Hi everyone,
I’ve bought an used Spirit on eBay and I really like it but the height of the pickups is irritating. The bridge pickup is very high especially on the g string. It’s almost impossible to play the string. The Neck pickup on the other side is really low and at an angle.
I‘d like to keep the bass and fix it myself but I’ve never done something on the electronic before. I need some advise how to fix this and if it’s possible or if you guys think it could be something wrong in general with this bass.
I’m not an expert on this, however, the smaller screw seems to be for adjusting the pickup height.
As it is a used bass, you could maybe try to remove the pickups and see whether there is something preventing the correct alignment.
The screw in the middle there is the pickup height adjustment, tighten it to raise the pickup, loosen to lower. If you loosen too much it will pop off but it’s an easy fix.
The slant is common, it just means either the pickup has foam under it that is slightly askew or that the height adjustment screws and springs are not exactly aligned. try just repositioning it a little manually, you won’t hurt it.
If there’s foam under the pickups, you might have to replace it. As the foam ages, it loses its elasticity, and you won’t be able to raise the pickup(s) high enough.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to work on the electronics for this. Just remove the screws that keep the pickups in place, lift them out of the body, remove the old foam and replace it with new foam. Thomann sells the stuff:
Knowing @BozzerWolf, he is quite impatient.
You can use almost any foam - I have used (soft) foam for polishing shoes as well as (harder) packaging foam that came with my my mountain bike (go, Canyon!) successfully…
I hope you enjoy the Steinberger, @BozzerWolf! I have one and think you can get a great tone out of it. They are also great for children coming into the car, if you’re travelling.
