mingsta Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 I picked up a couple of basses in recent times - a Musicman Stingray 4HH and a Sadowsky RV-HPJ. Both lovely basses, but both with a couple of niggles compared to my two long termers (a '93 Ray and Bongo 5HH). The Sadowsky had a quiet E-String and the bridge pickup was considerably quieter than the neck. In contrast, the 4HH 'ray was lovely and balanced across all PUP's and strings, but the output level was considerably lower than all my other basses (though not fair to compare with the apocalyptic Bongo HH!!!) to the point where I thought that there was an issue with the battery contacts/electronics. I finally got round to fiddling with PUP heights last weekend and am kicking myself for not doing this sooner as it appears to have sorted out the problems on both basses! The question is, there was previously a good 8-9mm of distance from strings to PUPs, while now there's about 4-5mm. Does this still fall within what would be considered a sensible distance, or have I gone too far? Sorry for the numpty question, I haven't adjusted the PUP height on my '93 Ray since I was in my early 20's! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Pickup clearance is only an issue if your playing style means that the string can bounce off the pickup. By and large, this is generally considered to be A Bad Thing. Apart from that, just do whatever sounds good to your ears. Experimenting with pickup height is fun and easy, and it's free too! Always surprises me when people spend hours faffing around with saddles and stuff but don't seem to notice the pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey R Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1386242338' post='2297539'] Pickup clearance is only an issue if your playing style means that the string can bounce off the pickup. By and large, this is generally considered to be A Bad Thing.. [/quote] Ive always had this problem, to the point where I cant play basses with exposed poles on the pickups. All my basses have covered poles, which allows me to dig in as much as I like, whilst having the pickups much closer to the strings than I would otherwise be able to do. You can get replacement pickups for your MMs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badboy1984 Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 String height, saddle etc is more for playing action. It doesn't affect tone, it only affect how comfortably i play the instrument. Pickup height will affect tone because the string and the pickup distance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ou7shined Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 4mm is about as close as you want to get really. Any closer and the magnets start to take a physical hold of the strings and will dampen them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Alsatian Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 You could always look up the factory specs - on a Fender Jazz bass, when holding the string at the last fret, it's around 7/64" (you can convert that to metric easily) on the bass side and 6/64" on the treble side. It's a good starting point for your Sadowsky and you can work from there. On a MM bass, here are the specs from the Music Man website: [i][color=#000000][font=Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][size=3]The factory specifications for the pickup height is 6/32" or 4.76mm from the top of the plastic pickup cover to the bottom of the G string. The angle of the pickup is set fairly level, so the larger strings are naturally a bit closer. If you haven't already adjusted the pickup or changed to a very heavy gauge string set, you shouldn't have to do any adjustments on the pickup.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][size=3]On the 2-pickup basses the measurements are virtually the same on the bridge pickup and the neck pickup is further away, about 8/32" or 6.35mm from the bottom of the string to the top of the pickup cover.[/size][/font][/color][/i] If you do find that your playing style hits exposed poles - put some black insulating tape over the poles. It won't affect the pickup and is a lot cheaper than changing the pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mingsta Posted December 5, 2013 Author Share Posted December 5, 2013 Thanks, some really good info there! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime_BASS Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 [quote name='Green Alsatian' timestamp='1386272175' post='2298165'] You could always look up the factory specs - on a Fender Jazz bass, when holding the string at the last fret, it's around 7/64" (you can convert that to metric easily) on the bass side and 6/64" on the treble side. It's a good starting point for your Sadowsky and you can work from there. On a MM bass, here are the specs from the Music Man website: [i][color=#000000][font=Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][size=3]The factory specifications for the pickup height is 6/32" or 4.76mm from the top of the plastic pickup cover to the bottom of the G string. The angle of the pickup is set fairly level, so the larger strings are naturally a bit closer. If you haven't already adjusted the pickup or changed to a very heavy gauge string set, you shouldn't have to do any adjustments on the pickup.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][size=3]On the 2-pickup basses the measurements are virtually the same on the bridge pickup and the neck pickup is further away, about 8/32" or 6.35mm from the bottom of the string to the top of the pickup cover.[/size][/font][/color][/i] If you do find that your playing style hits exposed poles - put some black insulating tape over the poles. It won't affect the pickup and is a lot cheaper than changing the pickups. [/quote] I always adjust it closer than what manual suggest. My jazz, bridge pickup between 4 and 3 mm, neck between 5mm and 4mm. Measured with the strings open and with the bass on its side. When I played with fingers on a musicman cause my pickup was so close to the strings I did that black insulation tape thing, works a treat. My opinion is that I just plain prefer the slightly compressed and chocked sound from having way high pickups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Alsatian Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Same here - I use the 'book' settings for reference and then see how low I can go and then tinker with the pickup height. As I play with a light touch, I can go pretty low without buzzing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leroydiamond Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I can only offer comment on the Sadowsky here. Check this link to nail the pickup and other set up tips for your Sadowsky. [url="http://www.sadowsky.com/media/support/library/technical/bp0996_bass_setup.pdf"]http://www.sadowsky.com/media/support/library/technical/bp0996_bass_setup.pdf[/url] I have found that a slight adjustment has a big impact regarding pick up height on a Sadowsky, when compared with any other bass I have tried. I followed the guidelines in the above link and everything sounded just right. Further discussion here [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/sadowsky-instrument-setup-tips-653426/"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/sadowsky-instrument-setup-tips-653426/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhysP Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 [quote name='Green Alsatian' timestamp='1386272175' post='2298165'] You could always look up the factory specs.... [/quote] This is always the best idea if you want to experiment with pickup height but don't know much about this kind of stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LITTLEWING Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 (edited) Experiment with pup heights to get a great tone by all means, but check out the video from 3.10 to 3.30 to be shocked! [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6dlN93MGgw[/media] Edited December 7, 2013 by LITTLEWING Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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