Adding Pickup covers- Help?

wixomwhat

New member
Hey,

i wanted to add a crome pickup cover to the neck pickup of my guitar so i bought a cover at the guitar store a couple of hours ago.

But i dont know how im supposed to attach it.
If I have to solder it no big deal.

Please give me some info on how to put this on.

Thanks
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

wixomwhat said:
Hey,

i wanted to add a crome pickup cover to the neck pickup of my guitar so i bought a cover at the guitar store a couple of hours ago.

But i dont know how im supposed to attach it.
If I have to solder it no big deal.

Please give me some info on how to put this on.

Thanks
first, take the pup outta the guitar entirely, place the cover over it and solder the cover to the backplate of the pickup, then you need to pot it (someone else will tell you how to do it, i dont remember what kinda wax your supposed to use) then wipe off the excess wax from potting and put the pup back in and your good
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

Put tape over the slugs and pot the cover (dip in in liquid parafin or something similar)
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

i actually have to pot the thing?

the cheap material that the cover is made of actually does something to the magnetic field?
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

I never pot pickups. Neither does Tom Holmes. Neither does Seymour when he makes the Antiquitys. What I do is put a piece of 1/2" masking tape inside the cover where the slug polepieces might rattle against the inside of the cover. The tape also damps the cover and helps keep it from resonating and producing a squeel. Then I clamp the cover on TIGHT against the bobbins and solder it on. I have no problems with squeeling. Lew
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but for some reason I'm under the impression that plastic covers need not be potted as they don't affect the magnetic field? I only bring this up because I plan on doing this sometime in the near future and would like to have some idea of what is in store for me.
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

so what part do i actually solder?

Do i solder the cover to the unmovable pieces?
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

As far as plastic covers, you don't need to do anything but put them over the pickups and install them.

With nickel covers, I almost always pot them after installing covers. Personally, I never use tape, I just push them on as tight as possible, then solder them with two spots. I buy parafin cooking wax at the grocery store, heat it up with a piece of cardboard on the bottom of the soup pan. This keeps the pickup from being overheated from contact with the bottom of the pan. Simply dunk the pickup in the warm liquid wax, then wait for the tiny airbubbles to stop coming up, then throw it on a paper plate and toss it into the refrigerator. Take it out, wipe off all the excess wax, then install it. Lew's method of non-potted pickups works if you use medium gain at normal levels, but if you ever use super high gain lead channels at earsplitting levels, potting is almost a necessity. One thing I recommend is using newspapers on your counter top to avoid a giant wax mess. Working with wax can be messy, but potting gets easier everytime you do it.
 
Re: Adding Pickup covers- Help?

I normally pot my covers and use the masking tape over the slug bobbin...If I wasn't going to pot my pickup I'd still use masking tape to cover any possible air gap between the cover and the slugs...

John
 
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