Do pickup covers affect tone?

[Newc]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

The coils vibrate. That's how they transform the vibration of the strings into electrical impulses. Same as a microphone, or the human ear.

Newc

[toejam]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

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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.

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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]

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That's what I thought. I did take the cover off of either my Charvel Model 6 or Model 5A one time (well, it was loose anyway) but I never really did a comparison. I was able to move the pup close to the strings without the cover, so it did have more output, but I never really thought much about a sound difference at the time either with or without the cover until after I had read the article and already sold the guitars.

[jackson1]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I do not agree. EMF (Electromagnetic Fields) does the job. The vibrating string carries magnetic dipoles which induces an EMF in the wire wrapped around the magnets. No physical vibration in the coils. Only oscillation occurs (electrical vibration if you will).

[yabba]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I think jackson1 is right, if the coils themselves vibrate, that leads to (nasty) microphonic feedback.


(and on the original topic, yeah pickup covers can slightly attenuate the highs, but even then it's a pretty subtle effect)

[mm2002]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

The coils do NOT vibrate. Sorry Matt! Jackson1 is correct about the basic principles of the pup.

[Ace]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

1.COILS SHOULD NOT VIBRATE. The strings vibrate, disrupting the magnetc field created by the pickups, creating a electronic current. If your coils are vibrating, they are microphonic and need to be re-potted.

2. Metal pickup covers DO change the tone of a guitar. A grounded metal cover on your pickup creates what is called a Faraday cage(I've gone over this one before). A Faraday cage insulates the pickup from external magnetic fields, like flourecent lighting and high voltage power lines. Some brightness is LOST by using a pickup with a metal cover, and you get a darker sound.

[Newc]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

So how does a metal cover that is unaffected by a magnet (not attracted to or repelled by) affect a magnetic field if a magnet has no effect on it?
What about the noticeable differences in tone with a plastic cover?

While the coils do not vibrate as noticeably as a string, they have to move under the influence of the electrical current. Copper wire is not affected by magnets (not attracted to or repelled by), obviously, or pickup winding would be impossible, but the only way to convert disruptions in an intangible magnetic field into electrical impulses is for said disruptions to physically move the coils.
Ergo, those coils under a metal or plastic cover are somewhat constricted by the snug fit of the cover, much like a string that is partially muted.
Removing the cover allows the coils to vibrate with less physical resistance, which affects the final output.

Newc

[fett]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae331.cfm Maybe this will clear things up a little. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[delt]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

> 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 was thinking the same about metal covers, although i've never used those. i thought they -had- some kind of insulating material inside them.

and i don't see how a plastic cover can affect the tone in any way, since plastic doesn't impede, disrupt, or modify the magnetic reactions at all... at least not any more than thin air between the pu's and the strings.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I used to think the same way, Delt, until I had a guitar with a Duncan Custom (my favorite pickup) under a plastic cover. It sounded lame as hell. Took the cover off and the pickup screamed like a Custom should.
There will probably be folks jumping here saying that it does not, cannot make a difference. We've been through this a couple times before.
I'm here to tell you through a damn good A/B comparison that it surely does make a difference. A huge difference.

[yabba]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

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I used to think the same way, Delt, until I had a guitar with a Duncan Custom (my favorite pickup) under a plastic cover. It sounded lame as hell. Took the cover off and the pickup screamed like a Custom should.
There will probably be folks jumping here saying that it does not, cannot make a difference. We've been through this a couple times before.
I'm here to tell you through a damn good A/B comparison that it surely does make a difference. A huge difference.

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maybe it's because it let you set the pickup closer to the strings? (I'm just throwing out ideas, I have no real idea)

[delt]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

dude, that's weird as hell. i dont get it..... HOW can plastic affect the magnetic field of pickups?????

[delt]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

another thought.... how about wood or cardboard? or leather, or cloth, or living organic tissue, or some form of stone/mineral component?

[Newc]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

You can throw 10,000 links up to any number of scientific formulae regarding magnetic fields and such, and I will reiterate what my ears tell me, and what I know about REAL LIFE physical properties of matter (which is entirely different from mathematical formulae).

Pickup height is not hard to match bewteen a covered and uncovered pickup, as the cover is not thick enough that you'd have a distance difference that would affect the pickup's response.

Take a metal cover and cut the top off of it and glue (or double-sticky tape) just the top to the pickup - no side walls or anything - and I bet that it would sound JUST LIKE an uncovered pickup.
Take the shell of the cover (without the top) and put it on the pickup and I bet it would sound like a covered pickup.

Don't trust what scientists tell you - according to the Laws of Physics, a bumblebee cannot fly [img]/images/graemlins/brow.gif[/img]

Newc

[yabba]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

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Don't trust what scientists tell you - according to the Laws of Physics, a bumblebee cannot fly [img]/images/graemlins/brow.gif[/img]

Newc

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I love that story [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

(but strictly speaking, it's not accurate (obviously, because bumblebees clearly _can_ fly); the scientists doing that work where they concluded a bumblebee couldn't fly were modelling it as a fixed wing aircraft, they didn't take flapping into account)

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