Hammeron
Restringing my Epi Explorer today and noticed the bridge pup was set quite a bit higher than the neck pup, so much so that the high strings have dug smooth little grooves into the pup casing.
Now the guitar plays and sounds great, was just wondering about the dynamics of setting the pups closer or farther from the strings. anyone?
MikeM
Firstly, the closer a pickup is to the strings, the more output it is going to have. It also will sound warmer and slightly more compressed. It's not that you're losing highs, it just has more bass. However this also means that it will have less sustain.
Dropping it lowers bass and thins out the tone, making things less muddy (Yes this means keep your neck humbuckers low people, actually strat neck pickups too!!) It opens up treble a touch and lets it sing, more sustain because of less magnetic pull and better dynamics. But sometimes the raunchiness of a humbucker up close is just too awesome to sacrifice.
Sometimes a pickup adjustment is better than a pickup change. I'm too kak scared to do anything to my #1's pickups cause I'm scared I might lose the incredible bridge tone on there..
