Pickup Height DOESN’T change TONE very much!

[@pattol666]

Im starting to think your viewers are forgetting that you are mainly about recording and mixing music. Your not just a channel talking about playing a guitar in your room through an amp. So end of day we should all remember glenn is teaching us alot of ins and outs of recording audio, mixed with some reviews and comedy , but the main idea is the studio work. Cheers glenn i figured some people needed a reminder.

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Yes, I'm ALWAYS looking through the lens of a studio engineer.

[@natrixxvision6997]

@@SpectreSoundStudiosWell sure. After all….all of our favorite guitar sounds all have one thing in common. They were recorded.

[@kutchutozov]

@@natrixxvision6997 Well put, swapping hats constantly works for me lol. As an engineer you need to remember the musician who played it and vice versa. When you're playing / being recorded, the engineer needs to set levels to be happy with the dynamic range of your playing on that take. The magic usually happens either side of the recording to release process. Writing and performing baby.... In-between lies a whole bunch of inexact science and artistry disguised as engineering lol. Just my 2 cents.

[@DavidPerry-ui2qz]

What he said. ^ 🤘🎸🤘

[@raakareiska9804]

Then why that is not said in the topic or description? Oh, yes... more views on click bait...

[@Nomadwriter546]

Re-watching to help support. awesome playlist, Thanks for all of the excellent videos over the years

[@di0__0ib]

Nice to hear this explained and proven in real time. Keep this sort of thing up, please!

[@twobarsfourstars]

Rock on with these demos 🤘🏼 the more you know the faster you can get to where you’re going for less. Even if you’re not going for distorted tones still helps to understand how crazy close pickups sound distorted even if they sound that much different clean. For everyone not having to go through $$ and time to get to the good part, all this used to be so much harder to access and understand without spending both. With this much more time for rocking, hopefully it leads to a lot more music time and quality! Thanks again!!

[@FremontidaeScott]

I know it's a high gain audience, but cleans would highlight things tremendously. If you had a clean sample to A/B against the overdriven for each sample we can get a better grasp of what's going on, and why the overdriven results are as they are.

[@johnandrews1122]

GLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNN! I have learned so much watching your videos! It actually improved my recordings by an order of magnitude at least. I am so happy to see when you have a new video because I know I am going to learn something that will help me and save me money in the long run. Please, can you do something about extension cabs and how to record multiple cabs at once (mixing and balancing them please) as I am struggling with how to balance a 5150 iconic and it's 18" extension cab.... too much mud!!!!

[@SalAvenueNJ]

I bought a Harley Benton Strat copy with a hot rail in the bridge. And I noticed there was a big difference in volume between the single coils and the hot rail. I brought up the height of the single coils and that gave me steady volume over all 3 pickups. And actually the treble on the hot rail was always a little too harsh me. After watching this video I tried bringing down the height of the pickup underneath the high strings just a hair and that did the trick. It seems like adjusting pickup height is a good way of tweaking the sound of your guitar just a little.

[@matt926uk1]

With that pickup config you can have a clean sound on the single coils and then switch to a dirty sound on the humbucker all on the same amp setting. You don’t have to balance the output between the different pickups. It’s a useful way of having a sort of two channel setup without having to use pedals. 😊

[@DasOmen02]

Big fan of CSGuitars, glad to see you two pop up in my sub feed today! This video surprised me tbh. There was much less of a tonal difference which shocked me, but also there was a VAST volumetric difference, which ALSO shocked me! I guess 1-2 centimeters does make a difference, huh ;)

[@deanbartone8187]

Good work as very helpful information to have when recording appreciate it. Your hard work pays off in the long run Glen.

[@icuclc]

Thanks Glenn, this was a great video. Although I'm just a bedroom guitarist, I this video has saved me money. From what it appears, pick-up height is really a gain boost with a slight eq. Knowing this helps me understand what to do with a guitar that has a hot pickup output(passive). I have a Charvel circa 1990 and an Ibanez RG Series. Growing up in the 80s/90s listening to metal, the conventional wisdom is that you always want your pick-ups as high as possible. However; now that I'm older and playing different kinds of music, I find that the outputs of my Charvel pickups are way hotter than what's on my Ibanez (INF1 and INF2 pickups). I don't know what pickups are in my Charvel, but they are quite hot - enough that I'm either adjusting gain or level when I switch between guitars. Believe it or not, I like the sound of the Ibanez INF1 and INF2 pickups. Clean or dirt, they are consistent. However; I was wondering what to do with the pickups in my Charvel. This video made me realize that I can dial in some sort of unity-gain on each guitar by adjusting the pick-up heights. All I need to do is lower the pickup height in my Charvel so the output level matches the level of my Ibanez, I don't need to spend money on replacing the pick-ups on each guitar so that the output is consistent. This video just saved me at least $600! Thanks guys. P.S. Thanks for having Colin on, I love his stuff as well!

[@ianmusicstein]

Very interesting hearing this. I have always raised the pickup over the bass strings and left it at default on the treble strings. I did chuckle how KZbin ads kicked in frequently between the a/b comparison

[@TheToillMainn]

The biggest difference with the pickup height I noticed when experimenting back in the day was when I did pinch harmonics. That was only on passive pickups though. Personally I found no difference on active ones, but results may vary of course!

