is this pickup adage true?

[angry tele]

"In general pickups with adjustable poles are meant
to be as close to the strings as possible, and pickups
with fixed poles as far away as possible"

I think it is mostly true.

My teles have a wider sweet spot and can sound good low or high,
but I keep mine all around 2-3mm (last fret depressed).
All my pickups with adjustable poles or screws are really close.
P90s, mini-humbuckers, and filtertrons are all like 1mm or less.

my filtertrons sound like ass a normal distance away (2-3mm)
especially the bridge has no balls and cant drive an amp
into breakup for shit. But really close they come alive.

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

IMO, the only reason for adjustable poles is to normalize the output to the radius and string gauges of the instrument.

 

[dougk]

No.

 

[angry tele]

the guy who said it wrote a book on guitar electronics.
His book is OK but not nearly as good as
dan erlewine, duchossoir's tele, and the blackguard book.

seems like he knows what hes talking about but I dunno...
and he did say in general which is another way of saying, "i could be talking out my ass"

 

[Gary Blanchard]

and he did say in general which is another way of saying, "i could be talking out my ass"

 

[mongooz]

sounds like bullshit to me.

that's like saying single coil pickups are only for country and humbuckers are only for rock.

 

[vintage clubber]

I would say no. I usually tweek pickup height on a case by case basis. They each have their own sweet spot...

 

[GilmourD]

 

[realtree71]

I adjust by ear and go with what gets me best sound and sustain

 

[Elias Graves]

I think it depends on a lot of things.
P90s like to sit close to the strings.
Firebird pickups have a wide range they'll work in.
Each design has differences.

 

[angry tele]

firebird pickups are fixed pole. its just two bar magnets with a coil around it.

p90s like close to the strings as do buckers
or any pickup with adjustable poles

does anyone have measurements?
I know you do it by ear but you can measure it at the same time.

looking for evidence in Erlewines books, hes got a lot of players pickup heights...

 

[Elias Graves]

I'm estimating, but my bridge P90 on the white guitar is maybe 1/8" from the strings when fretted at 22.

The PRS, The Blacktop Jag are both set about the same. That's the sweet spot for a P90.

My SM3 neck pickup is a booming, unusable mess that close but past 3/16" to as much as 3/8", it sounds the same.... Just more or less loud. It has a wide range for adjusting and isn't too picky about where it sits.