Why do we set the treble side of single coils higher than the bass side?

    It always puzzled me why Fender do this and why we do it.
    I know the technical reason, because the high strings need to be closer to the pole pieces because they vibrate less, blah blah, etc, etc.


    I found it interesting when I recieved my first shipment of Tokai Strats that the factory setup had the pickups almost even on both treble and bass sides, slightly higher on the bass...it got me thinking.
    Let's face it, single coils in a Strat can be shrill and ice picky, so why boost the treble side?


    Take a look at this, Jimi's Strat at Woodstock, notice, the bass side is way higher than the treble side...maybe thats why he has the juiciest thickest most gorgeous Strat tone ever. :thumbup:


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    As long as they aren't close enough to pull the strings out of tune, there's no reason not to adjust them.


    I've seen people account his tone to the stagger of the coils being backwards, and the different angle of the bridge pickup. Maybe this one was a last minute conversion from righty.



    This one looks more even.


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    But, another live shot may have a black one set up the same way:


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    Do we? Maybe it's the most common way but I never thought about that.


    Depends on strings, playing style and preferences etc. Somebody that use a guitar for somewhat distorted sounds exclusively may set the bass side lower to get less distortion/flub down there.


    I just adjust them so that I get the strings as balanced as possible for clean sounds.

    A lot of people adjust the lead pickup of Telecasters like that too. I never do. I like the bass side a little higher. Just a better sound to my ears. I like to hear nice shimmering highs, I don't like to have my head cut off though. ;)

    That's because the thicker the string the more magnetic pull you have, meaning that the pickup magnet captures a stronger signal. I usually set them up with a difference in height between the 1st and the 6th of around 0.8-1 mm. This is not only done with single coils btw.

    I have always done the bass side higer than the treble. That was all natural to me and I liked the sound. I just did not know that Fender advises us to do it the other way round.

    Quote from kilihahn

    or maybe it's just that he didn't care too much about loosing time on details, just playing his strat the wrong way around and rock out as hard as he could...?

    >> this! >>

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Paults has already offered what I consider to be the answer with Jimmy Hendrix's pickup adjustments: Those pickups have staggered pole pieces and in order to balance these with the "wrong" way of stringing the guitar, the adjustment of the pickups like that (with the bass side higher than the treble side) is probably the solution for him.


    Apart from that: I can (from my experience) only warn people with vintage style strat pickups to set them too high (especially on the neck pickup bass side) or you'll get a severe case of stratitis. On the whole you will lose sustain and "ringing" of the strings. The higher output might tempt people to set the pickups high - though in most cases the guitar sounds more natural and harmonic with lower pickup settings.
    Just take a paper clip and hold it close to the magnets and you will see how much the magnets pull on the strings. Multiply that by three (three pickups) and you have an idea of what's happening if the magnets get too close to the strings.

    one thing for sure that not everyone is aware of is that changing the height doesn't only change the volume balance of the strings but also the whole guitar tone
    I need to find an old article about Blackmore's pickups set up where it was explained how those were adjusted looking for a certain sound

    Yes, I've experienced this as well. The closer the PU the stronger the low freqs, you can - up to a point - really sculpture your tone. I've got a luthier solid body with MaMa PUs and they revealed themselves to be extremely sensitive to string distance: their timbre can change dramatically 8|

    Quote from joerch

    Paults has already offered what I consider to be the answer with Jimmy Hendrix's pickup adjustments: Those pickups have staggered pole pieces and in order to balance these with the "wrong" way of stringing the guitar, the adjustment of the pickups like that (with the bass side higher than the treble side) is probably the solution for him.


    Apart from that: I can (from my experience) only warn people with vintage style strat pickups to set them too high (especially on the neck pickup bass side) or you'll get a severe case of stratitis. On the whole you will lose sustain and "ringing" of the strings. The higher output might tempt people to set the pickups high - though in most cases the guitar sounds more natural and harmonic with lower pickup settings.
    Just take a paper clip and hold it close to the magnets and you will see how much the magnets pull on the strings. Multiply that by three (three pickups) and you have an idea of what's happening if the magnets get too close to the strings.


    Good idea! - I must try this- I've struggled constantly with the pups on my strat- this one up, this one down, treble side up, bass side up... ?(

    You're damned if you do and damned if you don't

    ole

    Quote from viabcroce

    Yes, I've experienced this as well. The closer the PU the stronger the low freqs, you can - up to a point - really sculpture your tone. I've got a luthier solid body with MaMa PUs and they revealed themselves to be extremely sensitive to string distance: their timbre can change dramatically 8|


    I didn't mean to move the whole Pickup..If you move only one side the whole guitar tone will change..Of course if you move it altogether it changes too ;)

    You just want to be careful to not get the pickup too close on the 6th string side, or you'll get the infamous " Strat string warble" caused by the magnetic pull on the strings. It will make your guitar sound terribly out of calibration/intonation