Adjusting guitar pickup height is one of the easiest ways to improve your tone. With a few easy twists of a screwdriver, you can obtain the best output, warmth, clarity, and balance that your pickups can deliver.
Keep reading to learn the benefits of proper adjustment, how to adjust a wide range of the most popular pickup types, and how to avoid some tone-wrecking pitfalls of incorrect adjustment.
Does Pickup Height Matter?
Pickup height should be set to a specific range to get the best performance from your guitar. An improperly adjusted pickup will have a massive negative impact on your guitar’s tone, performance, and tuning stability.
Whether you purchased a used guitar with an unknown past or are replacing pickups in one you bought new, you’ll need to adjust pickup height at some point. The pickups on new guitars, though often set to factory spec, aren’t dialed in to the way you play. And believe it or not, vibration and handling can cause pickups to move over time.
How Does Pickup Height Affect Sound?
Pickup height affects your sound in a few ways, but there are two major ones. Pickups that are set too high can pull your guitar out of tune because the magnets will push and pull the strings. If pickups are set too low, the magnetic field from the pickups won’t pick up the vibrations from the string and your resulting tone will sound quiet or thin.
Does Pickup Height Affect Sustain?
If your pickups are set too low or too high, it can negatively affect sustain. When pickups are extremely high, their magnetic field can affect string vibrations (and thus sustain) negatively by dampening them. If pickups are too far away from the strings, you’ll experience less output which is perceived as less sustain.
How Do I Know If My Pickups Are Too Low?
The first and most obvious sign your guitar pickups are too low is weaker output. Maybe you lowered a high-output humbucker to get a jazzier clean tone. But that lower output also translates to a thinner, weaker sound. A low pickup can also create an unacceptable tonal mismatch as you select between different pickup positions. You’d be better off replacing that punchy humbucker with a model better suited for your style and tone.
How Do I Know If My Pickups Are Too High?
When a guitar pickup’s magnets get too close to the strings, their magnetic field inhibits the natural vibration of the strings. Ever adjust your pickups and wonder where your sustain and definition went? This could be the culprit. Topped-out neck pickups have also been known to exert so much pull on the strings that it causes your guitar to fret out and buzz terribly.
But the most frustrating outcome of this mistake are dreaded Wolf Tones. This overloaded magnet/string interaction can cause unnatural overtones and can give the impression of your guitar being out of tune even if it’s not. Though other things can cause Wolf Tones, like a loose nut or crooked bridge saddle, dropping the pickup away from the string is the first step we recommend to remedy the situation.
The Basics of Adjusting Guitar Pickup Height
While there isn’t a magic number for guitar pickup height—every pickup and guitar manufacturer has their own pickup height specifications—we’ve found 3/32 of an inch (2.381mm) is a good place to start.
The process of getting your pickups to this ballpark setting is easy. With a few exceptions (more on that later), all you need is a screwdriver, pocket ruler, and a good playing environment.
We recommend starting with the low E string. First, depress the low E string at the last fret, closest to your pickups.
With the string depressed, use a machinist’s rule and measure the distance from the bottom of the string to the top of the corresponding pickup pole piece. Repeat for the high E string.
All you need to do now is raise or lower the pickup until it is at the manufacturer’s factory spec. Keep in mind that you’ll want to remeasure each side after you make adjustments.
Again, you only need a screwdriver to raise and lowermost guitar pickups, but there are a few different designs that require different methods. Here’s a list of the most popular guitar pickup types and how to adjust each one.
How To Adjust Humbucker Pickup Height
On the vast majority of humbuckers, you’ll find a screw located at either side of the pickup. In guitars with pickup rings, the humbucker is suspended from this ring via these screws. To raise the pickup, turn the screws clockwise. To lower it, go counterclockwise. Be careful lowering your ring-mounted humbuckers—if you lower them too much they’ll drop into the cavity of the guitar.
The process is similar for humbuckers that are mounted directly into the body, but you’ll want to turn the screws clockwise to lower the pickups and counterclockwise to raise them.
How To Adjust Stratocaster Pickup Height (Single Coils)
Strat pickups are adjusted a lot like humbuckers. Turning the mounting screws on either side of the pickup will raise and lower them to taste. Like with ring-mounted humbuckers, don’t lower a Stratocaster pickup too much or you risk dropping it into the pickup cavity.
