Hi Everyone! I recently purchased a John Mayer stratocaster. Loving it so far!

I was wondering - is there anyplace I can find the recommended pickup height for this guitar? I have seen on the Fender support site the stratocaster setup guide, which has different recommendations for vintage pickups and for Texas specials (as well as others).

I've tried both of these pickup height settings for this guitar, which has pickups specially made for this instrument, and neither of them sound quite right. At the Texas Special height, they sound quite thin (esp. the bridge) but at Vintage height... well, it just doesn't sound quite right.

Is there a factory recommendation for this instrument?


Thanks!

Ignore the "recommendations" and set the pickups to what sounds good to you through your amp and pedal board. Even if you set the pickups exactly as Mayer has them, you will still not sound like John Mayer.

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Bill

Yes, I'm aware of that. I just wanted to know if there is a 'factory' setting or a recommendation from Fender.

I did some more detailed testing this morning. From the setup guide (http://www.fender.com/support/articles/stratocaster-setup-guide), here are some starting points:

Texas special - 3.6mm bass, 2.4mm treb
Vintage - 2.4mm bass, 2.0mm treb
"Standard single coil" - 2.0mm bass, 1.6mm treb

Testing was done on a VOX AC4 & a Fender Champion 600 (tubes and speaker upgraded).

I found a measurement similar to the Texas Special setting to sound the best, for me. It was at this distance that the tone sounded smoothest. Set higher (like "vintage"), there was some harshness and the character differences between the 5-way switch settings seemed to be diminished. Because of this I didn't even bother with the "standard single coil" heights.

I did not have the thinness issues with the bridge pickup after I measured and reset the height to the above. I think perhaps it was just set way too low from the factory.


As an aside, I've heard people say they felt these pickups were noisy - swapped back and forth with my '11 American Standard there was no discernible difference in noise level. However, using positions 2 and 4 on the mayer does not reduce hum, whereas on the Am Std it does significantly reduce hum.

(thought I would post this info here, in case anyone comes along later researching the same topic about their Mayer!)

I have a Mayer strat also in sunburst. From what I have read his pickups are similar to custom shop 69's but not as much output and scooped. They sure do sound good though. I left the pickup heights at factory settings. I will leave them be for now.
took me a while to get used to tall frets and high and low E strings close to edge. I changed strings to 11's. What a great strat. thanks for posting your findings on height.

The plot thickens!

Fender responded to my email - they said I should go with the "Vintage" settings.

I suppose I've got more experimenting to do

Do you understand what a "recommendation" is?

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Bill

I understand what a recommendation is. What I don't understand is why you have to be such a jerk.

Guess maybe these forums aren't the place for me.

Welcome.

Space the distance between the polepieces and the strings about the thickness of a dime on the high E side and a nickel's thickness on the low E side and take it from there as all pickups have their 'sweet spot', height wise.

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You dig?

On any strat I have, I always start of with the pickups flush with the Pickguard. Slowly I raise each side of the pickup while playing it until I find a sweet spot in the tone I enjoy... Takes a little while to get it right, but its worth it in my opinion.

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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What I don't understand is why you are so hung up on some specific distance when you have apparently already experimented and found the spot that sounds good to you.

_________________
Bill

+1, if its not broke, why fix it!

_________________
"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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