Hey Guys,

I tries some searches but nothing I've found really deals with this exact topic.

I'd just be interested to see what people's idea of how to achieve their ideal strat cluck tone's are...

Identical pickups or position callibrated (Ie. more juice in the bridge unit)?
How close to the string?
Are staggered poles better?
Do you often find that the B+M is better or worse that the N+M on a given guitar?

I'm not so much interested in people's favourite pickup models, just the basic method to get that sound optimized, and I know it's subjective.

Cluck??

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The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say.

I find it easy to get decent cluck/quack in the B+M but it takes some fine tuning to get the N+M to sound sweet.
I start with both N and M at the same distance from the strings and then slighty lower (like 1/4 turn) the bass side of the middle pickup. I do the same for the treble side but usually a little lower. I usually do this by ear because you can change a dull cluck into a sharp cluck with a fraction of a turn and i'm usually trying to sharpen up the bass side and mellow out the treble side.

I saw a while back where someone stated that when they took thier guitar in for some work the tech adjusted the pickup hight for them. If that happened to me I would mad as hell. I spend a silly amount of time getting just the right inbetween sound.
(Actually I wouldn't be too mad because I measure and document everthing)

It really gets nuts when you start judging the amout and quality of the quack on the lower fretted notes verses the higher fretted ones because the distance relationships between the two pickups change depending on where you are playing on the neck.

Can you tell have put too much thought and time into this?

Eddie_B,

I'd say you put the correct amount of thought into it. I'll be adjusting my Strat tomorrow. Most of my guitars have hum buckers, I have no problem spending nearly an hour matching pickup heights and angles between pickups.

Yes that's what I've been finding. Been favouring the Tele and SG for a while, and thought I'd get my strats up to par.
Changing lots of p.ups is such a drag so I thought I'd try to understand "cluck-mechanics" a bit more before I start (if I need to).
I'm finding also the resonant peak gets moved higher in the 2 and 4 pos...

So, no I don't think you're putting too much thought into things here, LOL.
Methodical is good, especially as there are still plenty of myths around the guitar tone subject.