Recently I was experimenting with the pickup height on one of my guitars, and I was reminded just how big an impact a half-turn of the pickup screw can have.

I’m a big fan of Andy Timmon’s tone and he has historically used Dimarzio Cruisers in his guitar for many years now. Cruisers are single coil sized humbuckers that have a single coil-ish tone with no hum and a better string to string balance from their blade design. I installed a pair in the neck and middle position of my PRS SE EG guitar with 3 single coil spots and was having trouble getting that chimey, bell-like quality he gets, particularly in the 2 and 4 positions.

I didn’t want to turn up treble on the amp because I had a great sound from my bridge pickup that I didn’t want to sacrifice. After playing around with gain, compressors, EQ and the like, I went and watched a few videos of Andy talking about his guitar and realized that he had his pickups near flush with the pickguard.

Naturally, I tried lowering them way down in my guitar and behold, there it was! For the sake of testing this theory, I started lowering pickups in a couple other guitars and started to find that generally, lower pickups equal less output and compression, but didn’t necessarily make them darker. In the case of the Cruisers, it actually made them significantly brighter.

It seems to me that the best way to go about setting pickup height is by ear, not eyes. I would recommend lowering the pickups as low as they will go (not so low that they come off the screw!) and then bring them up by one turn or one half turn of the screw at a time, playing a little with the guitar between each adjustment. To get the maximum quack from 2 single coils together in parallel, you’ll want to make sure that the pickups are pretty similar in height, since the phase cancellation effect is what generates that nice clucky sound we all love about the 2 and 4 positions on a Strat. Try it out, you might be surprised at what you find you like and even find a new voice for a guitar you’ve had for a long time!

What’s your experience with pickup height?

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In the bridge of this guitar is the Nailbomb (ceramic version) and in the neck is the Cold Sweat.

Neck Pickup – Cold Sweat

I really do like these pickups, especially the Cold Sweat. The neck version is alnico but Bare Knuckle does have a bridge version, which is ceramic.

The first thing I noticed with this pickup was the clarity and punchyness in my lead tones. It’s not too thin or too thick, and sits somewhere in the middle and is quite balanced. I wouldn’t say it has the “woody” tones that a lot of guitarists like (including myself) but it is close and has a very pleasant tone when clean. It definitely doesn’t feel as compressed and squishy as some Seymour Duncan’s I have used. It has the clarity of a single coil with the body of a regular humbucker and has a punchy/focused quality that I’ve not found in other neck humbuckers.

Bridge Pickup – Nailbomb

Onto the Nailbomb, which in my opinion is a nice pairing in some ways and odd (interesting) in other ways. The Nailbomb retains the same punchy clarity that I heard with the Cold Sweat, which is great, but there is a little too much in the highs and high mids that I usually don’t go for in bridge pickup. I prefer a little rolled off the highs and some more low mids for a slightly warmer sound that I can brighten up if needed. That being said I would say that it fits this guitar well and gives it a very unique sound that’s very suited for metal and hard rock, especially with dropped tunings.

Summing It Up

I will say that I’m rarely pleased with any pickups. And after using these, I’ll definitely look into more Bare Knuckle Pickups!

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