BKP height adjustment, need advice

[Lucas]

Hi,
Can someone refresh my memory about pickup height adjustment, please? What is general rule?
 I`m especially curious about pole pieces. How does pole pieces adjustment affect the sound?

many thanks!

[Chris Rowberry]

Hi Lucas,

We always recommend that you start from the bottom and raise a little and then play, rinse and repeat until you feel you have found the optimum height according to your ears.

[darkbluemurder]

What is general rule?

There is no such thing, other than the pickup will be louder, brighter and have more bass the closer you set it to the strings. There are various "starting distances from the strings" (such as the "nickel method" by the late Bill Lawrence) but the best height is what you like best. I would bet that if you were to measure the pickup distance to the strings in my guitars they will be all over the place.

Therefore I fully support what Chris said to set it by ear.

Cheers Stephan

[Dave Sloven]

I usually start with it up high and then lower by half-turns until it sounds good and then when it sounds a bit worse bring it up again.  Then I adjust the height either side a bit to see if one side needs to be higher or lower.  Pole pieces are something you can do last.  A lot of people radius them so that the centre ones are higher. As a general rule the centre ones will probably end up higher but that is not a set thing.  Just use your ears and proceed slowly.  I'd probably recommend trying it through various channels on your amp and test it at gigging volume

[Lucas]

Many thanks, I already started adjusting pole pieces, raised them up a while ago, and pickups got some 'sparkle' but with height I cannot really find that 'magic' spot.
At the moment I have my CBomb  fairly high, and neck CS a bit lower, but still not 100% happy, keep changing that once a while.
Once I found really good height for Cold Sweat neck, it became much louder than bridge pickup so had to lower it a bit.

many many thanks!!!!