Do pickup covers affect tone?

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I didn't read hardly any of this thread but...The Gibson guy was in on Monday morning giving us a seminar, and he told us that there is very very little difference in tone between covered and uncovered pickups. The original poster might have had a different tone because he might not have put the pickups and polepieces back the same way they were before.

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

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This thread has gone too far, if you ask me. It's a mess and i can't clean it up - it would take days.


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As a (former) electrical (RF) engineer, I agree. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't read hardly any of this thread but...The Gibson guy was in on Monday morning giving us a seminar, and he told us that there is very very little difference in tone between covered and uncovered pickups. The original poster might have had a different tone because he might not have put the pickups and polepieces back the same way they were before.

[/ QUOTE ]

How hard is it to "eyeball" really? I don't claim to have set the "standard" for setting pickup height, and I don't use a micrometer, but I can assure you that when I set a pickup's height (covered) and then remove the cover and put the pickup back in, I get the pickup close enough to its original position that the difference will NOT be enough to affect the tone.

Ok, for you feeler-gage and micrometer guys, let's do an experiment: Find two pickups with covers on them (one metal, one plastic), and that have not been removed previously. Set the pickup height to your preference and measure the distance from the top of the cover to the top of the pickup ring (the bottom of the string is not a constant for various reasons, so we'll use the top of the pickup ring instead).
Now, you have to record something as an MP3 with no post-production. Then remove the cover and record the same thing again using the exact same action, pickup height, mixer/recorder settings, and amp settings.
If you've got a POD or other modeller, use that instead because that eliminates the "tube/amp/speaker/humidity affecting the speakers/mics" argument.

If everything is the same between the two recordings EXCEPT the covers, then that should be a fair base for comparison.

Newc

[Chuckracer]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I can tell you that Duncan Custom was neutered by a plastic cover. And I'm not talking a little bit. I wasn't pickup height related.

[toejam]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

This thread makes me wanna start doing drugs. [img]/images/graemlins/what.gif[/img]

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Do pickup covers affect tone?

I think someone beat you to it when they posted...