need some measurements help please

[pickupjunkie]

Hey guys ...need a bit of help if you could. I am laying out a new guitar design that will be using humbuckers with a cover. Just so happens I dont have any laying around to measure. I could really use the measurements from the outside of the pickup ring to the center of the poll screws. I want to get the pickup right in the sweet spot on the neck. I thank you in advance

Happy New Year!!

[wyomingrocks]

I am not sure what brand pickups you are using. Historically I have found the pickup manufactures supply lots of information on there web sites. Sorry I have no difinative answer.

[David Schwab]

There is no sweet spot. Any spot sounds good as any other, just different. The 24th fret area is traditionally where neck pickups went, but you can also put them closer to the nut if you have a sorter fingerboard with less frets.

I've put pickup in locations because they fit the design of the guitar better, and they sound fine there.

One of my rules is to always have all my parts in hand before I start building something.

[pickupjunkie]

There is no sweet spot. Any spot sounds good as any other, just different. The 24th fret area is traditionally where neck pickups went, but you can also put them closer to the nut if you have a sorter fingerboard with less frets.

I've put pickup in locations because they fit the design of the guitar better, and they sound fine there.

One of my rules is to always have all my parts in hand before I start building something.

David thanks for the response.... I do disagree with you on pickup placement though. The vibration of the string changes along its length. The amount of vibration across the poll of the pickup will affect the sound. Actually where the 24th fret lies is a dead spot. I do agree you can place them anywhere but physics do not lie. I know all these things can stir up a scuffle and Im not trying to do that. But I have experimented a lot with pickup placement and I have found that if it is in the exact spot for whatever scale it is you will have more complex harmonics and sweet overtones. But hey thats just me. I have added a .jpg that demonstrates it. I think it came from Ed Roman but Im not sure I have had it a while.

And Im not actually building anything yet lol just laying it out on paper old school. I have some pickups ordered for this guitar and your right I need to have them in hand before router hits wood.

[Mike Sulzer]

David thanks for the response.... I do disagree with you on pickup placement though. The vibration of the string changes along its length. The amount of vibration across the poll of the pickup will affect the sound. Actually where the 24th fret lies is a dead spot.

Do you play only open strings?

[David Schwab]

Do you play only open strings?

What Mike said. Pickup placement over harmonics is nonsense because as soon as you fret a note you have shifted the harmonics up toward the bridge. So you just lost your sweet spot. It's a myth. But it has been commonly done in the past, and still is for reasons I use myself (see below).

The 24th fret is only a dead spot if you are playing open string harmonics. But if your humbucker is straddling the line, you will have one coil on each side.

There are certain places on the instrument where you get some nice tones from the neck pickup, like around the 12th fret. But you are stuck with that unless you keep moving the pickup as you play!

If I'm making a 21 or 22 fret guitar, I stick the neck pickup in the closest spot it will fit near the fingerboard... which is usually around the 24th fret. If the guitar has 24 or more frets I stick it as close to the fingerboard as I can, and it still sounds fine, just not as deep and hollow.

I do often place pickups by dividing up the scale length, so usually they are around harmonic nodes, but I just do it that way because it is scale length independent, so easily repeatable. It's better than measuring so many inches from the bridge or whatever. Also it tends to be more pleasing to the eye IMO. I have also just placed pickups on single pickup instruments because it looks right... probably invoking the "golden ratio".

There is a lot to be said about hunches and past experience.

[LtKojak]

Sweet spot? Maybe...

Actually where the 24th fret lies is a dead spot. I do agree you can place them anywhere but physics do not lie. I know all these things can stir up a scuffle and Im not trying to do that. But I have experimented a lot with pickup placement and I have found that if it is in the exact spot for whatever scale it is you will have more complex harmonics and sweet overtones.

Out of curiosity I've just checked my Les Paul and my Strat, which both have 22 frets.

Les Paul: the center of the screws on the neck p'up are placed about five milimeters AWAY toward the bridge from the 24th harmonic spot.

Strat: to my surprise, it's located almost in the same place! The difference is most probably caused by the different scale (24 3/4" on the Gibson, 25 1/2" on the Fender).

FWIW, there you have it. If you build an extended fretboard, looks like the "sweet spot" for the neck p'up lies in the middle of the the 24th and the 25th "fret".

HTH,