single coil vs humbucker; how to get equal output.

[picker]

Well, as I said in the previous thread, I got the Phat Cat in the Flying V, and it's okay, but the humbucker has more output.

 

A couple of questions for anyone who can answer;

 

Can anybody advise me if lowering the 'bucker and raising the Cat to equalize their output is a good idea?

 

How close should you set a P90 to the strings?

 

Is adjusting the pole pieces up on it or the 'bucker something others have done or would suggest?

[Caevan O'Shite]

P-90 style pickups have the magnets laying down underneath the coil, end-to-end from treble to bass sides, instead of pointed at the strings and so much closer to them the way they are in Fender-style pickups.

 

So, they don't pull real hard on the strings like Fender-types can, and that lets you get 'em pretty close to the strings if you want to.

 

So, you should be able to lower the bridge-pickup and raise the neck-pickup just enough to have a bit of balance. You'll probably want the bridge to still be a little louder than the neck, I'd imagine.

 

You can raise the poles a little on the P-90 style, too, particularly on the bass-side. This will give you a little more articulation and that "piano-string" sound on the basses.

 

Check each pole against its string being fretted at the last, highest fret (22nd?), to be sure that the strings won't buzz against the poles when playing up the neck. This goes for both pickups!

 

If you lower the poles too far, their ends will stick out past the underside of their respective magnets underneath everything there, and actually rob you of output disproportionate to their adjusted heights. A weird phenomenon peculiar to soap-bars and dog-ears. Some people actually clip and file the bottoms of the poles to allow their being lowered further without this, coming closer to being flush with the underside of the magnets they're threaded into. (Wendler? Wendler? Dave Wendler? Wendler? Anyone? Anyone? Wendler? Anyone?)

[The Geoff]

Yup, everything he ^ said.

 

P90's aren't that low output. You should be able to get a balance.

 

If not there's always a compressor!!

 

 

G.

[dave251]

Which position is the P90 in? If it's the lead pup, it can be a problem. You need to get it up close to the strings...very close. P90/s are weird though...there's a very narrow window where they can get a strange distortion...usually on the lower strings, but sometimes on the 3rd string to. The closer the pup is to the strings, the easier it is to get string to string balance...but that window is VERY narrow on the P90, so you have to really play with it. Back the HB off a bit, and you may have to shim the P90 up closer to the strings....Some pickguard material works good for this.

 

 

[picker]

It's in the neck position. I can get the Phatcat closer to the strings, and it's on screws like a humbucker, so adjusting the height is no biggie. And the bridge 'bucker can come down quite a bit. I'll give it a try and let ya know how it goes...