Pickup Magnetism Measuring Device

[hippybilly]

For years I have had this idea and most people think I'm nuts. I just think I haven't ran across the right person to help me yet. When setting up guitars I have seen every way under the sun for setting pickup heights and for the most part they all work just fine. I am starting to get older and most of my faculities don't work as good as they once did by a long shot. I'm starting to loose my hearing and I guess the best way to put it is "my feel" for doing a lot of things. I've been wanting to come up with a meter that a person could use to measure the amount of magnetism (magnetic pull if you will) that a pickup puts on a string. The closer you move the pickup to the string the more the magnets pulls it out of tune. I want to be able to measure this amount of pull. I want to use this meter for settin up guitar pickups down to a knats ass. I figure if one can do this it would aid tremendously settin pickup heights, especially when a persons hearing or feel for touch starts to go as we get older. Can anyone tell me what type of meter or set up it would take to measure this magnetic pull and how to come up with one?

I also have been wanting to come up with a meter to measure the amount of sound (like the input meters on a tape deck you set for recording) to aid in accurately settin up effects pedals (for the same loss of facualties like hearing and "feel" ) so I can physically see where "0" or "+3" physically is which would show the beginning of distortion starting to set in or how much distortion you might want to add to a the signal chain in certain places for a certain sound.

Is there anybody out there that could aid me in constructing these tools or meters or could point me in the right direction to somebody that might help me with this. Thanks, Hippybilly

[Woodenspoke]

The device s called a Gauss meter which will measure magnetic strength. AlphaLab, Inc. is one supplier of reasonably priced units. They also have some listed on eBay.

Even though your theory sounds plausible most people just use a measurement from the string bottom to the top of the pickup. Gauss readings are just one of several pickup factors that effect tone and therefor distance from the string. It may not be the best method given the $300 price tag for a calibrated Gauss Meter.