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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on January 27, 2013 at 7:01am

The position of the pickup NOT critical...the tone changes relative to the pickup as you play up the fretboard, so there's no "magic" position for a pickup. What is critical is the placement of the bridge..if the neck is for 28.7 inches scale length, the bridge HAS to go in the correct position to give you that scale length.

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Permalink Reply by Jantan ux on January 27, 2013 at 7:25am

Problem is pickup sounding.  If I move the bridge too much the neck pickup will maybe not sound right. I can move only the neck. Then the fretboard is too much out of neck pocket. I don't want to middel pickup sounding.

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Permalink Reply by Jantan ux on January 27, 2013 at 8:41am

I don't want the middel pickup sounding. Bad for distortion and heavy overdrives.

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Permalink Reply by Jantan ux on January 27, 2013 at 8:32am

Bridge moving would look something like this

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Permalink Reply by Daddy D on January 27, 2013 at 6:51pm

Like chickenbonejohn said, you have to have the bridge at 28.7 inches. I wouldn't move the neck in the pocket. Your pickup will be a bit further from the bridge, but you should be able to correct most of the difference with your tone settings.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on January 27, 2013 at 8:22pm

DJ..you are worrying too much about the theory...put the neck in the pocket properly and get a good fixing like Daddy D says, move the bridge if necessary to get correct intonation. You then have two choices - either fit the pickup where it is and see what it sounds like, or make a new scratchplate, and put the pickup where you think it needs to be...and be prepared for it not to sound as good as you wanted.  

After making 500 guitars, I still don't know what the next one will sound like..and that doesn't worry me.  No amount of theory ever cut a piece of wood or made a guitar.  This is getting awfully like that joke about a French philosopher..."That's all very well in practice Monsieur, but how does it work in theory?" Just stop worrying, make it, enjoy it...and you may be surprised

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Permalink Reply by Glaze on January 28, 2013 at 1:14am

I will explain it like this:  I bought an old acoustic and the wood bridge was not glued to the flat top of the guitar.  I could slide the bridge around even when the strings were tuned up perfectly on this guitar.  What I did was put the size of strings that I would always use on the guitar, tuned the guitar up to perfect pitch and slid the bridge into the perfect position where I had perfect intonation on each string when played open and at the 12th fret.  This bridge position would change slightly if I used a different gauge of strings.

If you put a guitar neck that has a different fret scale length than the stock neck had on a guitar body, then bolt this different scale length neck into the neck slot on the guitar body then the position where the bridge must be will have to be determined because it will not be in the same location as the original bridge.  

To me the exact placement of where a electric guitar pickup is placed is not going to be as critical.  It can sound good anywhere you place it, but the sound will change depending on where it is placed.  By the bridge will be brighter and closer to the neck will be warmer.  A piezo placed under the top would be much more critical to the sound depending on exact placement.    

 

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Permalink Reply by Lou "cubancigar2000" on January 28, 2013 at 1:38am

some good info on this post for a beginner like me. Thx to all

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Permalink Reply by Jantan ux on January 28, 2013 at 5:42am

Thanks everyone. I just move the bridge. But not too much that pickup is in center. Sounding different is good. Makes guitar diffrent from other guitars. Pickup in center is bad for playing. 2 or 3 pickups at same time is bad for distortion and heavy overdrives. I don't know if that is same for pickup in middel.

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