Pickups (Gaps Between)

[mazen]

Technical (Electric guitar) question:

What difference does the distance (gap) between the neck pickup and bridge pickup make on the tone/sound quality of the guitar?

[Khali]

Not sure what you mean. You mean the positioning? It has to do with the strings at the bridge. The bridge pickup is towards the most tense part of the strings, thus it has more of a shrill bright sound. The neck pickup is further up the strings at a less tense "looser" point. the string isn't as tense here, and thus isn't as bright, but instead produces a warmer tone.

[mazen]

Yeah maybe my question was too brief, allow me to elaborate;

I'm talking about the distance between the bridge pickup and neck pickup. If the neck pickup were closer to the bridge pickup than usual, what difference (if any) does it make to the sound the guitar puts out?

Maybe a picture will help (I hope it's not considered blasphemous to draw on these guitars... lol).

Anyways this gap: (They are closer on the top guitar, and further apart on the bottom one).

[metalhobo]

Closer to bridge=accentuated higher frequencies, i.e. brighter. Less output. Exactly what Khali said

[KH Guitar Freak]

One has to also understand the nodes and anti nodes of the vibrating string to know how the pups react to that...

[mazen]

both the guitars' bridge pickups are as close to the bridge as can be, and same thing with the necks.

Its the DISTANCE BETWEEN the pickups I am asking about.

(see pic)

[Aeroscopic]

that's the same answer everyone has already given...
if you decrease the gap between bridge and pickup, that means moving pickups.
move the bridge pup towards the neck, and that one won't be as chunky. move the neck pup towards the bridge and you get a tenser tone from that one. but tonewise on a guitar, it won't do jack I think. it's still the same amount of wood you use so the tone coming only from the guitar will be the same. any tonal differences will need to be blamed on the pickup position

[shakeESP]

Distance BETWEEN the pickups doesn't matter, so stop asking about it. What DOES matter is how close or far away the pickups are from the bridge. And you have already been given an answer for that more than once.

-Chris

[Khali]

Its the DISTANCE BETWEEN the pickups I am asking about.
The neck pickup in the bottom pic would have more output and sound warmer that the top pic.

If your wondering why, there is a noticeable gap difference, the top guitar has 24 frets, which is why the neck pickup is lower. The fact the pickup is down lower, makes it less warmer than the other pic, but not so much that it'd make it sound like a middle pup.

[andrei]

i'm shure you've read this:

http://bbs.espguitars.com/showthread.php?t=5821

(also contains valuable information about the topic)

[mazen]

The neck pickup in the bottom pic would have more output and sound warmer that the top pic.

If your wondering why, there is a noticeable gap difference, the top guitar has 24 frets, which is why the neck pickup is lower. The fact the pickup is down lower, makes it less warmer than the other pic, but not so much that it'd make it sound like a middle pup.

Yeah, i noticed bout the number of frets. Thats the information I was looking for!

Thanks for that reply man!