Ed's Frankentstrat - Pickup Height

[Ted B]

One thing that came to my attention when recently constructing a guitar is the variance of installed pickup height.

As can be seen in this photo, the vintage PAF leg length is noticeably longer than a DSD:


The short legged baseplates are intended to improve compatibility with thin bodies.

If one is using a mounting ring, this is of little consequence. However, if one is mounting the pickup directly to the body, there will obviously be a disparity in distance between pickup and strings, and that will make an audible difference.

It seems all but apparent that during the recording of VH1 and onward, whatever Ed was using was wound onto a PAF body. A PAF has a height (foot to the top of the bobbin) of 27mm. If Ed's body was routed to about the same depth as a Fender, the height of the pickup above the surface of the body should be easy to estimate. Given a neck of Fender dimensions, and bridge saddle height set for fairly low action, the distance between pickup and strings can be estimated.

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.

[Marshall SL12301]

IF eddie had seymour make him a pup back in the day it would have had the long legs. I dont think seymour offered the short leg version till many years later?

[allenc5150]

Thanks for the thread, it offers me the chance to ask this question: if I have a short-legged pickup and I want to direct-mount it to the body, am I stuck using shims below the pickup, or is there some kind of bracket-y thing out there? This is a real-world exercise - I am facing this very issue with my Frankie.

[Ted B]

You've come to the right place. Fortunately, the solution is inexpensive and straightforward.

Go to your local Home Depot. Go to the hardware aisle, and look for the section that has drawers with various items. Find the drawer that contains "spacers". Inside that drawer, you will find #6 aluminum spacers in lengths from 1/4-3/4". The size of the center hole perfectly matches the size your pickup feet and mounting screws. For any height adjustment greater than 1/4" (10mm), get a single 3/4" spacer for ease of handling when you get to cutting:



If you have a Dremel, get the thinnest cutting wheel. That makes the job easy. Also, get some 120-220 grit sandpaper.

Using your measuring tool, mark the desired length with a sharpie, put into a vice, and cut with the Dremel. When done, sand the cut end smooth so that it isn't angled. To avoid ending with something a little short due to the sanding, cut just a little longer than the desired length and sand it down to the perfect length. Make sure to finish your two matching spacers to the same height. When done, sandwich the cut spacers between your pickup feet and the wood, cut your pickup mounting screws to the desired length, and you're done.

Now, keep in mind that there are two factors in the Frankenstrat equation, and we know one. We know the PAF is 27mm in height, but we do not know the depth of the route in that body. I suspect it would be the same, or perhaps slightly greater than that of a standard Fender strat body. I wouldn't expect it to be less. That being most likely, one would want a spacer of at least the height required to compensate for the taller PAF.

I hope this helps!

[YMI5150?]

keep in mind that Ed had to bend the legs on his PAF to get it to fit.

79 3 pup shot.jpg

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[redozzman]

There are close up pictures of the frankenstien pup cavity and mounting where you can see ed just bent the legs out and screwed them into the wood. If the slug screws were as long as the ones pictured (paf) then you would not have been able to bend the legs flat. I wish I had that picture, I'm sure someone can pull up those photos. Granted I have know idea which year those photos were taken. Just speculation on my part.

beat me to it. see above, looks like the longer paf feet, but would the screws allow for you to bend them that low?

[Marshall SL12301]

keep in mind that Ed had to bend the legs on his PAF to get it to fit.

79 3 pup shot.jpg

dont you mean duncan custom?

[YMI5150?]

man, my head's still smoking from all this stuff.

there is evidence of either MMs and/or DSDs all over the place but Frankie (post striped) never seemed to have a pickup with hex slugs in it. there's that shot of ed holding the axe in 1980 or so and every guitar has a hex slug pickup in it.

strange that he would love that pickup so much and still try to melt and rewind PAFs. My only theory is that he was using the "resonance" circuit (cap and tone pot wired differently) to dial in the DSD and was trying to get there with just a pickup to simplify things. Who knows...one thing I do know is the DSD with the mod rocks.

[somethin'else]

keep in mind that Ed had to bend the legs on his PAF to get it to fit.

79 3 pup shot.jpg

Yeah, PAF bridge plate too high, no workie.

I used a neck pup plate, and bent the feet to try get it up higher.
Not enough.
Then I got it the rest of the way with 15¢ (nickel under the treble and a dime under the bass).
If I need another c*hair height, I'll just go flatten out a few extra cents on the tracks.
"Copper-Tone"
Take the boombox, the ADKOT, and a six o' Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull, and "wait for that train"...all just for posterity's sake!

I'm tired of gear nickel and dimin' me!

[Ted B]

Well, a PAF is a heck of a lot taller than a Strat pickup, 16mm taller to be exact. It seems clear that he had to bend the legs of the PAF to get it under the strings. That pickup has certainly been heated for potting - possibly more than once.

That being said, all signs point to that body (and probably Strats in general) having much shallower pickup routing than the typical Super Strat aftermarket bodies used by folks here. Due to this, I'll bet most have considerably greater distance between pickup and strings than Frankenstrat.

I don't know what Ed tried/used in the way of A2 magnets and such with that pickup, but distance will certainly make a difference in output with anything like a Duncan '78.

[YMI5150?]

strat routes were .65 deep.

StratBPforum.jpg (136.59 KiB) Viewed 8114 times

[Ted B]

strat routes were .65 deep.

The Warmoth Super Strat body I have here is ~0.75" (19mm) deep. The relief of a PAF above the face of the body is 8mm.

A Strat at 0.65" deep is 16.5mm. The relief of a PAF above the face of the body would be 10.5mm. I have no way to be certain, but I doubt Wayne's 'Azusa' body would have shallower routing than Fender.

I'm eyeballing that 10.5mm right now, and I don't see a glaring problem, but that would depend upon the height of the bridge saddles.

FWIW, the side angle shot of the thick bodied Strat shows considerable pickup relief, but that may have something to do with the fact that like the 'Bee', that guitar has a Floyd.

Who knows?

[allenc5150]

You've come to the right place. Fortunately, the solution is inexpensive and straightforward.

Ted, thanks so much! It does indeed help a lot!

Craig

[somethin'else]

Very good thread about getting that pickup height right. Diff'rent bodies, diff'rent route depths...

From Ralle's MM1400 clips, I think I'm gonna add a mm or two to nudge mine up a little closer

[MrBeasty]

The PAF long legs are of OK length with a Floyd Rose bridge which is a bit taller.