[@just4stringsandsteve]

I love these science approach to tone videos Glenn! I would be interested to see the difference in EQ read out on the reaper eq. Maybe do three identical sustained notes repeating this same experiment. Also 7:26 "This guitar is a lot hotter!" DAMN IT GLENN! You forgot to turn the input gain back down between guitars!

[@AMSOfficial79]

exactly why these 'experiments' aren't 'scientific', and have little to no meaning. Just some youtuber fumbling around for views.

[@just4stringsandsteve]

@@AMSOfficial79 the only difference between science and fumbling about is writing it down. He is testing a hypothesis with an experiment. Seems pretty scientific for me. Guess Glenn needs to break out the beakers for it to be science 🙄

[@AMSOfficial79]

@@just4stringsandsteve are we justifying bad results based on bad practices, simply because he is half-assing the scientific method?

[@just4stringsandsteve]

@@AMSOfficial79 if it's so half assed and incorrect put the time into it and put out a video.

[@just4stringsandsteve]

@@AMSOfficial79 if you have such a problem with his method let's see your video on the subject.

[@OrbSlorberry69]

Nice Video Glen! Cool to see this taken into the proper testing environment.

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Glad you liked it!

[@FatPandaCat-im9ec]

Love the channel, love the tech Info. There's plenty of guitar players and pedal Boards nuts but very very few that can tell you the perspective of the man behind the desk. Great work Glenn.

[@dustinmylesdiou2649]

much learning. gr8 episode 🔥 thx to the both of ya.

[@maxwellpowell4306]

Okay, I know that Yamaha was a sponsor but seriously I think you should do a Revstar fearless gear review because it is such an underrated guitar especially for metal. It's an absolute weapon for not a lot of money!

[@Brian_Vallejo]

This was great to watch! Thanks Glenn 🤘

[@nacholibre9929]

Great info, 2 different sounds, now I realize certain problems I had. Great video. High you have less definition, low you get more low end and clarity, but neither are wrong, the player choose.

[@CIRCLEOFTONE]

Nice. I dig in a LOT when I chug so my action is highish and pickups are lowish. Strings have to have full rotation for the best dynamics.

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Hi Owen! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you’re doing well!

[@riffmondo9733]

Love both of your channels guys. And have bee following the pickup debate for a while now.

[@johnyang799]

It changed the sound drastically when you palmmute hard. It also alters output level of the pickups. This hits the amp differently.

[@johnyang799]

If the pickup height is too high you get almost broken sound when palm muting hard. And sound becomes harsh. If the pickup height is too low you lose a bit both low end and high end.

[@NeZversSounds]

@@johnyang799 any A/B to back it up?

[@martyshwaartz971]

@@NeZversSounds you should know better than to ask for evidence ;)

[@alvaroruizruiz7538]

Pickups are not more than microphone for electric guitar, the closer to the source, the more probable they are to start cliping, you have to find the sweet spot, higher output before starting cliping, and depending on output you just compensate with the gain on the preamp of your amp, simple as that. Then you also have to take into account bass and treble side of the pickup, again, look for balance, you don't want the bass notes to overwhelm the treble notes, typically you will want the treble side to be a little higher than the bass side, there's not much more to it, honestly...

[@johnyang799]

@@alvaroruizruiz7538 The part about clipping is not accurate. The issue I talked about is when you push hard on the string to achieve percussive heavy palm mute the string will get even closer to the pickups. So in such position the strings vibration is directly affected by the magnetic. The magnet is pulling the strings preventing it from vibrating properly. Below that, it can be explained by different output level which is what hits the amp in the end.

[@bleakapathy]

This might be one case that the bass players have a leg up on ya Glenn, string to pickup height is a large part of setting up and balancing the instrument so it's even across string gauges that vary wildly.

[@JustPlayingBass]

Good call. A pickup that is too high kills tone and sustain. The pickup pulls the strings into an ellipse if it's too close

[@davidvanvoorhis8509]

I've always prioritized clarity over the "EQ" qualities of a pickup. For me it's not about the relative position of the pickup as much as where it's the best sounding. Likely somewhere in the middle. Great video!

[@vapidwind1014]

Tubes and bias matter for headroom Pickup distance to strings matters for gain and brightness That why Steve Morse has so many of them in his bread and butter guitars as he like to call them and why they are setup that way Tone itself is super objective and subject to a great many things Volume bs heardroom, the space the speakers are in The size of the room It’s interesting if you do this same test outside in like a park somewhere etc I’m bummed I never got my pedal Glenn but I still think your awesome A plethora of free knowledge and experience you share is worthy of a shout out You are a huge help to anyone that actually takes the time to listen and then actually try doing the stuff shared on this channel Shalom

[@toxictime9604]

First of all, great to see you both in a kinda scientific Video (first one with Glen not screaming and swearing I think) I'd be astonished though if you were really surprised by the result. The volume changes with the PU's hight and therefore the feel of whatever comes next, whether a amp or whatever. I'm actually experimenting with that to redefine my gain stages a little. Really enjoyed this one, thank you both, you rock 🤘

[@jarrusjenkins]

