Pickup Position

dreamofgilgamesh · #1 November 27th, 2008

Dear All, I've recently acquired a new old guitar, heres what it is,,

Vintage Les Paul Gold Top: Harmony Central User Reviews

It's a Les Paul copy with P90 type pickups.

Anyways, the neck pickup looks odd. It's angled down towards the bridge so that it isn't parallel with the strings as i would have thought it should have been.
Maybe it's been dropped and moved position? Or maybe thats how it's supposed to be, i'm not experienced enough to say. If it is wrong, how to put it right? There are 2 small cross head screws in it, is that a clue?

All advice welcomed

thodwris · #2 November 27th, 2008

Hello..
From what I know the pickups should be parallel to the bridge and vertical to the strings,that is the position I know with Les Paul pickups.You should have two of them and each should have sox screws on it(these six should be crossing almost exactly above of your strings)and other six screws on the "frame" of the pickups,three on each side.Anyway,it should look like this:
http://www.guitaravenue.com/images/p...nlespaul57.jpg
I hope this helps...

Andy S · #3 November 28th, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamofgilgamesh

Dear All, I've recently acquired a new old guitar, heres what it is,,

It's a Les Paul copy with P90 type pickups.

Anyways, the neck pickup looks odd. It's angled down towards the bridge so that it isn't parallel with the strings as i would have thought it should have been.

You mentioned it's a copy of a Les Paul. Any idea what manufacturer? I have seen one model, long ago, that was a cross between a Mosrite single cutaway and a LP. The Bridge pup was at a definite angle. If yours is just slightly off of perpendicular, then it may be someone tried to replace the usual Humbuckers with the single pole P-90s and it just went in crooked. A photo would help.

dreamofgilgamesh · #4 November 28th, 2008

The guitar is a Vintage Les Paul Goldtop. As far as i can see it's got all original parts. The pickups are P90 (soapbars) Yes the neck pickup is definetely angled down to the bridge by around 20* or so. My initial thought was that it should be parallel to the strings. Then i wondered if it had been knocked.
But would there be enough play in the pickup "hole" to allow for such a deviation from parallel?

Andy S · #5 November 28th, 2008

From your first post:

Quote:

It's a Les Paul copy with P90 type pickups.

Your words, my underlining.

Copy being the key word. That's what made me think of the diagonal placed pup. Most of the P-90 style pups were soap bar style so they wouldn't have had the same style brackets as the usual humbuckers.

Any chance of a photo we could look at? That would help a lot.

Here's why....."vintage" means a lot of things to different people.

Which is yours? I am guessing yours is more like the '57, single cut-away, or one of the even earlier models similar to the original Gold Top LP with the old style stop bar and no bridge . But just to give an example of the term "vintage", these 3 are ALL listed as Vintage Les Pauls.

On the '57, the pups are parallel, it's the Bridge that is angled.

Just trying to help.

Andy S · #6 November 28th, 2008

Just found this pic....pups are parallel but, again, it's the Bridge that is angled.

This one more like yours?

And if you notice, this one has an actual bridge on it versus the other pic that has the strings on a suspended stop bar.

There were a LOT of changes in the first few years of the LP. Including, Les dropping his endorsement and Gibson using the SG styled body and calling it a Le Paul (the yellow, 3 pickup dbl cutaway from 62 pictured here)

dreamofgilgamesh · #7 November 28th, 2008

My apologies for the confusion, i'm not usually this slow.

The make of guitar is called Vintage, heres a link to a online shop that includes a picture,

Vintage V100GT Les Paul Goldtop (GAK)

Thats a new one as you can see, with Wilkinson hardware.

Mine is the same make but earlier, probably 8 or 9 years old. It looks identicle.
The pickups are (from what i can make out) P90 soapbars. They look just like, well, soapbars or oversized dominos! They have no surrounds to them and just sit in the appropriate sixed rectangular hole.

Each of the 6 pickups has a screwdriver slot. There are also 2 small cross head screws in each P90.

Basically, i suppose it would be easier to ask "what distance should they be from the strings"?

The bridge pickup is, as i said parallel with the strings, whist the neck pickup is angled down towards the bridge.

Thats the peril of buying used gear i suppose, and having limited knowledge!

Much appreciated chaps