PU Cover Removal

Lucius Paisley

Lucius Paisley

Well-known member
I'm sure it's a topic that's been raised a million times, but I can't find anything related to comparisons.

I paid for this monster last night
git1.png

And I guess it's a mood of late, a metaphor for my life at the moment, but I want to make the following cosmetic changes
teleupgr.jpg

I know the difference in height is what changes tone/volume/brightness/whatever, and while the black on silver/silver on black shown here "works", IS there a difference between removing the cover on the neck pickup and removing the cover on the bridge pickup? Also, how much difference does raising the poles make, if any?
 
Grats on the new guitar, looks good!

You mean what is the difference in tone of cover vs no cover and if it’s different between neck and bridge?

The difference of covered vs not is usually not huge. It mainly tames the highs a bit. In the bridge of a tele that may actually be a good thing, but it depends on the pickup. If you like it covered but without cover it’s a bit harsh, come back and we may have tips but remember you have a tone control :D
 
Blille said:
Grats on the new guitar, looks good!

You mean what is the difference in tone of cover vs no cover and if it’s different between neck and bridge?

The difference of covered vs not is usually not huge. It mainly tames the highs a bit. In the bridge of a tele that may actually be a good thing, but it depends on the pickup. If you like it covered but without cover it’s a bit harsh, come back and we may have tips but remember you have a tone control :D
Click to expand...

"and if it’s different between neck and bridge?"

Exactly the question I was trying to ask.

I generally remove the covers if I can, or just replace the pickup entirely with one that has no cover, which I'd rather not do on this one, there's some shielding inside that might be troublesome if it's at all messed with. It might actually be the first time I've found a tone control 100% useful. I've kept the tone control on my Player, but I know that's not going any lower than about 8.
 
IME the tone difference with covers removed has been subtle but usually perceptible, and only seems to affect in the high end.
Possibly a bit more audible on bridge humbuckers simply because they produce more treble.
Even there, though, the difference is not something you'd notice unless you really tried to listen for it.

Pretty sure the reason some players began removing their covers in the 60s wasn't for tone; it was to stop squealing.
And to look different.
At the time, all humbuckers had covers and people hadn't seen the innards.
I remember the first time I saw somebody using an uncovered humbucker. "Has he got two pickups in there?"
"Dunno - never saw anything like it."

I think this particular guitar looks much, much better with the bridge hum uncovered. Way too much chrome originally IMO.
Not sure I'd like it any better with the neck uncovered too.
But I don't think I'd like it any less that way, either.
 
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Like has been said, the difference between covered and uncovered is subtle. A bit more treble uncovered and more noticeable on the bridge pup.
I agree that it looks awesome with just the bridge pup uncovered (and since it is a Tele with a bridge humbucker, I think it's a good thing, tonally, that it be uncovered).
 
Yes there is definitely a difference, but it's not huge. Opens the sound a little as the covers dampen the highs a bit.
 
It also depends on the quality of the covers. On decent pickups, the covers are good and damp very little high end.
With cheapo covers it can be different: sometimes they have brass plating under the chrome, or even are stamped from brass.

So with really low cost pickups, removing the covers occasionally makes a lot more difference than it does with the better ones.
The covers on Chinese cheapos - especially ones that were made a few years ago - are often suspect IMO.

Another factor is excessive wax potting. I've seen import humbuckers with so much wax, they look almost like a bar of soap uncovered.
Some maintain that removing excess wax can open up the sound of such hums noticeably.
Myself, I never bothered; I wanted better pickups for Epiphones anyway.
 
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Pulled this from another place I posted a while back. IMHO there's more to it than just the material of the cover.

I like uncovered better. Any pups I removed the covers from seem to sound clearer, fuller, brighter and have more output, despite how transparent the cover is. The biggest influence in change outside of the cover itself is the position of the adjustable coil slugs position. When you have a cover on the adjustable slugs are usually always much higher to protrude to the top or over the cover than compared to an uncovered one. You really notice it when you 1st pull the cover off and see how far they stick out.

This makes the one coil closer to the strings and the other coil further away resulting in a weaker and more unbalanced tone since both coils aren't near the same relation in height. Once the cover is removed the adjustable poles are usually lowered quite a bit and more balanced with the other coil making it sound more balanced a powerful since now both coils can be in the same proximity of each other and the strings. This is exaggerated even more depending how thick the layer of wax is between the coils and cover.

With the big impact you can have on tone and string-string balance with pup height and pole adjustments it's no surprise you will have a completely different outcome with and without a cover since it completely changes the overall relation of the 2 from the get go. I'm no expert but it makes since to me and my ears. I'm no expert in explaining stuff well either so this may make no since at all to anyone. lol Even though my ears are shot and I have chronic tinnitus I can still hear a clear difference.
 
Mr. 80's said:
When you have a cover on the adjustable slugs are usually always much higher to protrude to the top or over the cover than compared to an uncovered one. You really notice it when you 1st pull the cover off and see how far they stick out.
Click to expand...

That's a really good explanation, and one I hadn't considered before. Thanks for that info.
 
I got news from the local music store that was taking care of all this for me.

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I don't know how, it's kind of irrelevant because knowing how doesn't make this error magically disappear. But "broken screws" is never nice to hear.

They've brought the cost of the overall job down by almost half, which is nice, but... GDI, I haven't even got to play it yet.
 
That's bizarre. How the heck do you break off metal screws in fairly thin wood? I've never seen that before in a guitar.
 
Mr. 80's said:
That sucks! Obviously cheap ass screws. Wonder if they even pre-drilled the holes or just drove them right in?
Click to expand...

If not, that does offer an explanation as to why they would break - pre-stressed or whatever. There's also the possibility that the person putting the screws back in used a hand tool and went a little too hard. Which would be overkill anyway since the screws weren't exactly that deep.

This is for the control plate FYI. Which I removed before I handed it over to the store. I always use a regular screwdriver.
 
Lucius Paisley said:
It's basically a log whittled into a guitar shape. Apparently, the whole guitar weighs just over 4.5kg / 9.9lb.

People have bought it and complained. Weirdos.
Click to expand...

To be fair, ten lbs is crazy heavy for a Tele; most weigh around 7.5.
My heaviest Les Paul is 9.9 lbs and it gets significant;y less play time than the lighter ones.
Of course, I'm an old man now. Didn't bother me decades ago - I used to gig a twelve pound Jazz Bass.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
To be fair, ten lbs is crazy heavy for a Tele; most weigh around 7.5.
My heaviest Les Paul is 9.9 lbs and it gets significant;y less play time than the lighter ones.
Of course, I'm an old man now. Didn't bother me decades ago - I used to gig a twelve pound Jazz Bass.
Click to expand...

I used to have a northern ash tele and it was my heaviest guitar. Folks were very surprised when they picked it up. I always told myself it had better tone because of it lol
 
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