4. MECHANICAL FACTORS AFFECTING PICKUP
PERFORMANCE
a. BREAK ANGLE
There must be an adequate amount of downbearing pres-
sure on the pickup in for it to perform optimally. The pickup
will "see" an acceptable amount of downbearing pressure when
there is a 20° (minimum) break angle across the saddle
(Figure 5). A pickup in a Guitar with less than a 20° break
angle will often have string balance problems as well as poor
tone. For such instruments, an adequate break angle can be
realized by "ramping" the string slots or (in extreme cases)
raising the saddle height and resetting the neck angle.
b. THE 50/50 RULE
For adequate coupling between string, saddle and pickup,
we recommend that the saddle slot depth (with pickup
installed) should equal no more than 50% of the total height of
the saddle.
ADJUSTING FOR A TOO DEEP SADDLE SLOT
If the slot (with pickup installed) measures more than 50% of
the total saddle height, the pickup performance will often suf-
fer. To correct for a too deep slot, add a shim under the
pickup. Determine the proper thickness of the shim by sub-
tracting 1/2 of the total saddle height from the slot depth (with
pickup installed). Then, remove an equal amount of material
from the bottom of the saddle.
EXCEPTION: Pickups in guitars with a very steep string
break angle (25° or more), will generally perform well, even if
the saddle slot depth measures more than 50% of the total
saddle height.
Figure 5 - DOWNBEARING
PICKUP AND SLOT WIDTHS
A 3/32" pickup should be used only in slots under 1/8" wide.
Avoid having the pickup angle across a wide bottomed slot. If
the slot is over .110" or so, it's best to recut for a .125" saddle
and wider format pickup. This is often convenient when cor-
recting too-sharp intonation by moving the back wall of the slot
towards the back of the bridge, as a substantial improvement
can be made in saddle placement, without patching and recut-
ting the original 3/32" slot.
CUSTOM PICKUP LENGTHS
Pickups can be custom made to fit all instruments with sad-
dles. Some examples are: seven, eight, ten, etc. strings, very
wide or narrow six string spacings, "split" or multi-piece sad-
dles and custom colors. The practical limit to pickup length is
3" for ceramic pickups and 4" for co-polymer pickups. For
longer applications, two or more pickups are necessary, to be
wired in parallel. Also bear in mind for custom orders that the
usual overall length of a pickup is found by adding .430" to the
overall string spacing, although this can be reduced, upon spe-
cial request, to as little as s .350". In this case, and
for the 2.3125" and 2.4375" spacing pickups, the wire center to
the first element center distance is reduced from the normal
.234" to .183" and sometimes .130". If you are installing one
of these special pickups, make sure that you know which spac-
ing you have.
UNDER SADDLE PICKUP INSTALLATION ... Continued
Break Angle
Ramped Slot
