Adjusting the height of bass pickups.

Surprisingly, there are many people who are not satisfied with the sound of their instruments.

There are many ways to improve the sound of your instrument, such as buying a new instrument, using a different kind of strings, or making adjustments.

Today, I would like to talk about how changing the height of the pickups can change the sound.

Adjusting the pickups is surprisingly important for both bass and guitar.

Why don’t you try adjusting the sound easily?
Advantages of Raising the Pickups on a Bass
So what are the advantages of raising the pickups?

There are two main reasons.
The sound will have more power.
It makes the sound more distorted.
These are the two main benefits.

Let’s look at them in order.

The higher the pickup, the more power you get!

The higher the pickup, the closer it gets to the strings, and the more powerful the sound becomes.

Specifically, you’ll get a louder buzzing sound.

If you don’t have power, it will sound like it’s coming from far away.

You lose your presence in the band.

If you think that your sound lacks power and that you need to change your pickups, you should start with a new pickup. If you’re thinking, “My sound doesn’t have enough power, should I change my pickups?

Higher pickups make it easier to distort.

When you make the pickup higher, it gets closer to the strings. So you get more power.

If you are aiming for a crunchy, distorted sound, a higher pickup setting is recommended.

If you set your amp for easy distortion and set the pickups high, the sound will be distorted.

If you like distortion, give it a try.

Disadvantages of using high pickups on bass guitar

Let’s take a look at the disadvantages of using high pickups.
It is difficult to control the sound.
The sound is crushed.
Noise from the strings hitting the pickups
The above are some of the disadvantages.

It’s hard to control the sound when the pickup is too high.

If you raise the pickup too high, it will be difficult to control the sound by picking.

If the pickup is too high, the sound will be too powerful and you will always be throwing everything you have at it.

This makes it difficult to control the sound when you want to play with a little less power.

Too high a pickup can destroy the sound

If the pickup is turned up too high, the sound will lose its firmness and become crushed. If the pickup is turned up too high, the sound loses its firmness and becomes a crushed sound, making it hard to tell what you are playing. It’s like a buzzing sound, but you can’t tell the pitch.

If the pickup is too high, the strings will hit the pickup and make noise.

If the pickup is too high, the strings will hit the pickup and make noise.

If you are an intense picker or slapper, you should be careful.

Advantages of Lowering the Pickup Height on Bass Guitar

So what are the advantages of lowering the pickups?
The sound becomes clearer.
Better sound release
These are just a few.

Let’s look at them in order.
Lowering the pickup makes the sound clearer!

The lower the pickup, the clearer the sound becomes.

The sense of power will disappear and the sound will become calm.

The clearer the sound, the easier it is to control.

The lower the pickup, the better the sound release!

If you are having trouble getting the sound to come through, try lowering the pickup.

If you have a problem with the sound, try lowering the pickup. You will get a clearer sound.

Disadvantages of lowering the pickup

So what are the disadvantages of lowering the pickup?
It’s hard to get nuance.
You lose a sense of presence.
Let’s take a closer look.
It’s hard to get nuance with a low pickup

When you lower the pickup, it becomes harder to bring out nuance.

You may not be able to pick up what you are doing properly.

This is also a disadvantage when you want to add nuance with picking noise.

Lower pickups lose their presence

As I mentioned earlier, you will pick up the sound of strings playing in the distance, making it difficult to hear.

The sound becomes smaller, and you lose your sense of presence.

If the pickup is too high, the sound will not come out well, but if it is too low, it will not come out well. It’s all about balance.

How to adjust the pickups on bass and guitar

Adjusting the height of the pickups on bass and guitar is easy.

It’s as simple as tightening the screw on the side of the pickup to lower the pickup, or loosening it to raise it.

Once you raise or lower it to the extreme, listen to the sound.

You’ll be able to experience the “advantages and disadvantages” here.

Try to adjust it while keeping an eye on the balance.

Don’t raise or lower the pickup too much

It is not good to raise or lower the pickup too much.

As you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages.

Find the sound that best suits your style and adjust it!

Once you’ve adjusted the string height, you can adjust the pickup height too!

[char no=”2″ char=”Tomomi”]When you change the string height, you should also adjust the pickups. [/char].

A lot of people forget to do this.

When you adjust the string height, the distance between the strings and the pickup will change, right?

This will also affect the sound. When you adjust the saddle height, you should also adjust the pickup.

You should adjust the string height and pickup height as a set.

Summary of Pickup Height Adjustment for Bass Guitar

Now that you know how important it is to adjust the height of your pickups, let’s take a look at the following points.

The following is a summary of what raising the pickups does
More power
Easier distortion
Difficulty in controlling the sound
Noise
That’s how I feel.

Also, if you lower the pickup
The sound becomes clearer.
Better sound release
It is difficult to get nuance.
No sense of presence
So that’s what I thought.

Adjustment is easy, just adjust the screws on the pickup.

It is recommended to measure the height of the pickup from the strings with an L-shaped ruler.

If you do it by feel, the distance between the pickup and the strings will vary.

If you do it by feel, the distance between the pickup and the string will vary from string to string, and the height will also vary depending on the thickness of the string.

I’ve done it myself.

The article I wrote at that time: How to deal with different volume depending on the string: https://bassguitarband.com/strings-volume/

As you can see above, before you buy a new pickup, try to adjust the height first.
If you still don’t like it
If you still don’t like the sound, you can always replace the pickup.

There are various types available from different companies. If you don’t have the confidence to do it yourself, ask a store to do it for you.

You don’t want to get an electric shock if you don’t do it right.

Today, I talked about how changing the height of the pickup can change the sound.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of active and passive pickups? Please refer to the article “What are the advantages and disadvantages of active and passive pickups?

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)