Pick-Up Height ?

[tubescreamer8317]

My friend had an old Encore Electric guitar(fat strat style) sitting in his loft that was just gathering dust , so I offered to take it of his hands because he doesnt play guitar .This thing is ancient : Rusty Strings , Knobs Missing , Cracked Headstock etc etc etc , anyway I thought I could learn a little more about the anatomy of a guitar by looking at it in closer detail . I was wondering , if you adjusted the height of the pups (High or Low) , what would it do to the sound if it was to be played ?

[WindowLedge]

try it and find out. isn't that what you have the guitar for?

[tubescreamer8317]

sorry I forgot to mention , I was hoping to restore the guitar as a kinda weekend project , when I am bored lol . I dont want to do any permanent damage to it.

[black-knight]

sorry I forgot to mention , I was hoping to restore the guitar as a kinda weekend project , when I am bored lol . I dont want to do any permanent damage to it.
well you can't break a guitar by ajusting the pickups height.....basicaly speaking the closer the pickup is to a string the more sound it will pickup

as a general rule though neck pickups are lower than middle pups then bridge higher than middle so when u look the profile side on the pickups should look like this
____________________________________<strings
---------------------bridge pup
----------middle pup
neck pup

obviously not that steap...if you push the last fret of the low e sting (bass e) and look at what angle it gives you that will give you what angle u should put the pups.

[ShadowMan]

Changing the pup hight will pretty much just alter the output... the higher the pup the louder the signal. Keep in mind that being magnets, the higher the pup, the more it will pull on the strings and reduce the sustain.

[sambo555]

Fender say that for their strats, depress all of the strings at the last fret and the measurements from the pickups poles to the strings should be 5/64" at the bass side and 4/64" at the treble side. Since the encore is a similar set up you could take these to be the standard. Just don't have the strings hitting the pickups when you play.