Pickup height adjustment

[Jonesey]

Hey guys...
I'm new here and I got a question regarding my '98 330 with stock hi-gains.
I love the guitar for it's jangle, tone, looks and playability, but it sounds a bit too bassy for my taste which takes some EQing, especially as I'm playing it through an old solid state Vox Defiant which is very bassy on the normal channel.
My question is (and this is kind of rookie, forgive me) if I would archieve any upper-mid and treble improvement by adjusting the pickups? If so, should I get them up or down? Or should I go straight to the toasters?
Hope you can help me out.

[Clint]

There are 3 screws at each end of the pickup, the middle one is the height adjustment. It may be easiest to start with the pickups all the way down. Then slowly bring them up. Tone is really all about your personal taste so when it sounds good to you, stop. If you can't find the sound you're looking for, well that's a whole other can of worms, isn't it?

[indianation65]

Mr. Jonesey,
I rarely can have enough "bass" sound, but I like the roundness for girth; that's me. Regarding your question, I would think pickup height change will affect the overall "size" and "harshness" of the sound, not necessarily the treble/bass amount. I'm sure more experienced brothers will correct me if I'm wrong. Lowering the pickups will lessen the punch/volume, raising them will increase size/volume and offer harshness if incredibly close, maybe? Turn down some bass by way of the bass contour, not called a "contour" in this forum, but the 5th knob, and turn up the amp treble. After all, you are using a solid state amp, which is probably affecting the treble sound your ears are not hearing. If you are anxious to spend money, depending on availability, perhaps buying a tube amp in your price range? There are many good ones out there! Good luck and learn on with the follow-ups sure to come...

...wisdom

[Clint]

You may want to ask yourself, do I want to mod my guitar to fix my amp's problem?

[Folkie]

Jonathan,

I've found with the pickups on my Stratocaster that I get more punch when the pickups are higher (closer to the strings), but that there is a point of diminishing returns. If you get the pickups too close to the strings, you can run into problems.

Robert

[Jonesey]

Thanks for all the fast replies. Yeah, perhaps I should get myself a AC30 to play in a double amp setup with the Defiant - which is BTW brilliant for a solid state, it was used by The Beatles and Spacemen 3 among others - and got some really nice features like Mid Range Boost and a very versatile tremelo. But then again, I don't get too little treble using a Japanese Jazzmaster.

[Jonesey]

A bit of messing around with the PU-height and another brand of strings; bingo, 330 sounding like heaven!
Now I just need a whammy for the 330, a 360/12 with toasters and a Vox Starstreamer

[Folkie]

By all means, get that 360/12! I just added one to my collection and I couldn't be happier!

Robert

[jimk]

By all means, get that 360/12! I just added one to my collection and I couldn't be happier!

Robert

+1

Always happy to contribute to another's RAS
JimK