Telecaster Pickup height ?????

[beloroyan]

Just got "Magic" Blackguard Flat 50 on my Telecaster Japan 62 Custom, with 10/46 strings...Want to get the most beautiful 52 sound, i would like to adjust it ..What distance do I have to leave between the string(20 fret) and pickups ? Waiting for your answers in Millimeters...because I am french....belo

[Fourth Feline]

Hello and welcome !  :)

I don't have B.K.P in my current Telecaster ( a Baja ) - but a gap of 1.6mm ( between low AND high 'E' string held down at the 21st fret and the top of each pickup ) - always worked magic for me, on whatever Telecaster - and whatever pickups.

 To my ears, Tele single coils ( like Humbuckers ) seem to sound best  with this gap.  Strats always sounded better at a gap of 3mm or more  all round - and my Mississipi Queens and B.K.P. Humbuckers also sound best to me at a gap of 1.6mm. 

I'll be very interested to hear / read what Dave ( Twinfan ) says about this, as he has a stunning Telecaster !  :D

[AndyR]

Hi, I agree with Fourth Feline - my Blackguards (in a Baja) are set roughly like he says. I do have a very slight slant on my tele pickups (bass side lower than the treble) though - but not nearly as much as I do on a stratocaster.

I'd also add that as a general rule, I find that having pickups closer to the strings gives me a "fatter" tone, further away gives me a "thinner" tone - I use this a sort of "tone control" rule when setting mine up. I especially use it for balancing between bridge and neck pickups on a tele. I like the middle position where both are in use - I find I have to balance the pickups carefully to get the tone I want on the middle, sometimes with a compromise on the neck pickup's tone.

Welcome to the forum - hope you love the Blackguards as much as I do :D

[Twinfan]

I can only echo what Fourth Feline says - what he suggests is about right!  I tend to use 2mm as my 'base' setting for everything, and adjust them to balance from there  :)

[tomjackson]

I've just got BG's as it happens and was wandering about the neck pickup height, it is just sort of screwed in the body wood and I find it really hard to get the pickup higher and sitting straight, doed anybody have any tips on setting it correctly.  I didn't really want to drill through the nice bakerlite pickguard I've just got so the hoight is easily adjustable but it's looking like my best option :(

[PhilKing]

You can set the height with the guard off, and then put it on when you have it where you like it.

[tomjackson]

But the pickup just slips down the thin screws that came with it, do you pur rubber tube underneath?
When I put enough tube under the pickup it just leaned towards the bridge i.e. high at the front and low at the back

[Twinfan]

You should cut up some of the foam packaging from the BKP box and use that under the pickup.  It will compress and keep the pickup in the right place  ;)

[Lazy_McDoesnothing]

You should cut up some of the foam packaging from the BKP box and use that under the pickup.  It will compress and keep the pickup in the right place  ;)

The BKP foam is magical.  I use it for the springs on my guitars with tremolo and all sorts of other things.

[Philly Q]

You can set the height with the guard off, and then put it on when you have it where you like it.

Unless your Tele has 22 frets... but yours doesn't, so you should be fine.  :)

[AndyR]

Tom, I'm assuming you threaded the rubber tubes on to the screws after you'd put them through the pickup?

Before you put the pickguard back on, was the pickup "straight"? If it was, and then it only leans when you put the pickguard on, I'm guessing that the hole cut in the new bakelite guard is slightly nearer the bridge than the hole on the old guard - there isn't a standard tele pickguard shape/size (sadly). If that's what's causing the problem (and the guard fits your tele otherwise) I'd suggest moving the pick up screw holes (the holes in the body) slightly so that the pickup lines up with the new guard...

But that "use the foam from the BKP box" is a brilliant idea, never thought of that... - I might use it to stop my humbuckers moving around in other guitars... Thanks chaps! :D

[beloroyan]

Ok , thanks all of you !! But can you tell  me distance between your neck pickup(bass side and trebble side E string) and bridge pickups too, and the strings at the 21 fret, for a bluesy rock sound with Blackguard....I have 4 millimeters on neck one(3,2 mm in front of the E-trebble string), and 4 mm for bridge pickup(both side)....Tim told me of 3 mm to start then put down slowly the pickups....I do not really hear big differences, but have no "Buzz" and falls harmonic....is it good ?;;..thanks, belo
PS: I use 10/46 ernie ball regular slinky strings, a pick medium, and fingers too, in a Classic 30 Tweed