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This is a Gibson 2016 ES-175 '59 VOS. Is this curvy shape at the neck pup normal or has this thing been warped in some unholy manner?
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02-07-2020 08:45 PM
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just from pics..
neck angle looks ok...strings seem to be traveling in right range...a shot down to bridge would help..but if the bridge is not super low or jacked way high..i'd think ok
if you don't like the way the pickup is..reverse the neck pickup ring...and that will enable you to even out the pup better
tho the polepieces are ok the way it is anyway..bridge pup maybe a tad high..depending on string material
cheers
ps- just to make sure..i meant reverse just the neck pup ring..not the pickup itself..you want to maintain the polepieces in the position they are now
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Yeah, the neck pickup ring looks to be installed in the wrong direction.
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My Wes L5 is like that.
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Gibson does not know how to install a pickup ring properly. That isn't new, nor news to many. Turn the ring around, and all will be right with the world.
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Most of the. ‘59 ES-175 VOSs I’ve seen have some degree of tiltitis of the neck pickup. I’ve had several myself and they all had some degree of skeewampitude.
On my ‘59 reissue, I spun it around and it flattened things out, but, I ended up putting it back like yours. Here’s why: After fixing it, I found that my pick would hit the pickup a lot more. The clicking and missed notes kinda drove me nuts. Since flipping it back askew, I’m a happy camper. I couldn’t hear much (if any) sonic improvement either. So, like me, my 175 neck pickup is a little “off”.
Roli.
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I have that pu and pu ring like that. I have changed the pu (too) many times but never turned the ring anywhere. I vote ’normal’.
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That is the way ES-175s are and have always been. It is a "feature".
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Mine looks like this, I have never changed anything.
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Case closed??
Originally Posted by grahambop
Mine looks like this, I have never changed anything.
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I am too neanderthal to insert a pix but, my Steve Howe 175 is the same way:
The neck pickup is angled so the side closest to the neck is closer to the strings, and, an added bonus, the bridge pickup is angled so the bridge side is closer to the strings
Apparently that may be normal...
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To my OCD brain that is just wrong.
I had an early 80’s 175 and I don’t recall how the pickup was set, but if it had been that way I would have run screaming back to the guitar store.
BTW my 135 doesn’t have as much arch on the top but is installed as grahambop notes and is definitely parallel to the strings.
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I vote for Normal.
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My 2016 Memphis came that way. Flipped the neck ring around and the illusion of a wavy top went away. Sometimes I flip it back in the silly belief that Gibson knew what it was doing but then I lose my faith and put it back so it looks right.
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I think that Gibson has been using "one size fits all pickup rings" since pickup rings were invented. Sometimes they can just be reversed to sit parallel, other times they need to be sanded. It has always seemed odd to me that they spend no effort on making a 97 cent piece fit correctly on instruments costing thousands of dollars. That said, if that is the biggest issue it can easily be corrected by the user although I wonder how many people try and screw up the finish or break the wiring, etc. Rant over. It's a nice day out.
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Last time the ES-175 was on the Gibson website, they described this as a "feature". No judgement
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My 2004 ES-175 came like that. It is how they do things. I reversed mine to appease my sense of order. I also set my pickups a bit lower that Gibson recommends; 1/8" is too high, IMHO, but my pick (when I use one) doesn't click on the pickup. You've got a dandy guitar there, a jazz classic. Slap some flats on that baby and swing!
Last edited by citizenk74; 02-09-2020 at 05:40 PM.
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Funny thing is that my ES-390 with mini humbuckers has the same “feature.” Originally Posted by Longways to Go
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the point to having the taller portion of the pickup ring closer to the neck, is that it keeps the adjustable polepieces nearer to the strings at the critical 24th fret harmonic
cheers
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It's only a harmonic with open strings and a few other frets, none of which are in much use in most jazz keys.
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yeah i know we have all gone down this path before... Originally Posted by sgosnell
but then why have all major guitar makers historically configured their guitars as such?!!
not my argument here..just talkin pickup polepiece level!! hah..and why gibson still DOES it!
cheers
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My 1961 ES175 has the pickup parallel to the strings and all the older samples I have seen has been the same way. I once recieved a guitar (not Gibson) which had the angled PU due to a reversed PU ring. It hurt my eye so I reversed the ring. I could hear no difference in sound. Also many years ago - taking Wes' example - I reversed the neck PU so the pole pieces faced towards the bridge. FWIW, to my ears it made no audible difference to the sound.
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When I setup an ES-175, I position the neck pickup surround so the portion under the pickguard is parallel to the pickguard and the pickguard lays flat on it. The other end of the ring may look backwards in that situation. The pickup is adjusted using the springs and tabs so it is parallel to the strings.
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It makes sense to have the pickup ring taller side by the neck when the pickup sit right at the neck after the curvature ends.
The pickup is then parallel to strings to appease aesthetic ocd.
It is exactly what happens on L5, Tal etc...
Doing it on a 175 where the pickup sits farther from the neck right at the curve makes no sense in that regard.
If I had a 175 with such a "feature" I would have rotate the pickup ring to bring it more parallel to strings.
I had a Gibson SG with the notorious batwing pickguard where the pickups where screwed with no rings directly on the pickguard causing a similar slant vs the strings because of the neck angle vs the guitar top.
That was not happening on SGs with regular pickguard and pickup rings where the pups and strings where then parallel to each others.
Was it changing the tone, probably a bit yes but not because of the angle but because the pole pieces where closer to the strings.
Simply put, if it itches simply rotate the pickup ring and be happy
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