Gibson Les Paul Pickups - To Cover or Not To Cover
- Thread starter Leon Richards
- Start date
freefrog
Well-known member
Thx for the kind words. We've all been ill (rather than "hill") and I'm still voiceless (!) but at least we're alive without disabling sequels. I wish it was the case for everyone around me here - and elsewhere... :-/
freefrog
Well-known member
Regarding covers, there's another topic on TGP, with answers from pickups winders: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/do-pickup-covers-affect-tone.2328270/
FWIW (= an humble attempt to stay informative).
FWIW (= an humble attempt to stay informative).
BluesMan335
New member
A forum member did a before and after recording with and without covers, same guitar, amp, & settings. There is a subtle audible difference, a little more liveliness, but very slight, and you could never listen to a guitar on its own and tell if the pickups had covers or not. You can always add a little more high-end thru your amp; who keeps the treble on 10?
freefrog
Well-known member
For the record, Foucault currents also affect the dynamics, not only the frequencies... That's why there was an impulse response chart in my shared pic above...
And once again, all covers are not equal. A good cover has a minimal impact on tone. A bad one can throw a blanket over the sound. Sadly, this difference of quality doesn't depend on the price, can't always be seen and one can't necessarily measure the thickness of a sample examplary, nor saw it to check if there's brass or copper under its plating... Reason why I was evoking the problems of sourcing experienced by my friend winder back in the days.
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freefrog
Well-known member
...And let's share what someone else said on another website: his experimental results are close to ours (sorry to add an answer rather than editing the previous one: I've got an error message when I've tried).
https://alexkenis.wordpress.com/2016...one-and-noise/
https://alexkenis.wordpress.com/2016...one-and-noise/
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
For me it's mostly a cosmetic thing. Unless the pickups in question are unusually bright or unusually warm.
for me, the look of the gold pups on a black lp custom looks great. same with a white custom actually
Demanic
PenultimateTone Member
Securb
One of Jerry's Kids
Ever so slight and you are likely going to dial it back in anyway.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
One thing I do have to say that I noticed (I can't figure out why this could be true, but I've noticed it and it surprised me every time) all my gold covered pickups are brighter than the same model uncovered. I have Custom, Custom 5, Custom Custom, 59, Seth and Jazz in both gold and uncovered and the gold ones are all just slightly brighter than the uncovered ones. It's about the difference between 10 and 9.5 on the tone knob kind of thing, but it's audible.
freefrog
Well-known member
FWIW, a reminder about a finding that I've already shared here: many covers do diminish the measured inductance. That's a "tangible" effect of eddy currents / Foucault currents. And that's why resonant peaks measurements are not necessary to detect a bad cover : a LRC meter will reveal its lack of quality by showing a lower inductance once the cover is on the PU.
But some covers do increase the measured inductance - because they include magnetically permeable material.
In itself, more inductance should darken the tone. But as a cover hides the slugs and let the screws protude through it, it does fancy things to coils coupling and Q factor. It can certainly modify the proportion between high mids harmonics / treble harmonics and end on a sound perceived as "brighter".
Such facts can be used to shape the tone intentionally. Even a bad cover can be useful actually, if the assembly under it has been designed accordingly. I've worked on a design from someone else whose cover was purposedly squashing the resonance for a low Q factor, mimicing what actually happens with a lipstick single coil. The related tonal effect couldn't be reproduced by any tone pot setting or amp control. One man's trash is another man's... gold. ;-)
freefrog
Well-known member
I've said above that my measurement screenshot was not even showing the effect of a bad cover... So here is what a bad cover does, finally (in white and green, while the blue and pink lines show the response of the humbucker uncovered). The vertical scale is 1dB per step (it was 0.5dB in the previous pic).
One can see...
-a difference of 2dB around 1khz (not far from the highest fundamental note and that the bad cover actually promotes),
-then a gap of 2.5dB @ resonance (around 3500hz: unlike in my previous pic, the pickup involved in this test was plugged through a standard cable),
-then a maximal difference of 12.5 dB in the extreme high range. Kind of tonal impact that a Boss Metal Zone would hide but that a bright switch would make clear on a Fender Twin or JC120.
One can also see how the cover affects "coils coupling" in this specific case, with a crossover frequency shifting of 3000hz... In such situations, covers are far to alter only the level @ resonance and that's why their effect is not necessarily reproductible or erasable with a tone pot or amp tone control.
NOTE - This test is NOT about the design mentioned in my last post. it's about a simply bad cover whose look and price were the same than for a good one.
FWIW, as usual.
One can see...
-a difference of 2dB around 1khz (not far from the highest fundamental note and that the bad cover actually promotes),
-then a gap of 2.5dB @ resonance (around 3500hz: unlike in my previous pic, the pickup involved in this test was plugged through a standard cable),
-then a maximal difference of 12.5 dB in the extreme high range. Kind of tonal impact that a Boss Metal Zone would hide but that a bright switch would make clear on a Fender Twin or JC120.
One can also see how the cover affects "coils coupling" in this specific case, with a crossover frequency shifting of 3000hz... In such situations, covers are far to alter only the level @ resonance and that's why their effect is not necessarily reproductible or erasable with a tone pot or amp tone control.
NOTE - This test is NOT about the design mentioned in my last post. it's about a simply bad cover whose look and price were the same than for a good one.
FWIW, as usual.
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Erlend_G
New member
I'd like to tell about the covers on my WIldkat's P90's-
- they are made of some magnetic material, and was stock mounted with no dampening, hovering over the pickup like a *bell*. This made the pickups VERY microphonic.
I decided to fill up the space with silicone, -it got rid of the squeal; but also "the magic shimmering effect" was gone
. Now it sounds duller; and I believe the magnetic covers were actually meant to add some resonance/ bell effect.
A bit OT, but still.
- they are made of some magnetic material, and was stock mounted with no dampening, hovering over the pickup like a *bell*. This made the pickups VERY microphonic.
I decided to fill up the space with silicone, -it got rid of the squeal; but also "the magic shimmering effect" was gone
. Now it sounds duller; and I believe the magnetic covers were actually meant to add some resonance/ bell effect.A bit OT, but still
.
Erlend_G
New member
yeah, well- :/ I wish I could have them "un-potted" for clean/breakup use;
-but I play alot of 80's heavy metal,
. So dampening the covers were a must for me.
