Know How your Guitar Works Part II

[SNick]

Lets make the tone a little brighter on the Neck and Bridge pickup of your Les Paul.

 

The Stop Tail Piece

 

Most of your STP's (Stop Tail Pieces) are screwed down tight to the body of the guitar. Believe it or not this is contributing to the dark tone of both your pickups. I did not buy it myself at first but then I said OK lets give it a try, and raised the STP up about 5 screw turns. This gave me about ½ inch height. I noted the slot orientation before beginning and screwed each post up and stopped at the same orientation that I started with. I did this to insure the height of the bar was the same for each side.

 

I re-tuned my guitar and yes it sounded brighter. I actually had to turn the tone knob down a bit to get the same sounds as before.

 

Pickup Pole Pieces

 

Next I moved the pole pieces up to fit the 12 inch curve of the neck and bridge to help balance the strings. I measured the height differences of the bridge saddles, from low E to the A there is a 1/2mm (roughly 1/32 inch) difference. Between the Low E and the D there is a 1mm (roughly 1/16th inch) difference in height. We end up with the same measurements on the G B and high E strings because we have a radius to match.

 

Initially, you can leave the two E Pole pieces flat to the top of the pickup just the way they come from the factory. More on this later. Now on the A and G pole pieces raise the screws up until your 1/2mm or 1/32 up from the metal cover. Then raise the D and G pole pieces up until your 1mm or 2/32 of an inch above the cover.

 

Yes, the pole pieces are low but the tone has changed just a bit. The Mids and Highs are a bit clearer. Now you can fine tune them to find the clearest tone. You can continue to raise all the pole pieces a half turn at a time to fine tune your tone. Remember to lower the pickup on both sides when you do raise the pole pieces to maintain your string balance. Lower the pickup until the tone clears up and raise the pole pieces to get your gain back.

 

I ended up with about 1 more screw turn up on all the pole pieces and the pickup height set at a little less than factory specs to knock off a bit of bass. Factory settings are Neck 3/32 base side 2/32 treble side. Bridge 5/32 bass and 3/32 treble side. I am no more than 1 full screw turn lower on my pickups.

 

My neck pickup actually ended up sitting a little bit below the mounting ring.

 

I now have a neck pickup that is clear in tone and I can play lead on it with no problems. The Bridge has a lot of Mids and Highs. I have both volumes set on 8. Bridge tone is on 5 or 4 most of the time. Neck tone sits good on 7 to 8.

 

I have the 2011 version of the Classic 57 Alnico's in my Epi Les Paul and I am one happy owner. Your results may be different from mine.

 

 

Edited to add:

 

Just a bit of an update. I turned my Neck pickup around so that the screws are away from the fretboard towards the middle. Nicer middle pickup type tone, no murky sound, very well defined individual string tone. I also lowered the string height (action) a bit. Took about 25 minutes in all to reverse the neck pickup. You have to take the pickup off the ring and turn it around because the ring is angled front to back. Watch the springs they can be a bit difficult.

 

After reversing the pickup, I screwed the bridge back down to the body and checked the tone. I will leave it there for now. I can play the neck volume on 3 and tone on 5 with good results.

[Dennis G]

SNick, these are great posts. Thanks mucho.