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Adding Metal Covers to Rail Pickups

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  • Adding Metal Covers to Rail Pickups

    Hey guys... Got an old Synsonics Terminator last week, needs some TLC and figured, why not upgrade it. Why? Why not?

    I have fun with these oddball guitars.

    One thing I had planned was to swap out the weak Squier-like single coils for a pair of ceramic single coil sized humbuckers with twin-rails. I have seen some with plastic chrome covers, which don't look great IMO and cost more, and usually just 2-wire. I was looking at the FLEOR ones (ya I know, not Seymour Duncan... 1 pickup would cost more than the guitar).

    Anyways... I saw some metal covers without any slits for the rails. Telecaster neck pickup style covers more-or-less. Still debatable if they'd fit, I'd have to contact FLEOR for more measurements. If they do though, will they work? I mean, having the metal cover laying on top of both rails, which are also metal, would that cause problems? short them out? etc?

    Plan would probably be to put a strip of masking tape across the top of the pickup, then a thin strip of silicone, then sandwich the cover down on top. So, shouldn't be any metal-on-metal. Plus if I change my mind, the tape keeps the pickups clean. Just wanting to double check though.

    I'll also mention, for those who don't know of these guitars, they have 2x9v batteries inside to power a small built in am and 3.5" speaker. So, there is power in there somewhere.

    Click image for larger version

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  • #2
    I believe some of the cheap Chinese rails are available with chrome bobbins.
    That might be a better option.
    .
    "You should know better by now than to introduce science into a discussion of voodoo."
    .

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    • #3
      As long as you don't let the metal rails touch the metal cover you should be ok.
      Some say that metal covers will affect the tone of the pup, but it is very minor. Go ahead and try it.
      I've tried some P-90 pups from Fleor that sounded pretty good except for the ceramic magnets. I'm going to put some A5 and A8 mags in them soon. I haven't tried their rail pups, but I can imagine how bad they'd sound with the stock ceramic pups. Definitely put alnico mags in them.
      Originally Posted by IanBallard
      Rule of thumb... the more pot you have, the better your tone.

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      • #4
        I'm generally not a fan of ceramic in full sized hums, have only really bonded with the Custom, Super D, and Railhammer Chisel.
        Strat-sized rails can be pretty good with ceramic though. I think most singlecoil sized humbuckers use C8, even the non-rail types.
        .
        "You should know better by now than to introduce science into a discussion of voodoo."
        .

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        • #5
          I don't have any advice on the pickups/covers, but that pic is a blast from the past! I had a buddy from high school sell me one of those for $100 (I think) way back in the day. I loved goofing around with it. I'd take it with me to the public park and my friends and I would play all the riffs our stoned little brains could think of lol.
          "An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. " - Bukowski

          "A banker will take a guitar and play three notes on it. A rock star will take a guitar and throw it across the room. " - David Lee Roth

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