret and measure distance from bottom of low E and high E strings strings to top of their respective pole pieces. Music Man do it a little differently and measure the bottom of the open E strings to top of the pole pieces.

Cutlass

Neck:
Low E: 8/32" (6.5 mm)
Hi E: 6/32" (4.75 mm)

Middle:
Low E: 7/32" (5.5 mm)
Hi E: 5/32" (4.0 mm)

Bridge:
Low E: 6/32" (4.75 mm)
Hi E: 4/32 (3.25 mm)

(mm values are calculated from inch values and rounded to the nearest 0.25 mm)

Remember, these are a starting piint, not a target. The best sounding balance in volume from pickup to pickup and from low to high strings with any one pickup varies from player to player. Grab a screwdriver and an engineers rule and have some fun.

 

[KasperFauerby]

Thank you for the very speedy reply - this was exactly the info I was hoping to get!

I know it eventually comes down to personal preferences - but I think it's nice to have a starting point (or something to return to, should I mange to screw it up).

Another thing; Is this something I should have been able to find myself somewhere on the web page? (to avoid bothering you again in the future with similar questions )

 

[Astrofreq]

I leave it up to preference, but on my Cutlass, I immediately raised my pickups considerably and the thing immediately transformed into beast mode. I wanted more growl out of the guitar and it delivered over and above.

My Cutlass is at the factory, but I can give a measurement when I get it back. I raised them a substantial amount, which still preserving the clean single coil tone.

 

[KasperFauerby]

Yeah, please do share! That would be awesome

 

[Astrofreq]

I can do that when I get it back. Well, I bought it and it didn’t have the umph of my strat, but then I realized I had raised my strat pickup heights. I did the same to my Cutlass and BOOM the thing just screamed. Don’t get me wrong, factory settings were great, but I just wanted more power from the guitar itself and that did it. Everything just became fatter and thicker and to my ears...better.

 

[DrKev]

Is this something I should have been able to find myself somewhere on the web page?

Not that I know of. It really is most useful as a factory reference (just so they all leave the factory consistently) and is unlikely to be the best setting for many people. Just don't get too close to the strings with single coils and you can pretty much do whatever you like otherwise.

 

[jds22]

I've never tried this with my cutlass. Guess what I'm doing after work today?

 

[mikeller]

Not that I know of. It really is most useful as a factory reference (just so they all leave the factory consistently) and is unlikely to be the best setting for many people. Just don't get too close to the strings with single coils and you can pretty much do whatever you like otherwise.

Good advise on getting too close to the strings. Single coils have strong magnets and getting the pickup too close to the string will not only reduce sustain, it can create a wobble effect as well as tuning problems.

 

[Conky]

Hey radrock, did you ever take those measurements? I just wanted to know how close people are going without killing the tone/sustain.

 

[Fro]

What I use for a starting point on single coils heights is I'll use a nickel on the high E string and a stack of two nickels on the low E string to set my heights. I hold down the strings at the highest fret and adjust the pickup heights until I can just fit in the nickels. I tweak from there by ear until the balance between the highs and lows on each pickup and the volume between pickups sound right.

 

[Conky]

Thanks man, all I need now is a metric conversion of nickel dimensions hahaha...
Thanks for the info. ��

 

[DrKev]

A US nickel is 1.95 mm thick (about 5/64").

A Canadian nickel is 1.76 mm.

 

[Astrofreq]

Sorry I totally forgot about this thread. I took measurements and pics for you. The pickup heights on the LOW string side are a consistent .50 cm. On the high string side, I have them a little higher at .70 cm.


LOW E String side bridge pickup




LOW E String side neck pickup





HIGH E String side bridge pickup





HIGH E String side neck pickup

 

[Ek11sx]

My BFR Cutlass came with the pickups nearly flush with the pickguard on the low E side neck and just a little bit higher on the middle and bridge pick ups. I don't know if that was intended or not but it sounds so smooth I love it.

 

[James Troska]

I was messing with the Cutlass SSS pickup heights yesterday.

I tried raising them to Fender's vintage single coil height recommendation of 6/64"from the FRETTED string (MusicMan measures from unfretted strings). It was more powerful and fun at first. But it was a little much for my taste and some notes had that magnetic pull wobble.

So I tried lowering them a bit to Fender's Texas Specials recommendation of 8/64" from the fretted string. This seems to work really well. It's still a little closer to the strings than MusicMan recommends. But it's within a reasonable range. And it gets a little more punch without introducing any weird side effects.

My pickups are now set up as follows:
Neck 8/64"
Middle 7/64"
Bridge 6/64"

I'm wondering if the string brand affects the optimal pickup height. I'm using Elixirs. MusicMan stocks the guitars with M-Steels. It's possible that the different string types have different magnetic properties that will interact with the pickups differently.

 

[Fro]

I haven’t measured but my pickups are set lower than stock with the low E set lower than the high E side. They sound smoother and more straty.