Service manual

Sinclair Community College | ETD 110 Guitar Service Manual
11
Pickup Adjustment:
Regular or Philips screwdriver
There are literally hundreds of styles and configurations for guitar
pickups, the majority of which are called “floating pickups”, named
because they do not mount directly to the guitar body but are
attached to a pickup ring with springs between the ring and pickup
frame holding the pickup in place. The springs allow the pickup to
“float” in place. The height can be
adjusted by tightening or loosening
the mounting screws, and thus also
allows the tone quality to be
adjusted.
Almost all electric guitar pickup
problems are caused by damage or
incorrect pickup height and/or placement. This means that proper
setup of the pickup is imperative to the life and performance of the
pickups on your guitar.
Setting a floating pickup is fairly simple, and you can adjust for any
type of playing style. Pickups are basically small microphones
picking up sound waves reverberating from the strings, so the closer
the pickup is to the string, the more sound it will pick up, and vice
versa. The purpose of adjusting is to get all the pickups to have the
same volume.
Start by plugging in your guitar and playing the low E string right
above the bridge pickup and pay attention to the volume level. Next,
do the same thing with the high E string. Raise or lower each side of
the pickup until the volume is the same on both sides. Do the same
for the neck pickup, then check the volume level between the two, if