MFD pickup hight on asat special

a short while i own a Indonesian asat special tribute.
almost all my guitars have Bill Lawrence that will bring you there where you want soundwise, you just have to tweak amp settings, but this asat has his own sound.
and that is okay, but i have a high sound that does not go away turning down volume ore tone.
i think it is the treble bleed cap, but string hight can be the problem to.
so what setup do other users use ore tweaks you recomend?
(amp is a engl gigmaster 310, strings D&R 0,09 set)
o, and this is the guitar

For setup information, check out the G&L Knowledgebase Forum.

For example, see these posts: Current Factory setup for G&L guitars with hardtail bridges and http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?p=56882#p56882.

Hope this helps.

thank you for the reply. good info to work with

found this in one off the topics

The manual says to set the pickup height to 2/64" on the treble side and 4/64" on the bass side, yet I've read another thread here which recommends that the pickup height be 4/64" on the treble side and 6/64" on the bass side.

but how much mm is 2/64" and 4/64"?
there are a lot of converters but they can't work with the /

2/64" is 0.8mm

I would expect that G&L mean these dimensions to be used with the strings fretted at the 22nd fret! The guitar will be unplayable if the pickup clearances are set to such small distances with the strings just open.

My feeling is that these settings are a little high; you'll get lots of level and presence, but you may well prefer the pickups backed off further. Also, too close and you will find that notes get louder higher up the neck due to getting disproportionately closer to the pickup (especially the neck pickup). I like my neck pickup relatively low; the tone is fine, better in fact to my ear.

found this in one off the topics

The manual says to set the pickup height to 2/64" on the treble side and 4/64" on the bass side, yet I've read another thread here which recommends that the pickup height be 4/64" on the treble side and 6/64" on the bass side.

but how much mm is 2/64" and 4/64"?
there are a lot of converters but they can't work with the /

Search the Internet for "fraction/decimal/metric charts".

2/64" (1/32") = 0.7938mm

Hope this helps.

still confused.
1 inch = 2.54 cm = 25,4 mm.
1 mm = 0,039 370 078 7 Inch

0.7938mm would be less then that ore i don 't understand the "." because to me i read that it is less than 1 mm.

I suggest you use this post as your starting point: What should the pickup height setting be?.

1/16" is a little over 1.5mm
3/32" is a little under 2.5mm

Then adjust pickup height screws up or down in increments of a quarter turn of the screw, until you get it dialed into preferred tone.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Craig.
these heights make sense.
now i have a starting point

i am toggling now for a while but i somehow i have the idea that the bridge pickup has less output.
changing hight does not do a lot, when i use the middle position ore switch to the neck pickup the sound seems to chenge drastic.
from thin to very rich colorful.
i think i will measure the resistance to be sure that nothing is wrong, ore do you have other suggestions?

i am toggling now for a while but i somehow i have the idea that the bridge pickup has less output.
changing hight does not do a lot, when i use the middle position ore switch to the neck pickup the sound seems to chenge drastic.
from thin to very rich colorful.
i think i will measure the resistance to be sure that nothing is wrong, ore do you have other suggestions?

Yes, that sounds like a reasonable and easy check to do, see: Measuring Pickup DC-R.
You should see DC-R readings around 4.7K - 5.4K, [Reference post: List of pickups used in G&L guitars]

i get a 5.05K and 5.15K reading.
decided to bring the pups very close to the strings and they balance more now in output (soundwise).
the difference now is not so great between the switch positions in volume, but in sound (from bright tot warmth) is huge

i get a 5.05K and 5.15K reading.
decided to bring the pups very close to the strings and they balance more now in output (soundwise).
the difference now is not so great between the switch positions in volume, but in sound (from bright tot warmth) is huge

Sounds like you are getting it dialed in.

One other adjustment (if needed) is to balance the individual string output by adjusting the pickup pole pieces up or down.

I notice that you are using a set of 9's strings. Did your guitar come with 9's or 10's (which is stock)? Type and gauge of strings can make a difference, too.
Check our G&L Knowledgebase for posts on strings.

Please do add your Tribute ASAT Special to our G&L Registry.

i just registered the guitar

i got this guitar out of a pawnshop and it seems that it had never been used, price tag rope was still around a tuner, string heavy corroded and is was very dusty.
the only thing i found strange was the beige colour of the nut with some black dust.
think someone used pencil graphite to lubricate the nut.
the DR strings i used for the setup were: 9, 11, 16, 26, 36, 46 and fitted the slot nice.
although, the .11 fits the high e slot
but i think i will go to a set .10 and another brand.
these strings are to sloppy and get buzz because when hitting the strings they hit the frets to easily.

but i am on a journey, a kind off road trip, to make this guitar fit my preferences

Tony Grimsley has a YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_6SHo7WcXw - where he explains the adjustments he made to his ASAT Special. Basically, he was looking for a more traditional Tele sound and he found that he got closer by lowering the pickups. I have done this on my two ASAT Specials and it improved the sound for me. One other possible advantage to lowering the pickups is that the strong magnets in the jumbo MFD pickups can "pull" on the strings, affecting the tone. Lowering the pickups lessens the pull and allows the strings to vibrate more naturally, increasing sustain. This is what I achieved and is what I was looking for.

