Crayon Sky Music

What are the different affects of adjusting pickup heigth on a strat?

I just bought a fender american vintage 57 reissue stratocaster. It sounds great but i know there are little tricks and modifications you can do to improve sound quality. But my main question is what are the affects of lowering and raising the heigth of the pickups? And what would you recommend. Also if you have any other modification ideas that might help improve the guitar feel free to tell, but im not talking about like changing pickups or anything, i want the guitar to stay original, I am looking for modifications like drilling a piece of metal in the headstock to achieve greater sustain, stuff like that.

Nathan, some pickups are very sensitive to height relative to the strings. Within practical limits, moving the pickups further away from the strings will yield a tone with reduced bass and increased treble, whereas placing them closer to the strings will yield more volume and a more robust and overdriven sound. Depending upon the sound you seek, some adjustment to your 1957 reissue may be beneficial. A piece of metal in the headstock to achieve greater sustain? Uh…no! If you want to keep it original, then you just need to see that it is properly set up (see http://www.fender.com/support/stratocaster.php for details), and select the heaviest string gauge in which you feel comfortable in playing. Stratocasters typically come with 9’s (e.g., 9-11-16-24-32-42), but 10’s (e.g., 10-13-17-26-36-46) or 11’s (e.g., 11-14-18-28-38-48) will give you a better tone. Let me know if I can help further. Best regards, Dana

Blues Guitar on a david gilmour white vintage 57 fender stratocaster