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Post subject: Re: Fender Bass strings question
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:09 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
Just because pickup height adjustment is the last part of the setup doesn't mean it doesn't have a big impact on tone. In fact of all adjustments made during setup this is the only one that actually impacts the electronic tone much at all.

Pickup poles too close to the strings causes the magnetic force of the pickup to deaden the free vibration of the strings and can also result in bizarre oscillating tones that sound like the tone is doing a phase shift. Having the poles too far away will make the signal level drop, especially in the lows and upper mids, leaving you with a tone that sounds hollow.

A good starting point for me is to take two USA 5 cent coins, called nickles, and set the pickup height to a spacing to approximately the thickness two stacked nickles initially. Never does this get them too close. I make fine adjustments from there and usually that is raising the pickup a tad to get it closer to the strings but sometimes one side or the other seems to need more elevation than the other.

What I do to balance the pickup height for optimum string to string balance is to directly input the instrument to a mixer with a large sensitive VU meter and balance the output of the pickup for each string based on the measured signal strength on the meter. Set the mixer & preamp EQ totally flat and take any compression out of the chain. Make adjustments until you get very little variance in output level on the VU meter from string to string. Once you start getting the pickup too close to the string you'll hear sustain starting to suffer from the magnetic pull on the string. Get too far away and you can hear the the tonal components eroding and also see the level start to drop. The sweet spot is there but sometimes it takes a while to find it and rarely will the pickup be exactly level due to the neck radius and variances in each string's height. The split coil P-Bass pickups are easiest to set for string to string balance since the pickup height can be adjusted for each string. Often Jazz pickups require a compromise, but the split P-Bass can be set with "Precision."


Thanks Brother Dave, I will get flats soon, probably D Addario Chromes (100 -45 ) or La Bella 100 - light flats...I will try your 2 nickel p.up height starting mark and use my ears to adjust as you advised before.
Cheers!
Bon Ruiz


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