HTH,

Mike

got a 0.10 set from daddario en together with this posting http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1596 i started a new setup.

The low E A D string did not fit the nut slots so i guess the factory set was a 0.09.
still the high E using the bridgepickup is sounding thin to me but i am not don finished tweaking with pickup-hight.
maybe a other player would find it tele styl sounding, but it has to grow on me i think

got a 0.10 set from daddario en together with this posting http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1596 i started a new setup.

The low E A D string did not fit the nut slots so i guess the factory set was a 0.09.
still the high E using the bridgepickup is sounding thin to me but i am not don finished tweaking with pickup-hight.
maybe a other player would find it tele styl sounding, but it has to grow on me i think

The factory gauge strings for the Made in Indonesia ASAT Special are .10's. My guess is that a previous owner replaced the nut and had it setup for .09's.

i am slowly getting there were i want to be. soundwise i would like to have more control and am thinking about using a Bill Lawrence q-filter
but i need to now the Henry reading of the MFD pickups, are they somewhere to find?

Do you mean Ohms when you say Henry? If so, plug the shortest guitar cable you have into the guitar. Select one pickup at a time. Use an Ohm meter and measure the tip and sleeve of the other end of the cable. This will give you the resistance of the selected pickup. Just make sure you only have one pickup selected at a time.

Did this help?

Tom

I think Asat means Henries.
And I don't know of any source of info on the inductances of G&L pickups. The usual (and fairly useless) DC resistance figures are as available as ever, but don't help us much.

But no matter.
I'm pretty sure that Becky Lawrence is still making both the guitar and bass versions of Bill's Q-filter inductors. I think the guitar one is around 1.75 Henry, while the bass one is a lot bigger.
You only want the guitar one.

I have this in a couple of G&Ls, with .022uF cap and a 250KA pot. I also put a resistor of around 47K across the inductor, so that at the lower end of the Q-filter pot travel, the high end begins to be rolled off, otherwise the sound becomes very scooped out, almost like some fake acoustic sound that I don't like or have a use for. But just lightening the midrange with a Q-filter sweetens tone, I like to have that option.

Or you could have some preset capacitor / series resistor values pre-set for the Q-filter, on a toggle or pull-pot.

And MFDs have a very broad response, you can get a lot out of them.

Very interesting. Despite having some formal education in audio education I was not familiar with this term. Of course, inductance is a common thing but how does this way of shaping a tone compare to a capacitor. is it a set frequency thing or can it vary according to voltage and amps? On Bill Lawrence's web site they list for $24 and are 1.8 henries.
I would like to hear this in action, with and without. Do you have any audio files as such?

Tom

Any coil of wire will perform as an inductor. Frequrently, but not always the wire is coiled around a ferrous material such as iron. Transformers, motors, speakers and guitar pickups are inductive devices. The sensors in the road that tell when you are at a traffic light is an inductive device. The main property of an indctor is that the current through it physically can not change instantaneously. The rate of change of the current through an inductor creates a voltage across it proportional to it's inductance (in Henrys). In the case of a guitar pickup, a magnetic field constantly exists due to the magnet in the pickup. When the string vibrates in that magnetic field it causes a change in the field that couples into the coil (inductor). An alternating current proportional to the change in the magnetic field caused by the vibrating string is generated in the coil. The inductive properties of the coil cause a voltage proportional to this alternating current to be generated across the coil. This is the voltage that is generated by the pickup that you eventually hear as sound once the amplifier and speakers translate it into moving air.

I have this in a couple of G&Ls, with .022uF cap and a 250KA pot. I also put a resistor of around 47K across the inductor, so that at the lower end of the Q-filter pot travel, the high end begins to be rolled off, otherwise the sound becomes very scooped out, almost like some fake acoustic sound that I don't like or have a use for. But just lightening the midrange with a Q-filter sweetens tone, I like to have that option.

Or you could have some preset capacitor / series resistor values pre-set for the Q-filter, on a toggle or pull-pot.

And MFDs have a very broad response, you can get a lot out of them.

thank you for your reply NickHorne
could you tell me if on of your guitars with q filter is with MFD soapbars?

i started a topic on the wildgate forum and got a this answer.
http://guitarsbyfender.yuku.com/topic/11617/qfilter-in-combination-GL-MFD-pickups

Since we don't know the inductance, it doesn't make sense to recommend a small cap, especially as they're probably not quite in the lower range of inductances this is typically done. If the question is about the Q-filter, it's easy -- use the Q-filter either with the stock tone cap on the bridge pickup to see if you like that (start with no resistor in parallel to the cap and then add if it's too bassy), or use it without a cap (you can substitute in a 5 kOhm resistor) on the neck pickup, which should get you about as wide a range inductance-wise as possible. You would just be blocking that smallest crack at the bottom of the pot that would send all the lows to ground. This way, the pickup's impedance in the lows shouldn't go below half, but you'll be able to get out all the range of highend extension available to you.

maybe it is possible to put it in a outboard box for testing first so one could change the cap and resistor easily. but i don 't know what the extra pot will do affecting the sound