G&L Legacy pickup placement (pickguard question)

[tonyg73]

Hi guys I have a 2009 Belair green Legacy s/s/s that I ordered from Buffalo Brothers. Something has been driving me crazy recently about it though. No matter what pickups I throw in it (Lindy Fralin, Dimarzio Areas, Joe Bardens, etc.) it never sounded "stratty" enough with the neck pickup on and I couldn't figure out why...until today.

I brought it to my luthiers today and they measured the pickup placements on it vs. my USA Custom Guitars Strat. Turns out the pickups, all of them are 1/8 of an inch closer to the bridge than they are on my other strat and two USA fenders we measured. It sounds like such a small thing but to me it's like picking close to the bridge vs. picking close to the neck. I first noticed it when my last band covered "Snow" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers...on the playback I thought the main riff sounded WAY too "twangy" for having the neck pickup on.

I had them pop the guard off and I believe we have 1/4 inch to the top of the bathtub route so I think a custom guard is in order. Does Pickguard Heaven allow for this type of customization? Anyone else notice the sound difference besides me? I know I may be crazy but the sound difference was huge...and not in a good way (regarding the G&L).

- Tony G

[replyman]

Maybe you need to familiarize yourself with the PTB system. It's a different animal and the luthier should have mentioned that right away. Pickup positioning aside...

[tonyg73]

Not a fan of the PTB system and don't really have a need for it so it's gone. To my ears the positioning seems to be the biggest factor.

I've seen this with vintage strats that have the exact same 3 pickups but they sound totally different in each position.