-------------------------------- What is Strat-itis -------------------------------- Pickups are made from magnets. Strings are made of metal. As such, the pickups exert a magnetic force on the strings. If the pickups are too close to the strings, the effect of this force on the vibration of the strings is audibly perceived as intonation problems. Strats have 3 single coil pickups exerting force on the strings. Dual humbucker guitars have 4 coils (in two humbuckers) exerting force on the strings. Some super-strats (humbucker-single-humbucker) have 5 coils exerting force on the strings. For some reason, the pickup height intonation interaction is more prevalent on Strat, even though there are only 3 coils involved. Presumably, it is because people compensate for the lower single coil pickup output by adjusting the pickups very close to the strings and increasing the magnetic force exterted on the strings. As such, the problem has come to be known as Strat-itis on the newsgroups. =========================================================================== Digest of pickup setup articles =========================================================================== Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: collins_jim@tandem.com (Jim Collins) Subject: Re: HELP! Adjusting pick-up height Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc. Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1993 00:37:08 GMT In article , aj154@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (John Charlesworth) wrote: > I just replaced the pick guard on my Strat and realized once I'd taken the > pick-ups off that I didn't record how high they were set. From what I > recall, some were mounted on more of an angle than others (i.e. closer to > the Be strings than to the EA strings). > > Is there an easy way to set these heights properly again? Also, I just > put a SD Hot Rails in as a bridge pick-up and was wondering how you set > the height for that (I've got it wired so that I can run it single coil > for when I'm using the bridge/middle pick-up combo setting). > > Thanks, -j The following according to the Fender manual. Let's assume that the floating bridge is set up the way you like it, whether floating or blocked, and each individual saddle is set to its appropriate height. Press the low E string at the last fret. The bottom of the fretted string should clear the top of the pole piece of each pickup by .024 inches. Then, press the high E string at the last fret. The bottom of the fretted string should clear the pole piece of each pickup by .020 inches. These are, of course, guidelines. I always set up Strats this way, and I've never had complaints about Stratitis. It is pretty easy to come up with some quick feeler guages for these two thicknesses. I found a couple of nails that are right on the money. (Is this why nails are always specified in "pennies"? Sorry.) I use these measurements whether I'm setting up single coils or humbuckers, and they've always worked equally well for me. It seems as reasonable a starting point as any for the Hot Rails pickup. Of course, your mileage may vary. Jimmy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: seymourwd@aol.com (SeymourwD) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Adjusting Pickup Height Date: 17 Oct 1994 18:06:04 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) In article , bcorey@netcom.com (Brandon Corey) writes: Press the strings down on the last fret and the Bridge pickup should be adjusted about 1/16" from the strings. The neck pickup should be adjusted 1/8" on each side. If the bass is still too full, just lower it another 1/16" to 1/8". Let go of the strings (from the last fret) and it should work pretty good for you. good luck. Seymour W. Duncan --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar From: collins_jim@tandem.com (Jim Collins) Subject: Re: Q. Pickup height? Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc. Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 18:28:13 GMT In article <3fi6a4$prd@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, sefner@aol.com (SEFNER) wrote: > > How does the distance from the top of the pickup to the strings effect the > sound produced? > Thanx, > Sefner In many cases, it depends upon the pickup. Fender Lace Sensors, for instance, seem to sound better the closer the pickup gets to the string. (Fret the string at the last fret, and adjust.) To my ears, getting the Lace Sensors very close seemed to counteract -- a little -- the sterility of the pickup. On the other hand, one friend who used these pickups briefly complained that the high middle pickup hindered his playing. (He rarely uses a pick.) Standard single coils, on the other hand, don't like being too close to the strings. A strong magnetic field can dampen the string's vibrations. It can also cause Strat-itis, a condition whereby it becomes difficult to distinguish different notes fretted way up on the neck. Lowering the pickups helps, here. Even on a guitar that does