Flesk Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Hi, I bought a used Gibson SG Standard (think it's a 2006 model) some while ago. It sounded nice with standard gauge strings and tuned in E. But as I changed to thicker strings (+-0.50) and tuned it to drop C I tend to get some sort of buzz, and the lower strings seems to be touching the bridge pickup when I'm palm muting (unless I'm utterly careful). This might be a silly question, but I'm pretty much a newbie at this. Anyhow, what are the standard heights of the bridge, saddle and pickups? And what heights would you recommend for lower tunings? The height of the bridge at the moment is 16mm at the lower E and 15mm at the high E. The saddle is screwed entirely down to the body of the guitar. The bridge pickup is 13mm at both ends and the neck pickup is 5mm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80LPC Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 Don't worry about the height of bridge and pickups measured from the guitar surface. Start by measuring the string height (distance between the top of the frets and the bottom of the string). Check this at the 12th fret and the last fret. You won't need an action as low as this (1mm on all strings from 12th to the last). Set your 1st string height to 1.5mm, and your 6th to 2mm. See how this feels - you might want to tweak it slightly either way, but make sure you slacken the strings before making an adjustment. If you have a string buzz audible through the amp, it's possible that the truss rod will need a slight adjustment. This would be best done by a tech who would check the amount of relief in the neck. You will have to lower the bridge pickup to avoid contact during palm muting. There should be no contact between the vibrating strings and the pickups - the strings wil not ring true and it makes a mess of the plastic coils or pickup cover. Once you find settings that seem to work good, make a note of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flesk Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 Thank you, your answer proved to be extremely helpful! I adjusted the height of the strings as you mentioned and lowered the bridge pickup a bit, and it sounds and plays excellent again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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