[Oogadee Boogadee]

i put a duncan in my gibson V. The neck angle has the pitch in it that requires a high bridge / top-mount floyd, so the pickup has to sit very high - almost out of the routing cavity - to be near the strings.

i noticed in the stock pickups that i took out, the gibson bridge is thicker than the neck, to accommodate this neck angle issue.

I'm going to take the springs out of the pickup mounting bolts, sheer them in half, then load it all back up so that I can bring the pick-ups out more.

is this a normal thing? does duncan make pickups that are taller, specifically for this type of guitar build?

what do people normally do? raise the poles out of the pick-ups to retarded looking heights?

Thanks,
j

[scott from _actual time_]

Originally Posted by Oogadee Boogadee

is this a normal thing? does duncan make pickups that are taller, specifically for this type of guitar build?
what do people normally do? raise the poles out of the pick-ups to retarded looking heights?

the general issue is a normal thing, for set-neck guitars of gibson or similar design, and for a lot of the non-Ibanez 80s guitars before Ibanez came along with the recessed trem route.

the way i've seen it handled on Gibson & similar guitars is that the bridge pickup mounting ring is much taller than the neck one. i don't have exact measurements on me, but you could google a parts supplier for official Gibson parts. it sounds like both of your mounting rings are the same height. if it's a 6-string, you should definitely be able to find taller rings; if it's a 7, almost certainly not. cutting down the springs is a common fix for pickup height and should get you much closer.

also remember that pickups don't need to be super-close to the strings. many pickup-to-string measurements are taken with the string fretted at the highest fret, so really tiny distances like 1/8" or less are meant to happen when the string is fretted, not when it's open. some people, like our own noodles, also like the clearer high-gain sound from lower-height pickups--he says he runs his as far as 1/2" away from the strings. mine are more like 4-5 16ths.

[Apophis]

It's nothing to worry about.

[Oogadee Boogadee]

it's nothing to worry about? so, ignore the potential to make your gear sound better? haha. sure.

the original concern was b/c the neck pup pole pieces are so close to the strings that the output has a lot more bass and balls to it. The two pick ups don't sound balanced together... (the two are a jazz/custom 5). according to the sound description, the custom is supposed to have bottom end... but the jazz has so much more in this guitar, i can only attribute this to the closer distance from the strings. the neck is a lot closer, and being away from the bridge, the strings move more there... so it's a compounding issue that results in huge neck volume.

I'll cut the bridge springs in half so it can sit a little higher, and make sure the neck is low enough to make any unwanted bass mud disappear, and see what happens. If anything, it's going to look mighty cheesy with the neck pup flush with the surface and the bridge pup pretty much sitting on top of the pick guard.

btw, it's a pickguard minus pick up rings (like a strat).... it doesn't have the short and tall ring like an LP would have. also, before i do this tweaking, the neck poles are at about .250" from the strings, while the bridge poles are maxed at about .350". I'd hate to drop the neck down to a .400" depth to get a balanced sound, if that means I lose a neck tone I might like. I'd rather have adjustability in both pick ups.... ie, raise the bridge more instead. but maybe that's what i got to do... my first impression of the neck was that it had tones more bass and balls (but less clarity).... i have to listen again to judge if that was actually a good thing. I can drop it instead of raising the bridge, then just bump my amp gain a little.

[eaeolian]

Look at the JB on my 7 sometime - it's cranked way the hell up there. That's just how you have to do it with a TOM, unless you have rings.

[Zepp88]

Um, get back behind the drumkit?

[Oogadee Boogadee]

Originally Posted by Zepp88

Um, get back behind the drumkit?

believe me. i'm itching too. i haven't hit ANY drums since about November. here's the real bitch - after I hit my drums last... my new drums came in. I haven't been able to play them yet!!!

this is why i picked up guitar in the first place (dorms and drums don't mix).

[Oogadee Boogadee]

Originally Posted by eaeolian

Look at the JB on my 7 sometime - it's cranked way the hell up there. That's just how you have to do it with a TOM, unless you have rings.

that helps to explain why you had the gain a little higher on my mesa... since your jb probably sat lower on your soloist than mine did on my KV3.