Action vs. Tone vs. Pickup Height

I've got a question that's been puzzling me. :-?

From time to time, I read people saying that they want lower action but don't want to sacrifice tone.

How is lower action related to tone? And can't you just change your pickup heights to get back what you lost?

I've always thought, everything else being equal, tone comes from the position of the pickups relative to the vibrating string. As long as you don't have buzz from the strings, the change in action will effect the tone because now the strings are in a different part of the pickups' magnetic fields. So if you lower your action you should lower your pickups, too.

Can someone please fill me in on how changing your action by itself changes tone?

Thanks!

detroitace said:

How is lower action related to tone? And can't you just change your pickup heights to get back what you lost?

Click to expand...

Lowering the action also means lowering the overall string pull on the neck, i.e. the same effect as raising the stop tailpiece (if you have one). You can bend the strings a bit easier afterwards, but this also affects the acoustic tone of your guitar (without amplification), it will sound a bit more mellow or softer or "woodier". How much this is noticable over the pickups is another question and also depends on the type of guitar, but you're right that at least you should adjust their height, too, i.e. lower them to have the same output as before.

Action and pickup height is relative. There is an optimum range for picking up the vibrating signal from the string. With the pickup too close, the magnetic pull on the string from the pickups can reduce the vibration and create a very hot output. To far away, the opposite.

I've always believed that string height / action is a matter of personal preference. Some people like it high (I do on Strats) and some like it low (I do on Les Pauls). As Hans said, higher action lets you get under the strings more for bends. You also need higher action to play slide. Conversely, lower action allows for much easier fretting of chord shapes.

Once you get the action where you want it, the simple fix is to see what the factory specs are for pickup height or more clearly, the distance of the poles from the string with the string depressed at the last fret. Then adjust the pickup to those specs and tweak the heights until it sounds like you want it to. I always set my humbuckers to specs and then reduce the height of the neck pickup a little until the output is balanced between the two pickups - ie 7 on the neck volume is equal in output to 7 on the bridge.

But again, it's personal preference. I used to take my guitars to my local luthier to set these things for me but there came a point in time when I felt it was important (and more cost effective) to do these adjustments myself.