Do pickup covers affect tone?

[Subvamp]

Hey folks...
I just took the chrome covers off a set of Duncans...a '59 in the neck and a Custom Custom in the bridge. I'm not really big on the "vintage" look of chrome covers. I put it back together, new strings, etc, and I'd swear that suddenly the tone is different. It sounds like I lost some low end, and the mids are really thin. Same amp, settings etc as they were 30 minutes ago before I took the covers off, and I didn't unsolder the pickups to have reconnected something wrong. Does anyone know if the chrome covers affect the tone, or should I just step away from the beer can? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[mm2002]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

Oh hell, it ain't the beer!! If you want to hear something bad enough, you'll hear it! I personally am one of the few who can't hear sh!t, so..... pup covers, ebony boards, select-grade hardwood bodies, neck-thru's, (and all that jazz)...etc....never made a difference to my ears. I say that if you're a good player you can put some rubber bands on a Quaker Oats box and make it sound good! (with the right pickup of course!) [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Greg Crowe]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I can't hear the difference in fretboards but I can definitely hear the difference in pickups with/without covers. You know what makes even more difference than the covers???.......... pickup height setup.

[Subvamp]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

Hey Greg...
Good point. After I made the post, I went back and adjusted the pickup height,(cranked 'em up way close to the strings) and it made quite a bit of difference. I can live with it. But it still does sound slightly different to me. Is it all that extra metal from the chrome covers giving a greater magnetic field? It's like the Tootsie Roll Pop: The World May Never Know.
And mm2002...dude, I STILL play my Quaker Oats rubber band gee-tar-thing, and it shreds! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[toejam]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I think I read one time that metal covers can give a brighter tone and plastic covers give a darker tone. I've never done a comparison, so I can't really tell.

[fett]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I'm just wondering if the metal cover so close to the poles may, in some way, have an affect on how the vibrations of the strings are picked up. Did they design the pups knowing they would use metal covers and accounted for it? Thus the difference when they are removed. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[etaeniura]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I believe the metal covers actually attenuate a little of the highs, which would explain your "loss of lows"-it may actually be a gain of highs. Try adjusting your treble or presence a tad and see if you get closer to your old sound.

[Souldigger]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

[ QUOTE ]
I believe the metal covers actually attenuate a little of the highs, which would explain your "loss of lows"-it may actually be a gain of highs. Try adjusting your treble or presence a tad and see if you get closer to your old sound.

[/ QUOTE ] Exactly my thinking.

[Lurchhammer]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I wondered the same thing about metal covers- I thought that the metal shorting out the poles together might be bad for tone, so I put electrical tape on the inside of the cover so it wouldn't touch. I didn't notice much of a difference however. The main thing is to get the pickup all the way down in the cover, or else it will be too far away from the strings.

[Subvamp]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

[ QUOTE ]
I believe the metal covers actually attenuate a little of the highs, which would explain your "loss of lows"-it may actually be a gain of highs. Try adjusting your treble or presence a tad and see if you get closer to your old sound.

[/ QUOTE ]

A "gain of highs"...that makes alot of sense actually.
O.k, after raising the pickups and taking some of the high end out of my amp, my tone is pretty much back to normal. Which I guess answers my original question: Do pickup covers affect tone? Yep, they do...removed, I got more highs that I did with them on and had to make adjustments to get them to sound like they did before. Next time, I'll just leave the covers on. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[jgcable]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

Lots of players remove their covers thinking they will get an increase in output which is false. Occasionally though, when IMPROPERLY factory installed covers are removed the output is increased. Personally, I think the best sounding humbuckers are PROPERLY potted nickel covered humbuckers although I don't like the way they look unless they are on a Gibson.

[Newc]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

Since the pickup covers are not magnetic, they can't affect the magnetic field. However, they can affect the vibration of the actual coils if they are touching the covers, which affects the pickup's tone.

Newc

[jhale667]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

[ QUOTE ]
I think I read one time that metal covers can give a brighter tone and plastic covers give a darker tone. I've never done a comparison, so I can't really tell.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have. I've seen people rip covers off metal PAF-type covers as well as the plastic covers on Jackson's with passive-but-painted pu's and you will notice a slight difference in tone, but moreso on a plastic one, they really tend to darken things up...my buddy took the cover off his Jackson's, and they sounded like somebody took a blanket off his amp... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Subvamp]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

Newc: Yeah, these covers were touching the coils. I had to unsolder them from the base of the pickup, and then wrestle them off because they had a thin layer of wax across the top. And, to my surprise, I thought I was going to get 2 black pickups, and wound up with 1 black and one zebra!

[jackson1]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

[ QUOTE ]
Newc:
Since the pickup covers are not magnetic, they can't affect the magnetic field. However, they can affect the vibration of the actual coils if they are touching the covers, which affects the pickup's tone. Newc

[/ QUOTE ]

"the vibration of the coils" ?

Before i raise objections to the above - do you by "coil" mean the thin copper wire wrapped around the pole pieces (also referred to as frame with magnets)?

If yes, read on:
Coils don't vibrate. Strings vibrate and they are the only moving object in the electromagnetic system of an electrical guitar.

If no, why didn't you just write "strings"? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]