HH Pickup Heights

[aussie]

Hi guys,

Question about pickup heights for the two pickups on my HH 'ray. I see on the EB site that the neck pu is meant to be lower, and that's how mine came settup new from the factory, but my front pickup has noticeably less volume than my bridge pu. Is there any reason they're meant to be different heights and is there any reason not to raise the neck pu a touch?

Many thanks in advance.

Ryan.

 

[CW Zing]

I just raised my neck pickup a smidge to match the distance (pickup to bottom of string) of the bridge pu when I first got mine, then went through the five settings and corrected slightly to satisfy what my own ears wanted to hear.

There's factory specs, then there's that "certain, special something" from adjusting to yer taste and not lookin back...

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

....Is there any reason they're meant to be different heights....

Yeah. As you fret further up the neck the strings become closer to the PUPs. If you fret at the last fret you'll see that both PUPs are roughly the same distance from the strings (eventhough the neck PUP has initially been set lower). Had both been set at the same height the neck PUP would now be too close to the strings and possibley affect their vibration.

 

[cellkirk74]

I found out that this differs a lot with increasing volume. While I too thought that the front pickups sounded a little weak alone at home while playing on low volume, the factory specs are perfectely fine at giggin volume / with the full band and the big rig.

Just try it

 

[drTStingray]

The 'audible' volumes can also be affected by the amount of natural mid range picked up by the different coil combinations/locations. Eg HH in combination produces a more scooped slap sound than the bridge H soloed. I find that minor adjustment of the mid range EQ control on my SR4HH usually compensates, where needed.

 

[aussie]

Thanks guys, as usual the knowledge on this board is fantastic. I've only been using it at home and quiet band practices lately, so will see how it goes when we start gigging again.

 

[keko]

I'm pleased with factory pickup heights on my reflex 5 HH and don't wanna touch anything!

Anyway, I use 90% bridge H, mostly in parallel, occasionally series (must decrease volume a bit). Use also inner coils time after time and rarely both pickups in parallel for some slap action! I never use neck H when giggin', just sometimes at home for practice!

 

[Golem]

`

String-to-PU distance ain't the whole deal.
There's a lot more motion [aka energy] in
the string segments over the neck PU as
compared to the string segments over the
bridge PU. You just hafta work out what
works for you.

And don't ferget the fore-aft PU tilt thing.
Matching the string angle [which acoarst
varies as you play] is often the default
plan, but I go with a really steep angle,
greater than what it takes to match the
string angle [even for the highest notes,
which I never play anywho]. I like to get
a bit more emphasis outa the bridgeward
coil of each PU. OTOH, this means when
I'm playing the center pair of SC's, it's a
more neck oriented sound [cuz the front
coil of the bridge HB is lowered and the
rear coil of the neck HB is raised].

Etc etc etc etc ...... I have a number of
dual humbugger basses, and they've all
got various angular tweaks ... It's really
a bigger head trip to tweak the basses
that have no PU balancer, just a switch,
cuz PU height adjustment also serves as
PU balance adjustment overall.