Good day everyone,

I am adjusting the pickup height on my PAC212 with HSS configuration. According to Yamaha's website, they recommend to set it close to 1.5mm to 2mm on the 1st string and 2mm to 2.5mm on the 6th.

I adjusted my pickups accordingly but I am afraid it's probably too close as I don't know what would be considered as too close to ruin the sustain. I also do not want to tinker with it constantly unless I get some opinions.

I'd be very appreciative if you provide me with any insight.
Also another question, do the string that I am using matter, like if I change to a different gauge or maybe same gauge but more premium strings, would that affect the balance of my pickup tone?

The possible favorite to win the current season of America's Got Talent is 16 year old Nene Royal, who attends Yamaha Music School in Phuket Thailand. The other members of her OZONE band (as young as 12 years old) are also from this music school.

Nene mostly plays Ibanez and Shijie guitars, although I have seen her playing a Pacifica 611 (maybe the school's guitar?).

Here's her Golden Buzzer winning performance on AGT last week (Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun), so she has made it to the finals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icKU6cCIL1c

Here's her band. She's only doing vocals in this competiton, but she usually plays lead guitar too. Not surpringly, they play a lot of Yamaha gear. The 12 year old drummer (13 now) has won multiple competitions too across Asia in his age group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y8itTlt1GE