Post Type Archives: SWD

This is a trick I’ve seen Jeff Beck do on a guitar I built for him during the 70s. It was nicknamed The Tele-Gib. He used in on songs like “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”, and he was seen playing it on the “Secrets Policeman’s Ball” video. He would lower the bridge pickup about 1/4″…

It is basically a amber surgical tubing made from a gummed-rubber that had been commonly used for medical purposes. It has measurements of 1/4″ OD, 1/8″ ID with a wall thickness of 1/8″. It is now commonly used with many types of exercise devices and commonly seen on sling shots. I like using the rubber…

Adjustable screws are used to adjust the balance from string to string. At times you may need to adjust the output on a particular string because it may lack the output for your picking or playing style. You may need to lower a pole to decrease the output on a particular string when the output…

Mounting rings are used for mounting the pickup and allowing height adjustment up or down for the desired pickup position. Mounting rings can be angled to fit the desired area from the neck to bridge position. With mounting rings, the pickup can be adjusted lower on one side and higher on the other. Usually the…

Some players remove the covers from their humbuckers to get the pickup slightly closer to the strings. Some older humbucking mounting rings were higher and allowed for slightly higher pickup adjustment. Some companies fasten the pickups to the cavity of the instrument and you would need to shim the pickup for desired height. I like…

In some cases such as in Stratocasters with 3 pickups, having the pickups too close will cause unwanted harmonic overtones on the lower strings especially when playing way up the neck. The strings become magnetized from the 3 pickups and the notes become very indistinguishable. At times repairman and builders use height adjust springs made…

I find that lowering the adjustable poles in a humbucker flush with the top of the pickup and moving the pickup about 1/16th inch from the strings helps get maximum output with stock pickups. You can use a shorter adjustable polepiece if it extends out the bottom of the pickup. Using a shorter pole will…

Most often it you need to support the floating pickup within a mounting ring by using a piece of foam rubber in the cavity of the instrument. I do this often to keep pickups from vibrating that can give you unwanted and annoying sounds if you accidentally hit the instrument hard when playing. The soft…

For most Gibson style pickups, make sure you are using a quality height adjust spring. It’s a compression spring and has a fair amount of pressure to hold the pickup firm. I also use a piece of foam rubber to help keep the pickup from moving around inside the pickup cavity. On Fender style pickup,…

There are a few things you can do. Make sure the height adjust springs are firm enough to hold the weight of the pickup in the mounting ring. If the pickup is adjusted low the compression spring become looser and can cause the pickup to vibrate or move more freely. I would use a soft…