Pickup Heights on the Frankenstrat and 5150

[speates]

Recently I have been experimenting quite a bit with pickup height (distance from strings) on my guitars. To my surprise, I have found that I like them quite low (far from the strings). I know the pickups tend to be placed a little on the low side on Wolfgangs and the EBMM EVH/Axis.

This got me pondering the Franky and the 5150 guitars. Out of curiosity, does anyone know how close the pickup was to the strings on those?

[Jedi McFly]

If you follow the accurate method for bending the pickup legs on each guitar you’ll get in the ballpark pickup height wise.

Frankie is pretty close. Based on the leg bending method 5150 seems a bit further
away.

Here’s a Frankie pic from the Met.

[evhintexas]

Beautiful pic
I've waited 40 years to see a pic that real...
Thank You

[LAD-1972]

That red is probably the brightest most vibrant I’ve ever seen in regards to the Frankenstrat. It’s almost glowing!

Also, I guess someone took the pick out of the neck pocket? The neck is sitting perfectly flat which is odd with a dive non-floating FR.

[speates]

Thanks so much! That is definitely super close on the Frankie.

Does anyone know of any pictures or measurements of the Kramer 5150's pickup height? Even a ballpark number would be really interesting. Personally, I have been trying heights in the ballpark of 1/4" or more away from the strings. I never in a million years suspected that I would like pickups that low, but I do! I have always loved the tones EVH got with the 5150 (1984, 5150, and OU812 tours) and it would be cool to try his pickup height, assuming that it is public knowledge.

I have noticed that the Kramer 5150's pickup is farther away from the bridge than a typical bridge humbucker would be. I have some suspicions that this, along with the pickup being mounted low, might be some of the big factors that made that guitar sound so good.

[Jedi McFly]

The 5150 pickup is definitely lower than the Frankie.

Like I mentioned - you could get in the general range by bending a pickup’s legs in the same manner as the original. They end up making a U shape if you look at the pickup from the top or bottom side.

I could measure mine later. But it was initially so low that I did have to raise it a bit with some foam.

Edit - mine is about 4.5mm away from the strings, but it’s also raised about 2.5mm off the body. The way I have mine set up it’s just over 1mm further than my Frankie.

I know you’re looking for specs on Ed’s, but the closest we’ll likely get to that is approximations based on his method of mounting the pups, which I followed. So based on that I’d guess Ed’s was somewhere between 4.5mm and 7mm away from the strings.

[Jedi McFly]

These pics may help too. You can see the relation between the pickup's baseplate and the pickup cavity. Based on this my pickup is 1-2mm higher than Ed's, which puts his at 5.5-6.5mm from the strings on the bass side, slightly higher on the treble side. Which makes sense, as Ed's pickup was a JB (~18k) as per Larry Dimarzio, which is hotter than the Pariah Pasadena Black (14k) I have in mine.

[speates]

Thanks so much! Now I have gone down the rabbit hole searching for pictures . Funny enough, in most of the ones I'm finding it looks fairly close to the strings (even in the second picture you shared), although not as much as the Frankie. Of course, this could just be an optical illusion, or due to the fact that he is fretting the strings in most of the pictures I am seeing.



Then, in some others, it does look pretty far away.



I definitely buy it based purely on my own experimenting and how a "far away" pickup sounds.