Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

henry5 wrote:I've just measured and on my main 72, fretting the last fret on the E, the clearance between the toaster and the bottom of the E is about half a millimetre, give or take. On the bass I need to adjust, it's about 3mm.

That IS the proverbial "hair's breadth"!
Thanx for the measurement!

bigbajo60 wrote:

henry5 wrote:I've just measured and on my main 72, fretting the last fret on the E, the clearance between the toaster and the bottom of the E is about half a millimetre, give or take. On the bass I need to adjust, it's about 3mm.

That IS the proverbial "hair's breadth"!
Thanx for the measurement!

No problem. Please also bear in mind my frets are virtually down to the wood.

henry5 wrote:I've just measured and on my main 72, fretting the last fret on the E, the clearance between the toaster and the bottom of the E is about half a millimetre, give or take. On the bass I need to adjust, it's about 3mm.

Wow. So for me, standard is 4 or 5 mm on the E string side and 3 or 4 on the G string side (bass pickup; sometimes the bridge pickup sits 1 mm closer on both sides). Different strokes!! I'd love to jam with you some time and hear the difference through an amp.

cassius987 wrote:

henry5 wrote:I've just measured and on my main 72, fretting the last fret on the E, the clearance between the toaster and the bottom of the E is about half a millimetre, give or take. On the bass I need to adjust, it's about 3mm.

Wow. So for me, standard is 4 or 5 mm on the E string side and 3 or 4 on the G string side (bass pickup; sometimes the bridge pickup sits 1 mm closer on both sides). Different strokes!! I'd love to jam with you some time and hear the difference through an amp.

Is that 4 or 5mm on the E with the string fretted at the last fret? I think the way I play, I'd hardly be getting a signal with the pickups that far off.

I guess that's the thing, it may be that we wouldn't really sound any different; it may be that we simply have completely different ways of achieving a similar sound.

henry5 wrote:Is that 4 or 5mm on the E with the string fretted at the last fret? I think the way I play, I'd hardly be getting a signal with the pickups that far off.

I guess that's the thing, it may be that we wouldn't really sound any different; it may be that we simply have completely different ways of achieving a similar sound.

I measure and set up with the string "open" (no fretting). I started setting the pickups like this after I realized the Toaster being so close in the neck position could actually cause a false setup issue - string buzzing out when the setup was otherwise good. Backing the pickup off would fix it. This was a fretless with very low action already and the issue is apparently more common on guitars than basses (according to my tech). I also like to back the pickup off because it seems to smooth the tone out a little.

I definitely don't have an output issue, but maybe I'm heavier handed than I thought! Then again, I suspect you're right, we're probably using slightly different paths to get to something that doesn't sound radically different. But we won't know till we try...

cassius987 wrote:I measure and set up with the string "open" (no fretting). I started setting the pickups like this after I realized the Toaster being so close in the neck position could actually cause a false setup issue

I have never found this to be the case with a toaster. Lots of pickups can, and do, cause warbling, false tones, etc., but not a toaster. When I set pickup height, I always press the string down at the last fret and adjust the height from there. Even the Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups that were on my former ZON basses never created any problems, perhaps this is because they were not typical high output humbuckers (wired in parallel, they measured 1.2K). All Fender pickups do cause major issues, IME.