Strat/Tele folks: how high are your strings above the pickups?

[Bob_Ross]

A poll for anyone playing FSO's with single-coil pickups: How far above the pickups are your strings?
i.e., can you please measure the distance between the top of the pickups and the bottom of the strings, and post it here?
Feel free to list neck & bridge pickup seperately if those distances are significantly different.
Thanks.

[Cunamara]

General information or is there a specific issue you are trying to address?

[kris]

The strings should not be too low or too high above the pick up.
Strings that are too low will cause distortion of the sound, and strings that are too high will weaken the volume and may change the sound of the instrument.
These are the basic rules, but...Often guitarists experiment with the height above the strings and it also depends on the preference and way of playing a given guitarist... And then there's the pick-up.There are different pickup manufacturers.
Then these manufacturers often suggest a universal height of the strings of a given pickup.

[Cunamara]

Bill Lawrence recommended using a US nickel to set the string gap with the strings fretted in the highest fret- for the bridge pickup, one nickel's height on the treble side and two on the bass side to start, then adjusting to achieve the necessary balance. The rest of the pickup heights and slant are set to match the volume. This is starting point as every guitar and guitarist are different. However, with some pickups this can induce "stratitis" from the pull of the magnet polepieces; this is generally going to be with single coils as PAFs normally have the magnet on the bottom of the pickup.

[coyote-1]

I have three Stratocasters, and they all have different pickup heights. Depends on the pickups, you know? The one with the DiMarzio HS3 has them slightly lower than, say, my stock one.

Specific height measurements are useless IMO. Adjust them til they sound best to your ears. I went through this exercise with all my electric guitars and basses just a couple months ago. Did it across three days to avoid ear fatigue.

[jim777]

Not single coils, but I had an EBMM Steve Morse model guitar for a while, and hated the sound. I looked at a lot of other humbuckers as replacements, then decided to do what I've told 1000 guys to do over the years - drop them as low as they'll go, then test, and raise, and repeat until you know it's the pickups. So I dropped the pickups as low as they'd go, and it sounded wonderful, really just absolutely more than I would have hoped for Looked a bit ridiculous, but I actually prefer that sometimes!

That said, if I remember, I will get some measurements on my most played Strat and Tele for you tomorrow when I'm WFH.

[John A.]

Not sure what FSO means, but here goes …

‘89 American Standard with stock pickups, holding the string down at the last (22nd) fret and measuring from top of the pole piece to bottom of string:

Neck - high E 3/32”; low E 5/32”
Middle - high E 3/32”; low E 5/32”
bridge - high E 2/32”; low E 4/32”

This is actually the first time I’ve ever measured it. I recently raised the bridge pickup a little from where it was because I wanted it a little louder. I didn’t measure beforehand, but I think it was the same as the others (looked that way by eye).

[Bob_Ross]

Not sure what FSO means

"Fender-Shaped Object"