Where the pickup is placed and I suspect the scale length will play a part in what you are hearing. I liked that SG and the Ibanez Strat the most! Awesome test lads, very informative

[@MrSJPowell]

This is a really cool comparison. The ideal test (perhaps on Colin's end more than yours) would be to test it dropping each pickup by a mm, play the riff, and then see if there's any changes in the EQ at each height, after adjusting for level. As someone who predominantly plays a Strat fairly clean (church music, mostly for kids who get scared when they hear drive), I have noticed there is something of a difference when I change pickup height, but once I found a sound I liked, I've not fiddled with it since. And I've never checked it for changes in EQ after adjusting for level

[@KennethCrickmore-sl8jl]

I like both of your channels and watch them often. I learned that the tone doesn't change with Pick up height, but only the volume changes with the distance of the Pick up from the strings , AKA closer is louder. that's about it... I learned that with a cheap Sears Silvertone/Danelectro with 2 'Lipstick' Pick ups. through a very high power Kenwood 6420 custom modified Receiver amplifier (2850 Watts total output) through all 10 channels/5stereo pairs.. with may more built in featured to many to list here ... easy to tell the difference with that much power available to crank it up only when I adjusted the amp settings to high, mid and Bass were there any differences in tones anyway. pick up height had no effect on tone, only on volume or signal strength from the pick ups them selves... Basic Physics or hydrodynamics/audio dynamics. LOL and that was when i was about 12 yrs old or about 53 years ago as I'm now 65 and have just recently completed my very first guitar upgrade/mod/ build you may have read about in my other comments on some of your videos before this.

[@pitaorj]

glenn you can make your humbucker sound stratocaster-ish if you lower enough to lower the bottom end and put the pickup poles higher. you can actually change the voicing of the guitar this way

[@dutchfpv7010]

You might think that, but Glenns gonna record it through a shitty digital laptop preamp that's gonna completely deaden all the overtone and nuance, then tell you you're wrong 🤣 Because that's literally every video he makes

[@SoloSabbath]

@@dutchfpv7010 I didn't know laptops contain "preamps" that "deaden overtones and nuance." Which laptop would you recommend he records with, with the "correct preamps" of course, so we can hear all of the nuance, that definitely won't get lost in the context of a MIX, since this is a STUDIO RECORDING channel after all. Not 'how to raise one frequency of your guitar that you can only hear through a stethoscope' channel. The hills people choose to die on never cease to amaze me.

[@matturner6890]

@@dutchfpv7010 yea you're out of your depth here with that ridiculous comment.

[@Mr986Willis]

The main thing with pickup height it to try and get the maximum output without loosing too much sustain (if the pickups are too close to the strings the magnetic field can drastically reduce sustain) while also trying to achieve a similar output volume from each pickup.

[@evilstalkerhorne]

Lowering the pickups and raising the screws is a great trick! It does effect ones sound and sustain length slightly. I have noodled around with many guitars and pickups and yeah it is a small difference but you can hear it. Recorded eh maybe but live yes it is noticeable. Basically lowering the pickup allows the strings to move more freely while moving the screws up a mm or two still gets a louder signal from the proximity to the strings. You did not raise the screw height. That is the part you missed. About the counter clockwise lowering it makes total sense if you work on the guitar. The spring reverses pressure so when you loosen it it goes down tight squishes spring and thus higher. Like I said before in other posts it is only one tiny piece in getting that great tone you want. You have to have the correct pieces and put them together the correct way to make the most out of your guitar and amp. This takes a long time to learn what needs to be done in each situation.

[@heresjonny666]

I think for a truly fair comparison you should have gain matched the high vs low pickup positions when playing, as a lot of these tonal differences seem to be from the problems around gain levels making it harder to play. As you have seen that string DO make a difference to the tone, it potentially follows that hitting strings harder vs weaker can make a difference too. Also we have to think about where on the strings you're hitting, as (admittedly without an A/B test) when I play nearer the bridge I get a toppier tone, whereas playing near the neck gets a more bottom heavy tone.

[@kutchutozov]

Great comparisons guys. Can't stand when people make objective conclusions public from uninformed, nonsensical "testing" methods. Do some bloody reading first no? Lmao. Anyway. I don't play that much high gain stuff anymore (usually just dad blues these days lol) so the lower output pups with added gain was subjectively my "favourite" for the overall balance and definition. That said, I just got a hollow body that I'm not comfortable enough with yet to know how to tweak it to my taste exactly. The bridge and tailpiece have taken a bit of fiddling but I'm happy for now and been experimenting with the pups, so this was really useful to see the differences across different body and pickup types. Interested to experiment with my cheapo-caster thru an NDSP messa or Abassi now lol.. They got some grunt! Thanks for this great video! Nothing better than inspiring us to experiment ourselves! 🥼

[@BlueBarrier782]

Pickup height usually can help when somebody is looking for more clarity or more gain. Pickup placement (affected by scale length) is what really changes the tone of the guitar signal.

[@tostrmofo6686]

Pickup placement and of course how wide the pickups are. As in single coil, humbuckers, mini humbuckers, P90s, single coil sized humbuckers and so on. So how big the portion of the vibrating string is and where it is captured. For me that's what makes the major differences between the sounds of different guitars.

