badplayer Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 I bought a used LP special P90 online. Pretty happy with it so far. But the 2 P90 pickups are currently installed with the height of the "inner edges" (the edges on each pickup that face each other) raised pretty high. I am wondering if this is the way all LP special/P90's look, of if this was an adjustment made by my guitar's previous owner? 2nd question - what kind of capability does this model have as far as raising/lowering pickup height? fyi - I do see the 2 pickup-screws, but it looks to me like they only serve to attach the pickup & cover to the guitar, not necessarily help in adjusting height. Anybody here actually adjusted p/u heights on their own special/P90? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 I seem to reacll those 2 screws on each side (in between to pole pieces) will take care of adjusting the height the way to measure, fret the E strings at the last fret, measure the distance from the top of the pole over the Es to the bottom of each E string you can start out a 1/8 of an inch and adjust from there. check this out: http://www.ehow.com/how_6970065_adjust-p_90-pickup.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badplayer Posted February 19, 2016 Author Share Posted February 19, 2016 Thanks for the reply. I've already seen that how-to article, as well as others on that topic. My questions were in reference to the LP Special P90 specifically - #1 - are the "tilted" pickups common to this model, & #2 - the screws don't appear to raise/lower anything, only attach the P/U to the guitar body. If I'm right (what are the odds of that) about #2, then seems like there are no options for lowering the P/U's, other than deepening the cavity route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col Mustard Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 those two screws are the controls that we use to raise or lower the p'ups. they are screwed into a metal plate in the bottom of the cavity. turning them clockwise should lower the pickup... and the reverse for raising it. If yours don't function like this, then maybe they are unattached. (in which case so are your pickups). You'll have to press down on them with a screw driver and feel for engagement of the threads. I have an Epi ES-339 P-90 Pro, and under the pickups is some rubber foam which functions like a spring. It pushes the pickup upwards, in opposition to the screws. In my limited experience, the bridge pickup functions well when really close to the strings, like maybe 5mm or a bit less. The neck p'up can be lower according to the sound you prefer. But when the pickup is high, and close to the strings, the threads of the screws are nearly out of the metal plate. Good luck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 The 2 screws in between the pole pieces are indeed the screws used to adjust the height, as well as attach the pup to the body. They go through both the cover and the pup, and as said above, into a metal attachment plate sorta thingy that is solidly attached to the guitar. In between the bottom of the pup and the guitar body (or plate), should be springs that push the pup up. There could be foam or such added by previous owner. Or possibly replaced the springs with tubing. IF you press down on the pup, it should be able to go down, leaving the screws "up" past the pup. If you can't push it down, something under the pup is holding it from going down. Maybe the pup wire. Point here, is if it won't of cant go down by pushing it, turning the screws won't bring it down either, but likely just strip the screws. If you can't push down, only thing to do is remove the pup, check what is holding it up, and get it out of there so you CAN move it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badplayer Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Thanks to everyone who replied - this was all very helpful. I think what I also learned was "don't be afraid to pull them out & take a look"... There are 2 rubber blocks on the underside of each pickup. The rubber is pretty hard - it does provide some "tensioning" but not as much "give" as I would expect. This is why I initially thought that the screws don't provide for height-adjustment. On the underside of each rubber block is a metal spring that is intended to to provide for height-adjustment. The pickup-screws go through all this, & screw directly into the guitar-body (wood, no metal plate.) In the case of my guitar it looks like the metal springs were bent/squashed to the point where they don't do much, and they also force the pickups to sit at an angle rather than level. I will look around for replacement springs. But, wondering if this arrangement is "stock", I still have the same kind of question - if anyone out there has this particular model (2014 LP Special I P90), do you have the same pickup-height scheme (hard rubber blocks plus springs) as what I described here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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