The Chetboard

Hey Guys,
Well I was watching this video of Chet play Zorba the Greek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCo8RsaV7PI

I noticed that it seemed like his neck pickup was pretty high and close to the strings. I have always thought that my 6122-1959 seemed a bit soft and jazzy sounding. So I set out on a quest to raise the pickup. It was already raised as much as it could go. So I had some weatherstripping that I put below to raise the pickup more. This HELPED A TON!! It made the guitar much more authoritative, for sure! My question is, where do you guys like to keep that neck pickup, in terms of height? When I received this guitar, the setup was off quite a bit. I had to file the zero fret down quite a bit. I am wondering if normally they don't come with the neck pickup so low. I don't know - I would love to compare the same guitars. Anyone live in NM? I also changed out the .022 capacitor to the real deal - an Angela paper in oil capacitor. That cap is a monster! I figure the caps that they used back in the day were paper in oil - why not keep it the same. Anyways, take care guys!
Alex

Here's what Paul Yandell said about Chet's 59 Country Gentleman's pickup height:

I once measured the distance on Chet's old Country Gentleman from the top of the bars on the bass side to the bottom of the 6th string and found it to be 0.2170 inches or 5.52 mm, and the same on the treble side, I didn't measure the back pickup but he had the screws up

Thanks for that info Chuck, I suppose I could have found that...
Alex

You're welcome Alex. I checked mine on my new guitar and it is higher, closer to the strings. 4/32" on the neck pickup and the bridge pickup is nearly touching the strings. I've thought about actually trying to lower my pickups next time that I change the strings. I know Chet complained about the old DeArmonds having too much magnetic pull on the strings, he said it sucked the tone out of them if I remember the interviews right.

I was wondering the same thing. Mine are fairly far away as well. Here is a link to what TV Jones recommends.

http://www.tvjones.com/tech_specs/techspecs.html

Thanks Dean! Great info. Heres the direct link:
http://www.tvjones.com/tech_specs/techspecs_height_frame.html

Hey Dean,
It's interesting because from the way the guitar was set from the factory, the pickup was much lower than what TV recommends. Like I said, I used a skinny weatherstrip material to bring it up. It worked well - nice and spongy. Try that and get the pickup close to the strings - it really does make a difference. The problem is that when you get too close, the fallaway of the neck makes the strings REALLY close to the pickup at the upper registers. I don't want to put mine any lower. I measured it at about .15 inches with my calipers. I need some more time to play it to see if I need to raise it a little to compensate for the louder notes at the upper register. Take care!
Alex

Pickup pole height was discussed recently at the GDP (gretsch discussion page and I posted a bit of business I had saved some years back.

Doesn't strictly applly to the super tron but is an interesting idea for getting a better balance on the 12 pole units


“To balance your pickups, plug your guitar into something with level meters, such as a 4-track recorder. Play each string individually, and adjust the pickup height until the level of each string hits the same point on the meters. Typically, you’ll have to lower the bass side of the pickup. If your guitar’s overall output is quieter than what you had, simply turn up your amp to compensate. The benefit here is string-to-string clarity.” —Dave Wronski

Paul once suggested, on the gretsch 12 pole pickups, to put six of the screws all the way down and adjust string volume with the remaining six. You'd leave the bridgeside poles up and adjustable on the bridge pickup and the fingerboard side poles on the fingerboard pickup adjustable.

the double bar super tron of course does not allow for fine adjustment

Alex,
I also have done a great deal of research on this subject. My 1959-NC is a 2007 model, and was made with the pickups rigidly mounted to wood shims - there was no height adjustment. This was around the time when TV Jones recommended removing the shims and installing foam rubber under the pickups to provide a small amount of adjustment. I did this, and I think it changed the tone of my guitar, so I put the wood shims back in. I then adjusted the string action to provide for the pickup clearance that TV Jones recommends - 7/32" on the 6th string and 6/32" on the 1st string - measured from the bottom of the strings to the top of the neck pickup cover (not the poles or the bars in the case of the Supertron). They recommend 5/32" on the bridge pickup clearance - the most I could get was 6/32". After this, I checked my string action at the 12th fret, and it measured 5/64" on the 6th string and 4/64" on the 1st string - which is about what I use. Also, at this setting my intonation is perfect with the bridge pinned at the location of the set screws. I believe this provided the best sound and setup for my guitar.

The thing that really amazed me was the accuracy of the assembly of these guitars - since the pickups are fixed in postion and the bridge is pinned, you have no adjustment. If the neck angle was off the string action could be too low or high with respect to the pickup string action. As Paul said, I really beleive these guitars are some of the best being made now. The factory does a really good job in the fit, finish, and assembly.

Jeff Stovall

Jeff,
Interesting response. So you say the wood shims sounded better to you than the rubber shims? Anyone else swap the shims?
Alex