[@JoeBaermann]

Depends on which aspects the person pointing at the term tone includes with it, Glenn for the most part speaks frequencies when he refers to tone and even sound.

[@aperfecttool257]

​@JoeBaermann yeah be Glenn's cousins that he's doing good treats is very funny to me. FYI, his "scientific tests" might do well at a middle school, but not anywhere else. Like , Glenn's still wrong on pickups.

[@Iesous27]

Not only more clarity and gain, but a hell of a lot more sustain too... but I think the strings matter too... I put some daddario nyxl strings on my guitar recently, and I lifted my pickups a bit and intonated, and my guitar feels way better to play now. I can hold a note for way longer and get way more clarity.

[@JoeBaermann]

@@aperfecttool257 I didn’t write that he is correct refering to tone as frequencies only, did I? At least he managed to hear that it does do a difference, if he was technical profound at playing rythm and solos he would find even more of a difference, since then he would also use less gain.

[@klacustoms]

Fun video to watch! One more thing you guys should try is setting a pickup to the low position for the low E string, top E string, adjust to high so pickup is angled low to high. I do this for all of my guitars. The style of music I play, I have to incorporate using both rhythm and lead. By having the pickup close to high E string, it makes it more sensitive and reactive. Definitely makes it easier playing higher notes in solos. Then use a compressor sustainer pedal next to keep dynamic audio range balanced. The sensitivity will still be there for playing leads.

[@flatgroundtv7097]

Love the higher pickups. Really like the Hi's and fullness.

[@MrBoggles]

Love vids like this.. and Thankyou for the a/b examples without a 30min conversation between them.. think the next step is to record left and right and then perhaps double track each side.. you know.. just for shits and giggles.. love your work ✌️

[@GitShiddy]

This highlights why myself & other guitarists obsessive tweaking. *It's not about tone, it's about feel*. And when something feels weird you struggle to play, as is what happens here. If Glen & Colin played without playback to the sound & only heard the unplugged guitar the tone shift wouldn't have effected their playing or their perception of difficulty of the thing they just played. The tone shift wouldn't be there while playing & the feel would be consistent. Which is why everything matters even when it doesn't.

[@honigdachs.]

Absolutely.

[@-IMMOBILIZER-]

I couldn't say it better!!!! But.... BUT!!!!! This story, this TRUTH wears out FAST!!!! You can't make a million KZbin videos telling people what we just said in 30 seconds.....

[@tonedowne]

It is important to get the heights right for how you play and what your guitar does. Some guitars get really flubbly when the PU is too high. Personally I like the bridge as high as it will go and still sound good, and the neck all the way down for maximum quack.

[@simpson6700]

Holy crap, the super close single coil sounded great for high gain

[@crazy.scorpio]

Very good video, pretty much what I have learned, or at least thought to myself, over the years. I place my pickups high to get every noise and cut what I don't want with gates. Picks up and affects nuance/dynamics more than tone really. But on chuggy palm mutes it is very noticeable.

[@GhostKill88]

I've tested this before over raw single channel recordings and more live in the moment. I can't speak for others, but I absolutely CAN hear a substantial difference in height, especially at big height differences, especially on cheaper pickups.

[@rolsen1304]

Same here, enough that it's worth fiddeling with to find you personal preference for neck and bridge.

[@luigigetsu]

Hey Glen, you can calculate the fast fourier transform of those signals to check out the frequency content, that would be easier to judge the differences, from time domain signals like the ones you showed in the video is almost impossible to tell, if you want you can send me a copy of those time domain signals you recorded and I'll send you the plots back, cheers!

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

What software do you recommend for this?

[@luigigetsu]

@@SpectreSoundStudios I mostly use Matlab or Python to do that sort of calculations, but any software that has and fft() calculator will do. I'm a noise and vibrations engineer, normally i deal with other types of signals but from time to time i deal with signals from microphones that we use for analysis of mechanical components for the auto industry.

[@mitchellturnbull3988]

I’ve actually used reaper and adjusted the pickup height of my fishmans and the ONLY note I could make it using a noise gate or compressor (depending on the settings) would cut some notes with lower volumes/gain. The only thing it seems to change is a very minor change in volume/intensity. Tone was no different, noise was no different. I noticed my pinch harmonics seemed a lot brighter with higher pickups, but again…with a noise gate. That’s all. Good video and eff you Glenn!

[@wisterialosenge2546]

when i designed my diy vst pluggin, i just ran a stock single coil bridge pickup through an rca cable and directly into a basic stereo soundcard, and that's what is set as the calibration base line in the vst. if i plug in a humbucker guitar and it doesn't work or sound right, i may be able to adjust the height of the pickup to match the volume and-or graphic eq range, without having to introduce other hardware or re-do the inner guts of my vst pluggin, if the vst's input gain slider adjuster doesn't have enough range. other than that, i usually like to adjust my pickups as close to the strings as possible, with the exception of my midi pickup, which i keep a bit further away from my strings, which is the opposite of what the midi pickup instruction manual said to do.

