Unfortunately there is no clear winner in our alnico vs ceramic magnets tug of war.
Ceramic pickups height.
But if you want a nice clean tone go alnico 5.
Tune your guitar and place it on a table or a workbench with a towel or blanket underneath we measure pickup height from the top of the pickup to the bottom of the string while the string is pressed against the highest fret photo 1.
You might hear a warbling sound.
Use a good fit screwdriver and record the positions and your ears impressions.
But every pickup and guitar manufacturer has their own specifications.
Setting your pickup height too high will cause your magnets to push and pull your strings out of tune.
Bass side low e 1 16 1 6mm treble side high e 5 64 2 0mm middle pickup.
Those crappy ceramic bars glued next to steel slug things that come standard in so many strat s and strat copies today cannot really be made to sound good so a trip to the waste basket is the only course of treatment for them.
The pickup height is the best and intended variable in adjusting tone and balance.
Play the low e string at a high fret 15th fret is a good one to start at.
Don t forget that we are a seymour duncan authorized dealer.
Ceramic pickups have more bite wich helps get a crunchy sound even if can t afford a real classy tube amp.
It s a great help to use a capo on the top fret so you don t have to press the strings.
If forced into it we might recommend alnico only because ceramic is the magnet of choice in cheap pickups that do sound bad.
What should be the determining factor for your guitar s pickup height is what sounds preferable to your playing style.
There are just too many completely subjective variables to make a definitive decision.
How to adjust set pickup height on a stratocaster for ultimate strat tone.
Pickups with alnico v magnets that are voiced more aggressively than pickups with ceramic magnets and alnico ii pickups that sound totally different from other alnico ii pickups definitely exist.
The best place to start for pickup height adjustment we ve found 3 32 of an inch 2 381mm is a good place to start.
Alnico made pickups have more string pull than ceramic made pickups ceramic pickups can be pretty close to the strings without causing severe hassles just the signal to be oversaturated at strong pick attacks.
If you still need help picking out the pickup that is right for you keep in mind that.
