# Distance from bridge to pickup.



## cerfew (Jan 30, 2011)

For the bridge pickup to the bridge- is there a proper way to determine how far it should be? On the guitar I just finished, the pickup is about .5~1 cm farther from the bridge than my other guitars and it sounds MUCH different-too bassy and not very crisp like a bridge pickup should sound. Thankfully, it's on a pickguard and I have a template so I can always change it if I have to. But my question is... how do you space it so it sounds its best?


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## b7string (Jan 30, 2011)

cerfew said:


> For the bridge pickup to the bridge- is there a proper way to determine how far it should be? On the guitar I just finished, the pickup is about .5~1 cm farther from the bridge than my other guitars and it sounds MUCH different-too bassy and not very crisp like a bridge pickup should sound. Thankfully, it's on a pickguard and I have a template so I can always change it if I have to. But my question is... how do you space it so it sounds its best?



I'm very curious too, I've noticed different guitars using different distances aswell, is it just trial and error to achieve the best result? (Which would be a total pain if your guitar has no pickguard)


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## littlephil (Jan 30, 2011)

It depends on the scale of the guitar. A very exaggerated example would be a 50" scale, obviously you wouldn't have the pickup spacing the same as if it was a 25.5" scale. 
The positioning is more of a ratio compared to the scale than an actual measurement that can be applied to every guitar. 
As a general rule of thumb though, about 2 - 3cm (about an inch) from the point where the string leaves the high E saddle to the middle of the bridge side coil (so from the saddle to the polepiece) is roughly where it is on all the 25.5" scale guitars I've owned with humbuckers in the bridge.

I'm not sure how manufacturers calculate it/decide where to put the pickup though. On the guitars I've built, I've just followed 2-3cm from the high E saddle.


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## vansinn (Jan 30, 2011)

I don't think this can be determined scientifically.
BuildYourGuitar.com :: Pickup Placement has some interesting info on overtone ranges and their positions relative to pup placements, but do note this is only for open strings, and will change with every fretting position.

On a sixer, I replaced the OBL 900XL bucker for an OBL 450XL (single coil size), and as such had a large routing to play with.
My findings matched just fine with the OP's experience, that mounting the 450 furthest away from the bridge resulted in a too bassy/swampy tone, especialy when distorted; too close was too agressive, especially for the upper strings.
I ended up mounting it reverse-angled with low side poles ~3.5cm from bridge, high side poles ~4cm, which resulted in a crisp/cash/agressive low end and not too agressive high end.


For experimentations, how about making a jig for mounting the pup upside-down, using finger screws so it can be easily moved back-n-forth, and attached the jig with double sticking tape to the body?
This should work just fine for neck pos, but will of course be a Bit unhandy for actually playing with bridge pos, but is still a lot better than doing an incorrect routing


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