[@DamianPendragon]

It might not change much in the context of a mix, but it's a big change in the context of playing and using a noise gate. I typically don't use that high of a gain, I go as low gain as I can. If the pick ups are too low, sometimes, my noise gate struggles to pick up all my notes, if I accidentally pick them too low volume. With low pick ups, it's a bit more of a struggle to get every note out, particularly on hammer ons and pull offs. But then again, my pick ups themselves are also pretty low output

[@thediminished98]

You wrote about level, not tone though.

[@Laithsmiths]

​@@thediminished98preach.

[@DamianPendragon]

@@thediminished98 well that's fair enough. I never assumed it affected tone, but it affects playability

[@t23c56]

To compensate for lower pickups, lower the threshold of your noise gate, then turn up the gain of your amp slightly.

[@Laithsmiths]

@@t23c56 double preach. This comment section is filled with truth.

[@dokterkarel]

I have several different guitars all with different pickups, and in the room they sound different and I can pick them apart easily when played back to back. But on a recording, the differences are still noticeable but actually not that big. And in a mix it's not that big of a deal at all. What I do notice is that different pickups are more noticeable when playing through a real amp instead of an amp sim, but that's just what I (= complete amateur) noticed.

[@rodennis418]

I agree with the clarity mentioned at the end. That's what I heard the most...it wasn't as much of a 'change in tone' vs. finding where the height should be to match the string heights. One of the examples it seemed more like a good example of a guitar set up correctly vs one that is just a bit off.

[@rodennis418]

but I did love the sound of the hollow body. Kinda want some more of that! :)

[@solarpixiejournals]

What do you think about the Revstar? I've heard those things are awesome.

[@Levibetz]

On the first two guitars, Colin mentioned his pickup started at almost touching the strings, I don't know that Glenn started at that same close-ness. What I've noticed in pickup height is that it behaves like proximity effect, so if you want that significantly fatter tone you have to get the pickup right up next to the strings. Once you move a small distance away the level continues to change but the tone doesn't. Same goes for the hollow body, because it couldn't get close enough to begin with, it was basically just a level change. So I think if you were to do a test like this where you play exactly the same riff and lower the pickup in increments, you'll notice an initial tone change, and then just level change as you move further away.

[@elkaro5]

It would have been interesting to see the spectral analysis. For the clean and distorted signals. And then, with gain difference and compensated gain.

[@mlambrechts1]

You high gain guys are incredible. How can you hear differences when the sound is so compressed? If I would play that kind of music often (I do it only sometimes), I'd always go for the cheapest stuff; it doesn't seem to matter... (I'd save on the guitar and pickups and put a good speaker in my cab, though).

[@tomastuharsky]

Well, they do it from the perspective of metal. Some of their findings apply to other genres and some don't. Spit out the bones, keep the meat.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

Glenn always sounds like over saturated over compressed mush regardless of anything but the speaker, thats why he's always banging on about speakers. I've asked him a hundred times to go easy on the gain when demoing guitars and pickups but "this is a METAL channel!!!!" ......like shitty tone is mandatory? Turn the dam gain down and experiment with the nuances

[@JoeBaermann]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 I agree, but he most probably won’t be comfortable playing with less gain, keep in mind that most of us used way more gain than needed to begin with, since we didn’t have the technique to play with as little gain as we could get away with. Some still feel safer with loads of gain, just listen EVH covers as example, if they just knew how little gain Eddie used…. There are styles within metal where oversaturation is a common thing, but they do tighten it up with boost pedals, never heard Glenn play any of those styles though.

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

@@JoeBaermann I think its high time he learned about different metal tones! Take Rabea Massad, awesome metal tone! Awesome clean tones! Awesome overdrive tones! Glenn has enough experience to know better, he makes wild blanket statements about guitar tone without without ever walking in the shoes any other genre or even sub genre, its just super high gain generic modern "my first guitar tone by fisher price" stuff

[@Eliphas_Elric]

@@murrayguitarpickups9545 As a metal player, I agree. Too much fucking gain.

[@dasalpha-wollmut5646]

The difference you're hearing is as you said mainly in the output of the guitar or if you will the input into the amp(sim). There is no proximity effect, it's just hitting the amp harder with the higher pickup, so you get more distiortion and more low end. Lowering the Pickup is basically the same as if you turn back the volume knob a tad on your guitar. The 'quack' was on all the pickups more pronounced with the lowered position, due to less output into the amp and a more defined and less saturated tone.

[@jeffgamble8957]

Very cool collab, you guy work well together. id be interseted to hear a high low and mid comparison between the guitars with a more specific measured distance from the strings. I prefer Telecasters wether im playing clean or dirty. it would be cool to see a pt 2 of this with telecaster , strat, jaguar ,and P90,type single coils.

[@ErickC]

Burl's Art made a Telecaster out of balsa recently. The effects of the huge change in wood density over a "standard" Telecaster with the same configuration and electronics was akin to the pickup lowering. The tone wasn't radically different, but the volume, attack, and sustain were greatly affected. I think it's amazing how guitar players will obsess over the minutiae of finishes or nut material but pay no mind to gain staging. After the speaker, it's probably one of the most important components of the overall sound. It's almost like it's something that requires real effort and you can't just throw money at it.

[@MyBichSustained]

The fender style bridges are the best when dealing with pickup height, because you can adjust each string height to the ramping of the pickup. Ramp your strings low to high or high to low for extra efficiency.

