Question about pickup placement

[John D. Carter]

Can anyone testify (with a fair amount of certainty) the sweet spots for bridge to pickup distance if you are only using one pickup? I know that this distance is important for tone, but I can't experiment to find the ideal distance. Has anyone done this? I have a GeorgeL pickup for a 7 string build that I have to decide upon. The same question applies to the distance from the top of the pick up to the strings. I know I can set up adjustment mechanisms for both distances but this does increase the complications of the build so those distances would be easier to fix in-place. Can anyone give me the right advice? Thanks for any help.

[Tom Snook]

what I believe to be PPP to be ,would be an average distance of about a quarterish inch from the bridge. Notice the different brands and styles of classic lap steels Ric's Gibsons Fenders Maggies,find the average distance and put er there pal!
Aloha

[Bill Hatcher]

to find the spot you might like, take the pickup out of the guitar, or if this is a new build do the same thing. remove all the strings except the outside strings and if you want, one in the center area. cut you some wood shims that will fit in the open areas where there are no strings and elevate the pickup over these strings and set the pickup upside down OVER the strings. clip wire it in the circuit or to a guitar cord and plug it in. with the wood shims, you can move the pickup back and forth easily and play the strings and listen to the sound. i usually just set the pick up not too close to the bridge and not too far towards the end of the fret board. i test the open harmonics at 12 7 5 even on down to fret 2. its a balance between how much low end you want and how much upper harmonics you want.

[Mike Auman]

Re: your question about the distance from the pickup to the bottom of the strings... George L's recommends 1.75 to 2 mm (the thickness of a nickel) for theirs. Bob Allen installs a lot of George L's in his Melbert lap steels, and I think he told me he usually sets them around 0.093 inches (2.35 mm) from the strings. I read once that Bill Lawrence recommended about a nickel's thickness of space between his humbucker pickups and strings, so I'm seeing a trend here.

[John D. Carter]

Great Advice! Many thanks.

[Brian Evans]

The tone the pickup gets is quite similar to the tone you get from picking the string at a certain distance from the bridge. Pick really near the bridge, you get a brittle, treble-strong sound. Pick 8" or 10" or so up towards the frets, you get a mellow,full sound. Pickups placed near the bridge sound more brittle, trebly, pickups placed near the frets (around the 20th fret position) sound mellow and jazzy.

[James Kerr]

Hello John,
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so is a Sound. I'm a home builder too and have built many Instruments. As far as Pickup position goes I like mine about 2 inches from the centre of the Bridge to the centre of the Pole Magnets.

Here is my 7 String 23 inch scale length, which I built, the Video shows the Guitar being played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmg9o1UXOo

Here is my 1960s Tiesco R1 - 22 and a Half inch Scale length and 1 and a half inch pickup spacing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwta8z3ylJU




James Kerr. I play very simply.

[Mike Christensen]

YIKES!!!! That Teisco sounds really fine!!