PU Covers

[Ting Ho Dung]

Are they simply aesthetic or do they change tone, output, etc? If they do change tone does the material used matter, i.e. chrome, nickel, plastic. Do you just unsolder them for removal? Is there a reason to remove them?

Thanks,

--MT

[murkat]

all of the above.

covers add a little bit of resistance to the output, no matter what the alloy it is made of.

covers are good for total potting, saturation of the coils.

sometimes it is easy, most time hard to remove covers.

a utility knife to cut solder away, don't go "in" between cover / pickup.

solder iron and a solder sucker

dremel with cut off wheel.

[Hbom]

This is a partial quote by the maker of Roadhouse pickups that I found in a similar post on another forum.

"I find that covered vs uncovered to be very hard to tell the difference. That is as long as they are good nickle/silver covers. A brass cover will kill the tone"

I don't know how true it is but I do like Ken's pickups. So I would trust his experience over mine.

[django49]

My most direct experience.......Two similar (not identical) Hamer guitars, each having WCR Godwoods. One set with covers, the other without.

The uncovered ones are more "direct and in your face", the covered are by no means "meek or weak", but have a less intense "attack". I personally like the covered better, both as to sound and looks.....YMMV.

I can understand why people removed the covers, esp back before the options of changing out the pickups for a hotter one were more limited.

[Ting Ho Dung]

covers are good for total potting, saturation of the coils.

What does, "total potting" mean. Do they improve or quantify the quality of the PU tone, i.e. make it more better for the way the PU is meant to sound?

[Ting Ho Dung]

My most direct experience.......Two similar (not identical) Hamer guitars, each having WCR Godwoods. One set with covers, the other without.

The uncovered ones are more "direct and in your face", the covered are by no means "meek or weak", but have a less intense "attack". I personally like the covered better, both as to sound and looks.....YMMV.

I can understand why people removed the covers, esp back before the options of changing out the pickups for a hotter one were more limited.

Very interesting. May I ask which identical Hamers?

Thanks,

--MT

[murkat]

when the cover is on, wax potting totally saturates all the voids within and little wax escapes out of,

good for high gain, tightens up, a lil more compression.

some like, some do not. Personal preference.

[Armitage]

I can usually tell the difference between covers on and off. Not only does the cover take up physical space keeping the pickup slightly further away from the strings causing a tiny loss of output, but many are slightly magnetic shunting the field, and capacitive too. The effect on the AC signal with the coils and caps in the circuit is quite interesting. Not only do you loose some extreme top end, there's a little peak before the loss.

The first thing you notice when removing covers is how much further the screws are turn out then the studs too.

Other then keeping the pickups further away from the strings and the adjustment screws, plastic covers don't make any difference that I can tell.

With the bridge pickup there is a loss of the airy presence, I keep reaching down to turn up my tone control thinking I've bumped it. I don't usually notice it if I haven't gone from a uncovered guitar to one that's covered though. It's not a big deal, but I can hear it.

With a neck pickup, I can't hear the loss with a cover on, but I do hear the added peak. It sweetens the tone, I actually prefer neck pickups with the cover on, but hate the look of mismatched pickups.

These two guitars shipped with the pickups the other way around, but my tech was sure the difference in tone was other things like the tolerance in the pots (they'd have to be way out) or wood etc, so I let him swap the pickups. The airy bridge tone moved with the uncovered bridge and the sweeter neck moved with the covered pickup. I started removing pickup covers in the '70s and the differences have been consistent. I think the people who say there isn't a difference, simply haven't done it. That, or they're using a high capacitace cable which already kills off their airy high end, or are using a buffered effects pedal that helps keep it.

Removing covers on pickups that were wax potted with them on is a pain.

[Ting Ho Dung]

Found this

Edited to ad: Interesting video throughout. At 4.07 he does a back-to-back comparison.

[dobieboy]

The side by side with the same guitar was pretty telling...without covers sounded brighter to my ears...I preferred with covers for this guitar.

I wonder if this would be borne out for all guitars....

[django49]

My most direct experience.......Two similar (not identical) Hamer guitars, each having WCR Godwoods. One set with covers, the other without.

The uncovered ones are more "direct and in your face", the covered are by no means "meek or weak", but have a less intense "attack". I personally like the covered better, both as to sound and looks.....YMMV.

I can understand why people removed the covers, esp back before the options of changing out the pickups for a hotter one were more limited.

Very interesting. May I ask which identical Hamers?

Thanks,

--MT

The uncovered are in a Monaco Elite, chambered. The covered are in an EM Studio. Also chambered, but different in the sense of the korina body and neck rather than mahogany.......That adds some variable, as does the bit different body shape, But the uncovered are definitely a little more aggressive.

The video clip (above) is probably a better example of an "apples to apples" demo.

[Never2Late]

Newbie here. I found a pair of etched 'HAMER' pickup covers on ebay awhile back, and snapped them up. Who can build a set of pickups around the covers, if I provide them?

[Hamer Dave]

I once had a humbucker which was incredibly microphonic at higher sound levels, creating too much feedback. Hearing that potting could correct this... I took the pickup, and wax potted(dipped) the thing. It completely resolved the feedback issue. I was quite impressed by the result. it was exactly what was needed.

Dave

[Ted]

Found this

Edited to ad: Interesting video throughout. At 4.07 he does a back-to-back comparison.

Great comparison example Thorn--Thanks.

[Bennyboy-UK]

Eric Clapton wrote a bit about this back in the Blues Breakers days - giving his view on the 'benefits' of taking the forts of an LP. Think it was him, poss Jimmy Page - I'll see if I can find th transcript of the interview...

B

[Bennyboy-UK]

Damned itouch predicting what worms I want to use!

"covers off an LP"