[@grayaj23]

My main experience is with low- vs high-output single coils on a strat played at edge of breakup. For matching the volume output of one to the other by adjusting the height (making the high output pickup lower) makes the output at the end of the chain sound different. Low output + higher gain vs higher output and lower gain to achieve the same final volume. My experience (subjective, of course) is that the specific sound of positions 2 and 4 are better for the style of music I play when I use a low output pickup, closer to the strings. IDK whether you'd call that "tone" or not. The lower output pickups sound more distorted (in a particularly good way) to me. I can't do an apples-to-apples test, because the high output and low output single coils are different to begin with. They're both the stock PUs that came with the two strats I own.

[@chrisbarraza7700]

I've done this on a passive Jazz Bass with stock pickups, and a Spector Bass with EMG HZs and active preamp. Made a pretty clear difference in gain, pushing the front end of the amp. Its way more notable for me cause I was trying to avoid dirty sounds. The best place I found.... in the middle lol.

[@Stuart_Cox1969]

Very interesting, thanks guys.

[@alrecks619]

i wonder why the adjustable pickup position thing on guitar didn't really took off, could it be impracticality on manufacturing standpoint? inconvenience for the end user? trying to sell you more pickups on a guitar? or all of em?

[@kenr.b.891]

Not only does pickup height make a significant difference, but also does string height. If the strings are too low, the string vibration is dampened by the fingerboard, especially when you pick harder, and if the action is too high, the guitar is hard to play. The trick is too find the sweet spot between the two, and where that sweet spot is, will depend on the guitar, and how true the neck and frets are. I think we can also add string gauge. I moved from 8's, of which I played for years, to 9's, because 9's sound better. By the way, the Ampknob Rev C sounds way awesome!

[@jwinchester1320]

Pickup height evens out your volume from string to string and correct distance is also important. It most definitely does do that. Very important for live performance

[@shinyfret69]

Nice video, but have you considered comparing lowering the pickup to just dialing down the volume knob?

[@dirkbrom3948]

Love these collaborations. Thanks for the effort here.

[@captainkirk70]

I find almost all neck humbuckers to be a bit muddy. So much I don't use them. One trick I've found is to lower the pickup down almost as low as it will go without something coming loose, then raise the screw pole pieces up to compensate and make the output match the bridge. I don't know why but it works for me. Maybe it makes it sound closer to a single coil?? I usually use medium hot PAF style pickups and make sure the pots are good and 500K. I find a medium hot sounds better with tons of gain than some super hot black metal pickup etc. Like it gives a bit more headroom with high gain? But I dont spend tons of money on pickups. Always used but decent enough that they're not falling apart in my hands. I do however always change out Epiphone PAF style. The older ones that were pure garbage before they started using better parts. I also tend to like P-90s so I sometimes change them out for that. But still used and inexpensive. I do like a P-90 in a Epi LP. But wouldn't do it to an expensive guitar. I think most people that want a great LP or SG should look at vintage MIJ Burny guitars on Ebay. Easily the best Gibsons I"ve had at Epi prices.

[@captainkirk70]

The bottom line is better sounding pickups lead to better performances. Something that can be measured in your studio. So pickups are important but I've found that the Fleor Hot Rail HBs sound identical to the Duncan Distortion. One costing $15 and the other over $115. Funny, I sold a "vintage" Distortion pickup to a Tool fan for $400. Lol. It just came in a cheap LP copy. Had no idea what it was until I took a picture of it and showed it on a forum. It was jumped on by the guy who bought it. Lol. It was a great sounding pickup though.

[@lobotronix4461]

Hi Glenn! Have you seen any of Jim Lill's insane guitar tone tests? I would love to know your opinion on them. I think his videos offer a lot of insight into what does and doesn't matter for guitar tone and they're also really entertaining. Keep up the good work! :)

[@1minutecomicswalahollywood648]

Hello Glenn, I am a new subscriber. ❤

[@mooreoutdoor9841]

I play High gain 99% of the time and have always set my pickups as close to the strings as possible. Lowering them seems counterproductive for Metal. Great test guys!

[@thechommytong420]

Ppl are mistaking output for tone jus cause you have more output doesn’t mean the tone of the guitar has changed

[@rantanen1]

everyone knows the toan is in the balls and paintjob

[@nunes1907]

GLEEEEEEN! Would you mind to share the raw wave file of those takes (without the amp applied)? Thank you!

[@roberttaylor-branco3217]

It will of course depend on the pickups (output/sensitivity related), but yes it can make a huge difference to the tone. I hear it through play back, and I hear and feel the difference greatly when playing. If you think about it, it is actually the first level of gain structure in terms of your guitar tone. Finding the “sweet spot” if you will, in terms of pick-up height, is just as important (although not as easy to screw up) as finding the sweet spot in the gain structure of your VALVE amp.

[@Fartinhalerr]

It helps with clarity imo

[@guguslive]

The reason for the single coils causing double notes if close to the strings vs humbuckers is because must humbuckers have the magnets in the lower area of the pickup (the thing close are the screws, not the magnet) while single coils have the magnets right in the top poles... Humbuckers can go as close without the magnets messing up the strings...