How To Adjust Telecaster Pickup Height (Neck and Bridge Single Coils)
Standard Telecasters are not as simple as humbuckers and Stratocaster single coils, but it’s still a matter of turning a few screws. A Tele bridge pickup is suspended by three adjustment screws from a metal bridge plate. The two closest to the bridge balance the pickup from right to left, while the other screw is vital for keeping the surface of the pickup even with the strings.
Tele neck pickups come in two varieties. If the pickup is suspended from a pickguard, you’re in luck! Simply adjust it the way you would a Strat single-coil. But if yours is direct-mounted, you’ll have to remove the guitar’s pickguard to access its adjustment screws. Wait to put the pickguard back on until you know you’re happy with your Telecaster pickup height, or you’ll have to pull it right back off again.
How To Adjust Jazzmaster Pickup Height (Single Coils)
Adjusting Jazzmaster pickups isn’t as straightforward as the others in this list, but it can still be done with the tools you already have. Jazzmaster pickup screws are mainly for mounting, not adjusting. They rely on support—often a foam strip—placed underneath in the pickup cavity to push the pickups to the correct height. By adjusting the amount of foam in the cavity, you’re able to determine the height of the pickup.
How To Adjust Jaguar Pickup Height (Single Coils)
A Fender Jaguar’s pickups are traditionally adjusted very similarly to a Jazzmaster. However, many players have taken advantage of their unique mounting system and placed standard ink pen springs around the pickups’ mounting screws. This simple mod is a great way to get easier, more precise Jaguar pickup height adjustments.
How To Adjust P90 Pickup Height
P90s come in two common forms, soapbars and dog ears, each requiring different techniques to adjust.
The soapbar P90 models share many similarities to Jazzmaster pickups but have their mounting screws located down the middle of the pickup cover. Like Jazzmaster pickups, these screws hold the pickup in place. It’s the foam or springs installed under the pickup that offers what adjustment is available.
Dog ear P90s are one of the few electric guitar pickup designs that don’t offer a way to raise and lower the whole pickup. If you want to get adventurous, there are spacers available that sit between the pickup and the body of the guitar, allowing them to sit a bit higher. But it isn’t an exact science.
Luckily, P90s—as well as humbucking pickups—have a trick up their sleeves. While you can’t easily adjust the whole pickup’s height, you can adjust the individual pole pieces under each string. A good screwdriver is often all it takes to nail the pickup’s sweet spot while also fine-tuning your string-to-string balance to perfection. Think of it as a customizable version of the staggered pole pieces you’ll find on many vintage and vintage-style Fender single-coils.
Finding The Perfect Pickup Height For Your Guitar
Now that your pickups are adjusted to factory spec, we’ll bet it’s already playing and sounding better! It’s time to go a step further and dial in your personal preferences. Here’s how we recommend dialing in that sweet spot.
First, select the pickup setting where you will be spending most of your time. Play for a few minutes, paying careful attention to the balance between lows, highs, and how hard your pickup is hitting your amp.
Using the directions above, raise or lower both sides of your pickup equally to achieve the desired signal strength. Then, raise or lower each side of the pickup individually (or the individual poles, if adjusting P90s) until you hear the perfect blend of your higher and lower strings. This precise adjustment isn’t really an option for Jazzmaster pickups, so don’t sweat it if you can’t fine-tune each side.
Repeat the process on each of the guitar’s pickups. Always refer back to the output level of the first pickup you adjusted. This will help avoid drastic output changes when toggling between switch positions.
Trust Your Ears
While there may seem to be a lot to remember, the actual process of adjusting guitar pickups is a piece of cake. The hardest—and most vital—part is learning to trust your own ears and playing style. It’s also important to remember that you have to play by the rules of the pickup you have. You’ll never make an active Blackout humbucker sound like an Antiquity Strat set. But you will be surprised with how many tones are inside your pickups and how much better your guitar will perform.
If this is your first time adjusting your own pickup height, don’t worry. It may take a few tries to get it where you want. And, unlike soldering or a host of other mods, this one is easy to reverse. So don’t be afraid to dig right in. Finally, remember that tone is a combination of a universe of different mechanical and intangible elements, making each guitar unique. So give each pickup adjustment the time it deserves, and you’ll be well rewarded.
