Ed's Frankentstrat - Pickup Height

[YMI5150?]

better, but not perfect. my experience as well. the legs still require a little tweaking...

cheers

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[Marshall SL12301]

Dont know if this helps anyone or not but the older wolfgangs and the EBMM EVH guitars had a huge distance from top of pup to bottom of string clearence. Eddie said these were "set" at the height he always prefered for tone and the magnetic pull on the strings. so i am guessing that he had the franky pup set that far away as well

[Ted B]

Dont know if this helps anyone or not but the older wolfgangs and the EBMM EVH guitars had a huge distance from top of pup to bottom of string clearence. Eddie said these were "set" at the height he always prefered for tone and the magnetic pull on the strings. so i am guessing that he had the franky pup set that far away as well

I'm not so sure. I think that might be reflective of his tastes in later years, but I see two clear examples circa '79 where that is clearly not the case, those being the thick body Strat and the Bee. And after all, the EBMMs and Wolfgangs don't sound anything like vintage VH.

I should also mention that whatever point it was whereby he transitioned to alnico (e.g. PAF) magnets, string pull wouldn't be much of a factor.

[Marshall SL12301]

I'm not so sure. I think that might be reflective of his tastes in later years, but I see two clear examples circa '79 where that is clearly not the case, those being the thick body Strat and the Bee. And after all, the EBMMs and Wolfgangs don't sound anything like vintage VH.

I should also mention that whatever point it was whereby he transitioned to alnico (e.g. PAF) magnets, string pull wouldn't be much of a factor.

yeah i wondered how the A5 came into play? his frankenstein definitely used a A2(probably the original custom with mag swap from ceramic) but the wolf pups and custom wound dimarzio's and even the charvel art humbucker was the A5 mag in the bridge??? eddie is a puzzling guy!
and i agree with A2 or A5 magnetic pull is minimal at best

[Rich_D]

It's too bad he's not a chatty guy so we could hear him talk about it.

[dazzlindino]

But as can be seen above, just screwing a modern pickup to the body will give a markedly different installed height as compared to Ed's PAF assembly. I don't know what Seymour's baseplates look like today, but if he's winding his '78 pickup onto a short legged assembly, then he's overlooked an important detail.Ted B
Senior Member

seymour uses a long leg base plate on the 78 of which I have several......

[Ted B]

seymour uses a long leg base plate on the 78 of which I have several......

Thanks for clarifying that. Now, can anyone clarify which is he using for the Duncan Custom?

[dirtycooter]

True true Beasty. The floyd sits alot higher than a strat trem. More like a gibson tuno for height. On mine when i put the 59 in with the tall legs i still had to put stainless washers under the legs to get it up high enough. Still thinkin of movin it closer yet. When i got my dsd i thought of swappin its short leg plate to a long one. Dsd is glued hard down to its base. Definitly not easy to get loose. Thought i'd break mine so i never did end up doin it. Put the dsd into my wolf-which stock p/u's in the wolf we're even shorter yet!! Had to rout the leg mounts deeper to get the dsd down in the body further away from the strings. PITA!!!!!

[Marshall SL12301]

seymour uses a long leg base plate on the 78 of which I have several......

Thanks for clarifying that. Now, can anyone clarify which is he using for the Duncan Custom?

It has to be a long vintage version because seymour did not even offer short legs until the late 80's
MY 1979 custom has long legs

[indeedido]

How close are you guys mounting your pickup to the strings? Right now the Seymour Duncan Custom in my Warmoth Super Strat is 1/8" from the low E. I'm thinking I need to be closer. Also, are you guys reaming out the pickup leg for a wood screw to fit through it or are there really slim diameter wood screws? I jammed the machine screw into the cavity but I don't want to ream out the leg for a bigger screw. Not ideal but it works for now. I'm using some black foam under the pickup to give it the height, sorta like a faux spring but I'm going to try the shim mentioned. Any additional insight would be most appreciated.

[leadguy]

Pickup heights are in this thread http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... 7&start=60" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ed had those pickups up high near the strings.

When Ed had a Mighty Mite in the Burst Strat it was the opposite and the top of the Mighty Mite was just about level with or just above the pickguard.

[Marshall SL12301]

this is about the same as i set my SH5 custom



I have no string pull issues so i believe eddie may have set his custom like this to drive the marshall as hard as the DSD with its larger ceramic
Further proof to me that he had his pup real close to the strings was the fact that he damaged a coil by the high E string getting caught under the lip of the pu's coil

[leadguy]

Yes, and the Mighty Mite has even a larger magnet than the DiMarzio Super Distortion I think, and Ed has the Mighty Mite down low, with the top nearly level with the pickguard.

[Marshall SL12301]

Yes, and the Mighty Mite has even a larger magnet than the DiMarzio Super Distortion I think, and Ed has the Mighty Mite down low, with the top nearly level with the pickguard.

Thats makes sense i set my DSD away from the strings too because when it is set close it sounds real death metal and pulls on the strings!

[Ted B]

I'm toying with a DSD at the moment, set such that the top of the bobbin is 1/4" (10mm) from the strings. It doesn't sound very powerful at that distance. I suppose I should shim it...