[@D14V0R05]

Depending on the output of the pickups (henries, not kilo ohms) you do get more "significant" differences when changing the height, because their magnetic fields are wider or narrower, so they can "pick up" more or less vibrations from the magnetized strings that way.

[@GuyXVIII]

As a bass player, that goes double for basses. And triple for basses with humbuckers. My Thunderbird was virtually unusable until I backed them off to minimum height. Told my friend to lower the bucker on his cheap musicman SUB and now he's in love with it! Get a screwdriver, that's cheaper then new boutique coils ;)

[@KennethCrickmore-sl8jl]

I don't know which of my 2 comments will appear first here so here i will describe my "Stellarcaster" and all its features . I started with a "Starcaster"-"Strat electric guitar" By: Fender (said that right on the head stock) I stripped it totally paint electronics and all down to bare wood and empty of anything at all then extended the control cavity for more controls and bigger Pick ups... the paint is a stars and Planets, Space theme custom paint job on the body and headstock. with a 2K semi gloss clear coat finish. then I made a custom extended Brushed Stainless Steel Pick guard that I loaded with the added electronics. Including 3 quad rail/coil humbuckers wired in coil pairs with 5 wires. one braded ground and also the start and finish of each pair of adjacent coils. each with their own P/P vol. for coil splitting and reg. Tone pots all are 500K audio taper type the bridge tone pot also a P/P to activate the bridge and neck P/Ups together regardless of any other controls. It's wired like a 50's Les Paul with coil splits and I used .047 orange drop tone caps for a brighter sound and the way i did the coil split for which coils are closest to the bridge when in circuit maks it brighter as well so the guitasr sounds like the Strat it started as but with nore power and the ability to use all 3 Pick ups all together. even though I installed a Fender 5-way blade style selector switch which functions as it should but through my unique wiring and the use of that P/P tone pot get added functionality and added tonal options as well. and yes the wiring was a challenge with all the solder connections and the wire routing...since the normal/traditional wire used for most electric guitars is really to big for the minute electrical current produced by the P/Ups to begin with. usually in mere millivolts. I stripped out a salvaged Computer VGA cable for all the smaller stranded wired within it that have their own insulation and are adequate for the minute voltage they will carry. saving space in the control cavity and easing wire routing as well manipulating wire that small takes some skill and the use of tools to place it exactly where you need it to be and hold it to solder it in place. .. takes time but the end result works as designed after working the bugs out of the wiring diagram.. but now it all works as intended. and sounds great. I found that when the pots and switches are mounted to the Stainless Steel Pick guard that they are essentially grounded to it through their cases, eliminating the need for any ground wiring but to the Bridge itself to any grounded component in the entire circuit. and the Pick guard acts as the shielding as well.. so none is needed inside the control cavity either.. It all works well for such an extreme and unique guitar wiring scheme. a black and dark blue background for the stars and planets paint scheme, the Brushed Stainless Steel Pick Guard, loaded with those bug powerful quad rail Pick ups and the Tele style Chrome knobe adorning the 6 pots and a chrome tip on the 5-way selector switch and I added a Kill Button too, just for more fun....remember the paint is on both the body and the head stock envision it for yourself... cool looking spacy guitar that looks feels and sounds great. My "Stellarcaster" really rocks the Cosmos.... LOL ... Wanna Play??? yes I am very [proud of myy very first ever guitar project that is thr beginning of the collection I will actually build with my own 2 hands , one at a time as I please and the way i want them to be.

[@Typical.Anomaly]

I like that double neck uke. Planning on getting a double neck guitar/bass 6/4 sometime in the near future. I found one from a US seller for under $300. Just to fuck around on through a looper. It'll likely need a buttload of setup and maybe updates but it's all for fun.

[@michaelangeloh.5383]

There's something I've been wondering for years and that's whether or not there are simply also different shapes in the magnetic fields, considering there are not only different magnets but also poles and blades and so on.

[@oldadajbych8123]

It can be interesting to see how successful Glenn would be if he tried to match the different sounds with EQ. In the end, in the mix, the difference would be much smaller. On the other hand, as Collin mentioned, the playing itself is affected. Thus, the sound would be unnoticeably different in the mix, but the performance could be the reason for dealing with pickup height.

[@djsusan00]

matching it with EQ would change the results though, More like just use SPAN for frequency analysis. Matching the sounds to sound the same would defeat the purpose of the whole experiment. They sounded the same to me, just more or less gain. Gain isn't tone either it's just output.

[@oldadajbych8123]

@@djsusan00 My thought was to support the opinion that moving (or even changing) the pickup does not make a massive difference in a high-gain scenario. At most, such change that can be achieved with EQ. It is obvious when they are switching guitars - the difference is not that big even with totally different guitars (not that one with single coil). So the reason for experimenting with pickups is not primarily the sound (or tone, if you will) but the player's experience and "feel", which affect the performance that cannot be fixed in the mix.

[@everTriumph]

The most difference will occur on the neck pickup, because the string will move further over the pickup poles. This may move into less linear magnetic fields when very close..

