The Steel Guitar Forum

I have Bill Lawrence 705 pickups on my D10 MCI and I am looking to reset the pickups but I need some advice. I understand the pickup will be hotter if it is near to the strings and vice versa but what is the effect of having one edge (ie the side nearest the changer or the keyhead) of the pickup higher than the other so that one blade is nearer to the strings than the other. The main reason for wanting to adjust the pickup is because I pick the strings fairly firmly and I believe I need to reduce the height of the pickup a little but also the trebble strings have a "shrillness" to them (overtones??) and I would like to be able to reduce this but withut loosing sustain etc. Anyone got any ideas?

I have considered changing the pickups but I'd really like to try adjustment first if only as a learning exercise.

Thanks

Chris

The best thing to do is just experiment. You should get less treble if the rear blade (next to changer) is lower than the forward (neck side) blade. I tried this with my 705's on my Sho-Bud and may gotten a small amount of difference, but try different positions and see if you hear any differences. Also, watch out that you don't get too close to the strings with the metal egde of the pickup.

Thanx,
Jim

Thanks for the reply Jim. I will do as you say and experiment a little.But knowing that having the changer side of the pickup slightly higher than the keyhead side to reduce the highs will help a lot. Maybe I'll not need to change my pickups after all.

kind regards

Chris

Chris, Jim was saying that having the changer side of the PU lower would reduce the highs a little. Also, the closer the PU is to the strings, the harsher it will sound because the magnetic pull of the magnets messes with the string's vibration.

The usual distance is 2 or 3 quarters between the PU and the strings. I set my PUs a tiny bit further...more like 3 or 4 quarters. You have plenty of output to spare from that PU, so play with the spacing.

Those 705s are considered by some players to be the best PUs ever made. They are very good for an MCI, at any rate. I wouldn't change them unless absolutely necessary...but, you are the final judge about that.

Thanks Mike for pointing out my error. I actually read the post properly and have been lowering the pickup slightly ant the changer end, I'm just lousy at putting it into words and got it the wrong way round. I have had some sucess but from your post I will try increasing the distance between PU and Strings. One question though - Here in the UK we don't have the same currency as you, just how thick is quarter?

Thanks

Chris

Chris, sorry for the delay in answering...just got back in. A quarter is roughly 1/16th of an inch.

I'll let you do the conversion to metric.