PUs heights of Thumb NT 5. BO 6, SSI 5 and SSII

joekickass

joekickass

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It's should be asked many times of the height of the PUs setting, I just want to know your setting of Thumb NT5, BO 6, SSI 5 and SSII 4.

I am not sure if I set the pickup right....people tell me they should be set to output the same volume both pickups, I thought the neck pickup should be lower than the bridge pickup, but last week when I was play with my band, the pickups seem too bridge and I am not sure if they were in the same volume anymore......

What is the factory setup of my Warwicks ??

Thanks alot
 
The factory setup is with 2,5 mm for the bridge pickup (you can measure it with an allen key)
After this you set the neck pickup to have the same volume.
Cherrs buddy,

Flo
 
`


The factory spec is anywhere between bottomed
out and raised so high that the screws fall out. IOW
there is a factory spec for the depth of the PU rout
and the length of the supplied screws. Those specs
are real, they are on the blue prints. Would you ask
"What is the factory setting for the legroom and seat
back tilt of the driver's seat" in you car ? Of course
not. Between the outer limits, it all good.

------------------------------------------------------------

The Greek Chorus:

Factory PU height setting is NOT the recommended
setting for actually playing the instrument. Factory
height settings have 3 purposes:

1. To keep the PUs from falling out.

2. To make the retail inventory somewhat playable
for a broad range of customers, allowing some slack
for the usually careless bridge and neck set ups in
the high volume retail environment.

3. To make you appreciate the value of the Warwick
'Coil-Spring-and-Machine-Screw' adjuster system vs
the 'Foam-Pad-and-Wood-Screw' installation used in
lesser basses, cuz Wicks are shipped with their PUs
at a height that most players will not ultimately use.
That is intentional and premeditated.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Please appreciate that the elaborate and more costly
Wick adjuster system is definitely not needed and is
just a waste of your money IF it's only job were just
to tweak the PU heights back to some "factory" spec,
should they somehow stray from that setting. Foam
pads and wood screws is 10000% adequate for that.

The Wick system provides you a smooth, durable,
reliable, and [most importantly] very wide ranging
adjustment device, cuz Wick knows that any player
may prefer the PUs at any height, and later change
their preferences, and later change them again.

BTW, while we're on the subject, where is the Wick
Factory Specified position for my plucking fingers ?

Sorry to poke fun there, but it's so much the same
question. You move stuff, it changes the tone. You
put anything you want anyplace you want until you
hear what you like .... then thaz where it belongs.


`
 
You are right Golem, the factory settings are not the recommended settings.
At least for action... For releif, and pickup height, they are pretty much as they should be. There is an optimal height for the pickups, to have the best signal to noise ratio, and the fullest sound.
Of course, depending on how hard you pluck the strings, you can lower them if you want...

Your description of the Warwick setup is far from reality, They are set up with much care, and at the end a guy is playing the bass on every single position, to check for frett buzz and stuff, and make the final adjustments.
So pretty much more than keeping the pickups from falling. This is the setup you find the basses in stores, so it better be a good one.

Anyway, I agree with driver's seat factory settings thing, we all should know how to make our own setup.
But if a guy buys a second hand bass with a messed up setup, he will probably want to know where to start, or what are acceptable settings for an instrument.
I nkow you are experienced with this stuff, I am too, but 99% are not. Almost none of my fellow bass players know how to set up a bass.

Cheers, Flo
 
You know, there is a lot of truth in what Golem says. There is no right setting and never will be, because we are all different. But the factory guideline is pretty much what one should aim for. I got my Thumb BO new and to tell you the truth, only now I understand that I had to measure everything, take pictures and memorize every part of the set-up, because the bass was set really well. . I had never seen anything like that before. It is the German nature, they simply cannot do anything without adding perfectionism :) I've struggled quite a bit to get that setting back, never succeeded though. but it took me through a learning process that helped me understand how to set up a W basss.
My guess is that the bass set-up is far from the "keeping the pu from falling out ."
I'd suggest you download the W bass manual and start from there.
I can only add that pu set higher (2.5, 3 mm) will add to the punch of the sound, but a pu set lower will make the strings sound more even.
I set the bridge pu ~ 3.5mm (bass side) 3 (treb. side) neck pu ~4mm bass and 3.5 or 3 mm treb. Can't tell you if this is right or wrong, it works for me though :)
good luck. setting up a W bass is a journey!

=g=
 
I just need the factory for reference. The car seat thing is a ex but it depend on how height you are....I don't think the short guys will still prefer setting his seat far behind the wheel......is that what you are talking about :lol:

I use to set the bridge PU much higher than the neck PU but in the case of my Thumb NT 5, the tone is so "bridge", I raise the neck PU higher and higher to make the strong "bridge" sound disappear, than I found that both pickup are in the same height......I know I always want more neck sound from my Thumb 5 but I never go for the neck PU, because I more like my Thumb 5 sound "right", Wariwck put the PUs so close to the bridge for reason...

I went home and thinking if I should reset all of my Warwicks.....my Warwick are all used, no matter if they came with good tone but they are all screwed by me........in the home, they always sound right, but it doesn't right until it is right "with the band".....

I would like to know if you have Thumb 5 NT, SSI 5, SSII 4, Thumb BO 6 and tell me about your PUs height for my reference, I usually not sure if the PUs are in the same volume.....they sounds differnt and it is hard to compre.......

Joe
 
On my all of my Thumb basses, bass in playing position, no freting , 45 to 135 : bridge PU=> 2.5-3.0 mm, the other one => 3.5-4.0mm. For my taste, lower would have no interest and higher is possible, mine were higher but I recently discovered It reduces the "honky" character of the bass, and for a Thumb...
 
Thumbfreak said:
On my all of my Thumb basses, bass in playing position,
no freting , 45 to 135 : bridge PU=> 2.5-3.0 mm, the other
one => 3.5-4.0mm. For my taste, lower would have no
interest and higher is possible, mine were higher but I
recently discovered It reduces the "honky" character of the
bass, and for a Thumb...
Click to expand...



Don't ignore the side to side tilt variable. The honkinest
height for fat strings will not be the same as for thin ones.

Generally, the PU winds up lower on the bass side. I'm
usually doing this to minimize twang while you apparently
wanna emphasise honk .... but we'll both wind up with a
larger clearance on the bass side.

Honk-Twang-Thud-Slap-Pop-Wonk-Twoink-Whap-Snap-Thump.
[Say it 3 times, real fast ... ]


 
Sorry, my explanation was terribly bad !

By lower I meant the pickups so the distance between the strings and pickups would be higher !!!
So more distance would have no interest (again, for my taste) and less distance is possible, until you hear distortion or the strings hit the PU, but I found my sweetspot with these settings.
 
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