Do I need to be worried about this or not?

I just had this tb black winter installed in my jackson soloist today and got home and notice the cloth material has a chunk missing from it, the pickup sounds great, but is the cloth wrapping missing going to hurt anything by it not fully covering the pickup? Or is it not that big of a deal. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks
 
It's not a big deal, but if it bothers you, you should be able to carefully peel off the cloth tape and wrap it back around more neatly. It's sticky stuff, I've been able to reuse it a few times.

...although since you had it put in by someone else, I would question why they messed up the tape in the first place.
 
Honestly that's an issue you shouldn't have with a new pickup, even if it's still working fine. Looks like somebody was careless.
 
Yeah I agree, but honestly I never even opened the case it was in when I got it, it still was tapped up from seymour duncan. So I don't know if it came that way already or not. Also I bought it off reverb, new of course from a authorized dealer. Next time I buy a pickup I guess I'll have open it up and double check it before I take it to my local tech lol, but if it's safe to play it without hurting the pickup that's wat I was wondering, as I don't know what the covering is protecting or if it's just cosmetic or what not. But yeah I'd prefer it to look like it should.
 
That looks REALLY close to the strings to me.

But if it works for you, then it works. :)

My BW is like that from the factory as well. Maybe not as bad, but probably around 50%.
 
If i decide to try and patch that spot up down the road some time what type of tape/material should i be looking to buy , Im not wanting to re wrap the whole pickup, probably just patch up the one side.
 
Of the hundreds of pickups that I have had (expensive or cheap Asian made pups), I never got one from the mfr that had the coil tape messed up like that. That was done by the careless tech who intsalled your pup.
It's there to protect the very thin and fragile coil wire. Not a bad idea to fix it. It comes in a cloth and a paper version (yours is cloth) and in various widths, but you can't just buy a couple inches of it. Unless you regularly work on pickups, the smallest amount you can buy will probably last you somewhere between 10 and 1,000 lifetimes. At least the stuff is cheap, around $10 per roll.
 
GuitarDoc said:
Of the hundreds of pickups that I have had (expensive or cheap Asian made pups), I never got one from the mfr that had the coil tape messed up like that. That was done by the careless tech who intsalled your pup.
It's there to protect the very thin and fragile coil wire. Not a bad idea to fix it. It comes in a cloth and a paper version (yours is cloth) and in various widths, but you can't just buy a couple inches of it. Unless you regularly work on pickups, the smallest amount you can buy will probably last you somewhere between 10 and 1,000 lifetimes. At least the stuff is cheap, around $10 per roll.
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I think Duncans have a layer of protection below the sticky cloth tape, though. I can see the wire on my BW, but I cannot feel it. Feels and looks like there's a layer of transparent stuff above the wire itself.
 
It shouldn't be like that, and I'd probably go ahead and get some cloth pickup tape to have around. It is cheap and if you tend to handle a lot of pickups, this is bound to happen.
 
+1 for actives being a little more robustly built, and situations like this are also why I don't do my own magnet swaps. Even though I realize it's fairly simple, the thought of all that fine copper wire coming undone scares me.

I get handwound, scatterwound, and uneven coil winds, but ideally I shouldn't be the one doing them.
 
Securb said:
My BW is also very close to the stings; I have no string pull or sustain issues.
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I look at pickup height as like getting a hot enough signal in the analog days--get it bordering on red, then back down slightly.

I need enough room for my Floyd to be pulled 100% sharp and still clear the bridge pickup, then I back down to taste.
 
Nathan80 said:
If i decide to try and patch that spot up down the road some time what type of tape/material should i be looking to buy , Im not wanting to re wrap the whole pickup, probably just patch up the one side.
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Taking it off and rewrapping it will only take a couple minutes. The most finicky part is making sure it doesn't rip longways as you peel it back. I think a shorter piece of tape used as a patch would tend to peel away from the ends and look worse in the long run.
 
Not to go off topic and this is probably a silly question, but is there any reason why passive pickups tend to be tape wound with plastic bobbins and not just housed in a metal case like an active pickup?

I assume it would affect tone but in terms of durability the only thing I worry about with my active pickups is one of the connector pins getting bent.

Edit: I'm guessing this would be similar to putting a metal pickup cover on a passive pickup, but I thought it might be different as well as actives seem to be much more tightly sealed than passive pickups with covers.
 
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