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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → Pickup covers
Does taking the covers off of pickups affect your tone at all? What about lipstick-style single coils? Just curious, thanks!
Anyone?
I don't know if it actually affects the sound or not...I've heard that removing the pick up covers helps prevent micro-phonic squeal, but don't have any idea how or why. I remember some artists (Jimmy Page) removing the covers of humbuckers on Gibson guitars...I think most do it for cosmetic reasons. My understanding is that the covers are primarily to provide protection for the delicate copper wire windings that are exposed.
I hope this helps...
I think jay is right about aesthetics. I had an SG that I removed the humbucker pickup covers. Not for sound, but I liked the look without the pick guard and covers when I was 18. I don't think it helped prevent mphonic squeal, but the humbuckers didn't squeal much anyway.
I like the look of covers on humbuckers, but mine are singles and the lipstick covers look a bit goofy.
While pickup covers do provide protection for the fine wire windings, their main purpose is as electrical shielding from hum and noise. As such, they also add some capacitance which, combined with the inductance of the pickup itself, forms a low-pass filters. This reduces high frequencies slightly.
Jeff Beck was one of the people that started the trend of removing humbucker covers (on his brown Les Paul, as seen on the cover of Wired). He did this to get slightly more highs out of the bridge pickup. The guitar sounded fine in the studio, but on stage, through long cable runs, it sounded dull. He discovered that without the pickup cover, he could get back some of the highs lost in the long cables.
BTW, under the cover, lipstick pickups do not look like much. They are made of an Alnico II bar magnet and thousands of loops of fine enameled wire. Being forced into the cover makes the wire wrap a little bent and crooked looking. Some have goopy wax in there too, plus the wire is very fragile. - not the best choice for using without a cover.
BTW, under the cover, lipstick pickups do not look like much. They are made of an Alnico II bar magnet and thousands of loops of fine enameled wire. Being forced into the cover makes the wire wrap a little bent and crooked looking. Some have goopy wax in there too, plus the wire is very fragile. - not the best choice for using without a cover.
Oh, I didn't know that. Well, whatever. Thanks!
While pickup covers do provide protection for the fine wire windings, their main purpose is as electrical shielding from hum and noise. As such, they also add some capacitance which, combined with the inductance of the pickup itself, forms a low-pass filters. This reduces high frequencies slightly.
Jeff Beck was one of the people that started the trend of removing humbucker covers (on his brown Les Paul, as seen on the cover of Wired). He did this to get slightly more highs out of the bridge pickup. The guitar sounded fine in the studio, but on stage, through long cable runs, it sounded dull. He discovered that without the pickup cover, he could get back some of the highs lost in the long cables.
your circuit analysis makes sense. I was probably too inexperienced (translate: young and dumb) to know the difference.
I remember doing because of the photo of FZ with his coverless SG on the back of the Apostrophe album.
Does taking the covers off of pickups affect your tone at all? What about lipstick-style single coils? Just curious, thanks!
The only difference is if they are potted (waxed dipped) to help with the shielding (cutting down on the hum).
Bootlegger.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → Pickup covers
