G&L S500 pick up heights for best out of phase / Strat tone?

Sat Feb 03, 2024 6:02 am

Hi all. I got an older Indo Tribute, MFD pickups which I love, so present and clear. I had an older Korean S500 which used to give a really nice out of phase tone on switch setting 4 (bridge / middle pick up). Not quite getting there on this one. Can someone give me a starting point re middle / bridge PU heights? Should I have the middle a bit lower than the bridge PU? I normally set G&L PU fairly close to the strings

Any help appreciated

Re: G&L S500 pick up heights for best out of phase / Strat t

Sat Feb 03, 2024 8:38 am

Kenny202 wrote:Hi all. I got an older Indo Tribute, MFD pickups which I love, so present and clear. I had an older Korean S500 which used to give a really nice out of phase tone on switch setting 4 (bridge / middle pick up). Not quite getting there on this one. Can someone give me a starting point re middle / bridge PU heights? Should I have the middle a bit lower than the bridge PU? I normally set G&L PU fairly close to the strings

Any help appreciated


See this post in our G&L Knowledgebase: What should the pickup height setting be?

Re: G&L S500 pick up heights for best out of phase / Strat t

Mon Feb 05, 2024 2:32 am

there's the factory rec, then there is personal preference.
i tend to set my pup's below factory rec (farther from the strings) because i think they are more tone-ful that way.
Too close and they can be harsh and edgy. i usually set the bridge pu 1-2 mm higher than the neck, and the middle somewhere in between.
experiment and see what you get!

Re: G&L S500 pick up heights for best out of phase / Strat t

Tue Feb 06, 2024 4:26 pm

Appreciate the advice guys, but generally pretty happy with general PU heights / general tone....just trying to improve the out of phase quack / spacy bouncy sound that you would get from a F Strat, predominantly 4th position bridge / middle. Does it help to say have middle PU lower than bridge for eg? I have read guys saying back off volume, tone etc but no noticeable difference for me