[@TheAT5000]

I was thinking about Jim Lil's recent microphone capsule test, wherein which he tested a bunch of the same mic capsules with slight manufacturing variances, and found that they do in fact sound different from one another, but predictably so when the frequency response graphs were lined up from least to most capacitance. If we can somehow come up with a bench test for pickups, will we find that capacitance makes more of a tonal difference that output? Theoretically, output only chances the tone if it causes the preamp to compress. But capacitance is known to cause tonal shifts. (See how your guitar tone knob works, or an amp's tone stack) And then my question would be, what if we added the exact capacitance difference to a brighter pickup to make it match that of a darker one?

[@BumDogSuMo]

What did I learn here? That more heavy metal guys need to play hollow bodies! That thing sounded killer and it’s awesome hearing those chugs come from a guitar that looks like that.

[@denislitisha7136]

The hollow body sounded nice and tight. The Yamaha is just an output monster

[@Victinfien]

pickup height is most noticeable on EMG, I always had them very close to the strings, and 1 day I did a A/B compairson of a guitar with an old set of 57/66 and a new set of 57/66 TW, and long story short, putting the pickup real close, squashed the signal, and backing it off gave a more passive looking signal, very spiky with big transients

[@Kozmonot420]

I like the lower pick up sound. The low end is tighter giving you more control over it in the signal/digital chain. Of course I immediately lowered my bridgr pick up on my SG and with the high gain on my processor, I hear the individual chops much better. Lol its easier to hear my mistakes.

[@MaritimesRemi]

I have a 1986 Vantage Avenger that I hated the sound. It sounded really bad for cleans and it was over fuzzy with high gain. My buddy told me two days ago to lower the height of my humbucker, and problem solved! I was about to put the thing for sale! 😂😂

[@carlosclaptrix]

It'd be interesting to compensate the lower output of low pickups by adjusting the input gain of the amp sim. How would that change the sound?

[@JustPlayingBass]

I always thought that if the pickup was too high it effected the way the string vibrates. If the pickup is too high, it can change the vibration pattern to an ellipse, the magnetic field pulling the string towards the pickup and therefor limiting tone and sustain. I once had a problem recording my bass, a strange "beat" anomaly and the engineer told me the pickup was too high. Lowered the height, problem solved.

[@patrickmartin3306]

Hey I’m curious, have you checked out any of the Ted Weber Tone Cvlt speakers? There’s really not a whole lot of people out there using them, and I’m curious how they sound as a studio recording speakers. Please do a video on them!

[@fat_ninja_status]

Seems like you basically need to do a/b comparisons on every guitar to balance out pickup heights for it. Could explain why people perceive a massive difference when getting new pickups. Course, I'm a bass player, mostly playing clean and emg fan boy. 😉

[@7Kirtash7]

I fucking loved the Ibanez Hollow Body with the high pickups for a thrash metal sound!!!

[@RolandDeschain1]

The high pickups introduce so much woofiness to the palm mutes. The lowered pickup is tighter and clearer.

[@revrenlove]

Jim Lill has a new microphone video.... you would be interested!

[@Destruction_Ritual]

Colin AND Glenn?! Oh happy day!!!

[@worldaswar3784]

this is why i love this channel.

[@GdGuitarist]

I was experimenting with input levels not to long ago and found I was preferring a lower input levels for the guitar. From my perception, The lower input volume gave me more clarity and reduced the unwanted noise that I would have eq'd in post. @9:00 i find really interesting because I preferred the second one with the lowered pick up. This is pure speculation on my part but I'm wondering if the perceived sound added to the recording is how the hand scrapes along the other strings while muted. It seems logical to me that if the pickups are higher up they would pick up the additional sounds of the hands moving on the strings. That might sound obvious like duh! of course it would but its given me something to consider in my playing while recording. Or maybe this is the part of what guitarists mean then "tHe ToNe iS iN tHe HaNdS!" 🤣

[@lisdexik5484]

It does not change tone, but I've noticed that it changes the volume. I lowered the bass side of my neck pickup and it helped roll off some of the boominess when using it. Or I could be totally wrong and it's all placebo effect!

[@moparbryan]

I think the biggest thing to me is if pickups are too close to the strings you can sometimes get a buzz sound that is not there actually. A pro touring tech showed me this it usually comes from the G and B strings. It sounds like fret or saddle buzz but it’s not actually buzzing it has something to do with the string’s position in the magnetic field and will only happen on plain strings

[@66fitton]

Interesting... Too bad they didn't play any lead riffs that may have demonstrated this. I'll definitely watch for just this problem when adjusting. Thanks mate!

[@RJMacready509]

Hey Glenn! I wanted to throw this your way and hear your thoughts. I’ve been chasing a fretless bass guitar tone (growl/mwah sound) similar to Jaco Pastorious or Beyond Creation. I’m bashing my head against the wall hearing local guitar techs or keyboard warriors telling me to “buy a different bass” “it’s all in the feeling” or “change the pick ups…” Yet when I point out that a black metal bass player and a jazz fusion bassist playing COMPLETELY different basses are getting similar tones they can’t back up their argument. Watching your videos and grabbing some of Scott Elliot’s lessons taught me exactly where guitar tone comes from. But dialing in different bass tones seems to be a struggle for me. I would love to hear an engineers perspective on this rather than a drooling crayon ingesting TalkBass forum imbecile. Cheers!