not suffer from Strat-itis, pickup height can make a big sonic difference. On my Strats, I always noticed a pronounced brightness whenever the pickups were higher. Lower them a tad, and I got a less tinny sound. Some pickups seemed to be more sensitive to this than others. I learned to make use of this. My Strats are vintage reissues, which means there is no tone control for the bridge pickup. When I set pickup heights according to Fender's manual, I got good enough sound, but the bridge pickup alone was too tinny for me. By lowering the bridge pickup, the sound improved, but the volume of that pickup dropped in relation to the others. Here's where calibrated sets helped. The bridge pickup is slightly hotter than the others to begin with, so it can stand to be lowered a bit. Now, on my Strats, the bridge pickup alone gets a lot of use. For humbuckers, I don't notice as much of a tonal shift as a volume shift. (I'm sure it's there, I'm just more tuned to single coils.) This is where adjustable pole pieces help. It is easy to get all of the strings in balance within a pickup, and then balance the two (or whatever) pickups with each other by adjusting the overall height of the pickup. Of course, this is all like adding salt and pepper to your meals. Season to taste. Jimmy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From sefner@aol.com Mon Jan 23 14:41:26 1995 Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Q. Pickup height? Date: 21 Jan 1995 17:18:55 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I took my original question to the local guitar store and was told that a good height is to depress the first fret and use the thickness of nickel to get the propper height from string to pickup... Sefner --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From jstemwedel@pomona.edu Sun Feb 12 19:47:40 1995 Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.builders Subject: Re: Pickup Placement Theories? Date: 12 Feb 95 15:07:54 PST Organization: Pomona College In article , abennett@mlw006.mlm.att.com (ml310-Bennett) writes: > 2 Are there any rules/theories about placement of pickups > (apart from the usual increase in high-frequency content > nearer the bridge). Especially with narrow aperture pickups (single coil size), the placement in relation to harmonic nodes in the strings will effect their tone and a bit of their performance. For example, the neck pickups on strats and teles will not do well at reproducing a 5th fret harmonic because they fall almost esactly under a node. G&L has moved the neck pickup on their ASAT Classic to avoid this. It isn't too dificult to do the same. Basically, figure out what harmonics you regularly use, figure how they divide the string (12th fret into two sections, 7th fret into three, 5th fret into two, etc.) and figure out where the nodes will be on your scale length, and don't place pickups under these. This isn't particularly necessary on multi-pickup instruments. In some cases, it might be undesirable. The "in-between" tones on a strat result from the particular physical placement of the pickups to eachother and in relation to the string and the various nodes. Besides, if I want the fifth fret harmonic on my strat, I got 4 other sounds to choose from to get it. Not too bad. j.p. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: James_Van_Loon@babylon.montreal.qc.ca (James Van Loon) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Pickup alignments (close/far from string) Date: 23 Feb 1995 19:45:35 GMT Organization: Babylon, Montreal, Canada Ideally, the pickups should be as close to the strings as possible. This gives you a hotter signal and a higher signal/noise ration. It also tends to make the gain on your amp sound way better! The constraint is that the magnetic pole pieces of the pickups can have a major impact on the way the string vibrates if they are too close. The string should be free to vibrate in all directions for proper tone, and if the pickups are too close, the magnetic field will not allow the strings to vibrate side to side, only up and down. What you have to do is start with the pickups way low, and gradually crank them up while playing the guitar and closely watching the vibrating strings. If you start to notice negative changes in the tone, stop and back off a little. If you get to the point where you can actually see the sting vibrating more vertically than horizontally, then back off a couple of full turns of the screw. You may find that you can have the pickups higher under the treble strings, since they are smaller, contain less metal, and require a larger magnetic field to deflect their vibration. Some players like to have the high strings really hot, some don't. Most of the information that you could ever need to maintain your guitar, including how to do set-ups and dress frets and all that kind of stuff, is available in a wicked book, which I can't remember the title of right now (I'm sure there are more than one, though). Will get back to you on that when I remember. jvl --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: devans1@osf1.gmu.edu (David A Evans) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Pickup alignments (close/far from string) Date: 25 Feb 1995 07:03:35 GMT Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA : Hey, I got an EpiStrat guitar...and I was wondering..I know that I can adjust : the pickups, but are there are any ideal settings (angle or height-wise on : the pickups, you know, lower higher, that will give me more of a metallish : sound?) Any input would be appreciated... The further you move the pickup from the strings, the less power you get, but since there is less magnetic pull, the sound is sweeter, with more warmth and sustain, and more acousticness. Move it closer for increased power and a harsher sound. I generally leave my rhythm pickup on my Les Paul quite a distance from the strings, with the tone all the way backed off, so I can get that sweet, creamy tone that Slash gets, and get the treble pickup as close to the strings as I can, for those searing leads and extra punch on the attack. From: miker@primenet.com (Mike Rejsa) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Humbucker coil splitting Date: 28 Jul 1995 17:24:25 GMT Organization: Primenet (602)395-1010 I just discovered something... if everybody else in the world knew this before I did, I apologise for wasting bandwidth. If not, carry on! A few times in the past (before coil splitting was commonplace) I wired up a bridge humbucking to use only the screw coil (the one closest to the bridge). It definitely had more highs, lower output, etc... all the classic single coil things. I didn't really like the sound that much, and it didn't pass for anywhere near a Strat sound. Yesterday I did some measuring as a part of an ongoing project. Surprise! The non-screw coil is actually much closer to the normal position of a Strat pickup. I quick plugged in and checked it out, and sure enough, using only the *non-screw* coil sounds much more like a Strat than the screw coil did. In fact, based on my quickie checks, I'd say that the neck-ward coil of each humbucker is the one to use. Its not perfect, but I like it a lot better than before. I guess I always considered the screw coil 'dominant' somehow, and just auto- matically used it when using only one coil. As I said, maybe everybody else already knew this, but I've posted in case others fell into the same mindloop I did. Note that the non-screw coil of course gives you no control over individual string volume. I suppose you could install the humbucker backwards from norm, i.e. with the screw coil away from the bridge. Anybody done this? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ /* miker@primenet.com "Less is more..." */ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: jsheehy@ix.netcom.com (John Sheehy) Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar Subject: Re: Pickup adjustment Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 20:04:56 GMT fvlarsen@bigblue.pvv.unit.no (Finn Vidar Larsen) writes: >ADJUSTING PICKUPS > >Dear Sirs, > >I would like opinions on pickup adjustment. > >Obviously the pickup need to be located somewhere near >the strings. It has to be close enough to get a good signal, >but I have read (somewhere) that positioning them too close, >will 'quench/muffle' the magnetic field, i.e. reduce response >and output. > >I recently had my guitar (a Tele) looked at by a music store tech., >and he commented how low my pickups where set. He proceeded >to rise them, in my opinion a bit high. Now, if using sufficient >force (or 'expression') the lower strings rattle against the >pickup (obviously too close :-). > >What I would like to know, is the 'usable range' for distance >between pickups and strings, and any comments on 'optimal' >distance. Are the pickups supposed to be 'diagonal', with greater >distance from the heavier strings? Is this different for >neck and bridge pickups? Does optimal distance depend on string gauge? > >Any 'feedback' on this would be nice. I am going to lower my neck >pickup, but I do not want to position it in a way that will >not enable my guitar to produce the best Tone(tm). It all boils down to a question of compromise: The higher the pickups, the less sustain you will have. The higher the pickups, the more likely they will detune the notes. The higher the pickups, the more likely they will get smacked by the strings. The higher the pickups, he more inconsistent their distance from the open strings and notes that are fretted near the body (especially with high action). The higher the pickups, the greater the guitar signal compared to the background noise and hum (which is fixed) will be. Try different heights, with these things in mind. Only you can make the right compromise. Having a tech do this is like having you mechanic adjust the seat in your car for you. <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<> John P Sheehy ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<> <>>< ><<> ><<> <>><