What should I know about mixing different output pickups?

[Patriot54]

I'm trying to choose pickups for a Strat-style guitar, but with noiseless DiMarzios. I want to try their Area 54 Pro, but it seems boring to me to have 3 of the same pickup, and I want to experiment with different tones in different positions.

So I have always wondered - does it matter if one of the pickups has a output of 125 and another is 205 or more? Is the distance from the strings the only factor I have to consider to get an even sound? And would this affect the pots I need?

 

[Day-mun]

-Strat style pickups of any make or model should work well with 250K pots; they are meant to retro-fit into a strat, after all, and 250's are what darn near every strat (or strat copy) is gonna have under the hood.

In my experience, all goes well when I set the pickup hieght (distance from string) to spec for the bridge pick-up, then start at spec for the others, backing them further down as needed to balance the output. if a neck/middle pick-up is too hot/too close, the in-between positions sound just like that coil alone, and doesn't allow for the bridge to color the tone; good indicator that it needs to be backed down into the body a bit more. Some super-anal techs probably have some electrical gadget to measure this, but I do mine by how it sounds.

I think the main thing is to have fun with it, -only get as nit-picky as is enjoyable for you.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Patriot54]

Thanks

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Here is a link from Curtis Novak's site that gives his suggestion on how to set pick up height.  I didn't get it to work, but it was a fun experiments.  Also, I tend be a bit too impatient with these things.
Patrick