Pickup covers

[sneakerpimp]

...I don't think, in this day and age with all the amp and pedal options we have, that it will make any difference to your tone. We've got much more control now over our sound. When EC and others first yanked the covers off their humbuckers, they were going for treble treble treble in order to cut through the 'mix' they heard in the early p.a. equipment available at the time. Hence EC's 'treble booster' he played through. Now we have controls at our feet that the early pioneers of the 'woman tone' could only dream of then.

So, covers on, covers off, to me it's only aesthetics. If you want more treble for your solo, set up your EQ pedal accordingly, and step on it when it's time.

once again the Colonel speaks the truth. i hesitated to put chrome covers on my '82 Norlin because i've done it before on another similar guitar and it did change the sound. but i figured out i could eq it back, and it did after some dialing in.

before:

after:

they're just pressed in, no issues.

 

[Col Mustard]

those look great... it's something how the covers seem to complete the package, in the same way that a tailpiece does. I like them both ways, but the silver covers on the black SG look stunning. I never cared for the Zebra p'ups anyway. But I know lots of players do.

My photos show my progress in installing black covers on a pair of Gibson 490s I bought off our own Kevy Nova from this site. I had previously swapped the Gibson pickups for the Chinese made humbuckers that came with my 2006 Epiphone Wilshire. I scraped and cleaned a spot for the solder, and did the job, and I think the black covers look great on a white guitar, for the same reasons I like S/P's Black and Silver motif above.

 

[FFXIhealer]

"Genuine Gibson neck position humbucker cover. Nickel finish. Outer pole piece spacing is 1-15/16" on center. Some vintage Gibson models use this cover on both the neck and bridge position.

PRPC-035
Genuine Gibson bridge position humbucker cover. Nickel finish. Outer pole piece spacing is 2-1/16" on center. This slightly wider spacing is used on most modern Gibson bridge humbuckers."

Any Gibson pickup marked R is a standard-sized humbucker with the 1 15/16" spacing. All '57 Classics are like this, as well as most Burstbuckers. 490R and 498Rs (ceramic magnet found on Flying Vs) are obvious.

ALL Gibson pickups marked with a T are 2 1/16" spaced. The T stands for "Trembucker." 490T, 498T, and 500T (ceramic) are clearly like this.

I bought a pair of pickup covers, one for each string spacing, for my Hagstrom. Yes, it's not my SG. I'd have added the covers to my SG Special in a heartbeat...if the original owner had not already done so before I ever bought it (one of the reasons I bought the Special anyway). But when I went to solder the pickup covers on, I had a lot of wax bubbling out from the edges, so I stopped. That and I'd like to apply some silicon seal on the inside of the cover before mounting them permanently. I'd even consider wax-potting them all over again, but that seems like a hastle.

Anyway... let me know which you prefer between the two photos...

I should probably note that since those photos were taken, I've had to replace a cracked pickup ring, so I replaced them with Gibson pickup rings that came with nice black screws to mount them with. So I did the toothpick fix with some Titebond wood glue and re-drilled the holes for the new rings.

I just think the covered pickups look so much better on that guitar, what with all that chrome hardware on it already. I also plan to replace all of the electronics with better CTS stuff and a Switchcraft switch - once I have some money to throw at it again.

Achievement Unlocked: Successfully hijack a forum thread.

 

[Suspiciousminds]

once again the Colonel speaks the truth. i hesitated to put chrome covers on my '82 Norlin because i've done it before on another similar guitar and it did change the sound. but i figured out i could eq it back, and it did after some dialing in.

before:

after:

they're just pressed in, no issues.

Definately look better with the covers, for me it matches up very nicely - looks lovely!

 

[dbb]

I never was fond of the uncovered pickup look. I don't think I ever had a guitar that lacked chrome or plastic covers, depending on the type of pickups.

 

[Col Mustard]

yea, there's a certain elegance of style to the guitar with the covers. And to my eye, the uncovered look with all 12 polepieces showing looks radical, showing disdain for elegance and a desire for more rip and more treble. And the SG delivers, either way.

Guitars with chrome plated covers over anything that shows too many adjustment screws or other parts sticking out was a design thing from the fifties. There were engineers to design the parts and assemblies, and designers to pretty them up. This was from the age of tall tail fins on cars, and chrome everything.

But they did it for a reason. These days, we don't buy into all the norms and values that drove them to design what they did, but we can compare how it looks and make a choice based on our own feelings of what's cool.