Possibly Stupid Question about lowering action....

[timiscott]

Hi all, I want to lower the action on my AV65 JM. Would I need to adjust pickup heights to allow for the change? As it stands, it's set up as delivered by PMT in Brighton about two years ago.

[601210]

"Need" is a strong word here. It might sound a little different to your ears and you might want to, but there's a chance you won't even hear a difference.

[timiscott]

That's reassuring! Thank you for the advice.

[OV7]

You shouldn't have to. I put in a 1 degree Stew Mac shim on mine. It gave the guitar even and low action from the nut to the 21st fret and I only had to raise the bridge a tiny bit. I didn't notice any difference in sound or output from the strings being a hair or three higher than they were before.

[soggy mittens]

Hhmm it stands to reason that you would move the pickups when moving the strings. I always test the pickups after adjustments by selecting pickups individually and turning on high gain and listening to the sustain of higher notes. If you hear the sound oscillating then the pickup height is wrong. adjust until the sustain is the same pitch. You typically want the pickups to be closer to the string than further away.

[Larry Mal]

Hhmm it stands to reason that you would move the pickups when moving the strings. I always test the pickups after adjustments by selecting pickups individually and turning on high gain and listening to the sustain of higher notes. If you hear the sound oscillating then the pickup height is wrong. adjust until the sustain is the same pitch. You typically want the pickups to be closer to the string than further away.

This is the best advice.

[jorri]

yeh I mean depends how meticulous you want to be. I have an allen key to measure the distance which is know is about right. if anything is offthen i might adjust it, knowing that its the same distance to strings. I generally prefer how the middle position 'phase cancels' when the pickups are set quite exact, because it does. i use 6/64 and 8/64 inch for 1st and 6th strings and tbh leave it there because anything under 1/64 is probably too tiny to worry about....
or perhaps otherwise you think the shim is doing wonders when it actually increased the distance, idk, always seemed like a quick thing.