Who likes their PUs far away?

[War Admiral]

Liked them close when I was young but now further away...Humbuckers 1/8'' for the high e and a little further for the bass side...with the string fretted at the last fret. Where you guys at??

 

[kasperjensen]

I prefer them like that too. It's a little more open.

I found out by accident because I have shitty technique.

 

[RG955TT]

Yup, been headed that way for a while now, better dynamics too.

 

[Meathead]

I like my bridge humbucker (Dimarzio Super Distortion) rammed up as close as I can to the strings. To the point it's almost farting out when palm muting the low e string.

 

[sytharnia1560]

yep I have mine pretty far away, just like the tone a bit more like that

 

[ZoSo]

I think I have the bridge pickup too close on my SG faded, think it's bad for the sustain or maybe I'm just expecting better sustain. The strings and pup are almost touching on the side closer to the neck pup on the angle downwards from the bridge.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Like mine a little higher up but still with some clearance.. i have learned too far down and it makes the highs pop out wayyyy too much. Too high is a splatty mess. Usually set higher strings side a little higher than the lower strings so my rythms stay tight but the highs are filled out. It's not admitting defeat when you use all the gains you can get from a pup!

 

[jsp]

Depends on the pickup and guitar, but I usually like mine pretty close. There's usually a sweet spot where it sounds full, but dynamic.

 

[cardinal]

I noticed that I tend to have the neck pickup pretty far away but the bridge pickup pretty close.

 

[rupe]

It depends on the guitar, pickup, and what sounds I'm trying to go for. Dial them in with your ears, not your eyes.

 

[XSSIVE]

I always set them by ear but my neck pickups when set by ear tend to be quite low (bobbins just above a short height hum ring low) since I like brighter neck pickups. Bridge pickups are an average middle height I guess you could call it where they're full sounding but not woofy and muddy so they take a bit of tweaking.

I remember reading years ago that a good starting point is to fret the guitar at its last fret and set the pickup to where it's roughly the distance of two stacked nickels from its top to the bottom of the strings and then adjust up or down from there by ear.