uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

[Lewguitar]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

True tin is a metal ... but explain to me how a non ferrous metal can affect the tone. Next you'll be telling me that plastic covers affect the tone. Capacitance has to do with insolation .. if the PU is wax poted before being covered what happens?

Listen and see for yourself. The proof of the pudding is in the eating...not in theorizing, speculating or thinking about it. Don't confuse theories about reality with reality...they're not the same thing. One is an idea...the other is reality. A cover changes the tone of the pickup...why? Doesn't really matter...it just does. Lew

 

[motorhead]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Listen and see. The proof of the pudding is in the eating...not in theorizing or thinking about it. Lew

I'm more interested in being a Chef than a waiter ... besides the questions are why did adding/removing covers affect tone in the 60s and 70s PUs and not anymore. Why do some players today hear a difference and some don't.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

True tin is a metal ... but explain to me how a non ferrous metal can affect the tone.

Well pretty easy actually, there are 3 known magnetic metals: iron (theres your ferrous), nickel (as you know, used as pup covers), and cobalt. If magnetic metals effect the tone, nickel should.

 

[motorhead]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Well pretty easy actually, there are 3 known magnetic metals: iron (theres your ferrous), nickel (as you know, used as pup covers), and cobalt. If magnetic metals effect the tone, nickel should.

If nickel is magnetic and replacement PU covers are made of nickel then why can't I get a Gibson replacement PU cover, a PRS PU cover, a DiMarzio and a Duncan PU cover to stick to a magnet?

 

[Cory_Dylan]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

(a little off topic) do covers effect pinch harmonics?

for ex. will pinch harmonics with a covered JB be as good as an uncovered JB? or worse?

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

If nickel is magnetic and replacement PU covers are made of nickel then why can't I get a Gibson replacement PU cover, a PRS PU cover, a DiMarzio and a Duncan PU cover to stick to a magnet?

I am not 100% sure why, but is a well known chemistry fact. Also being nickel plated (am i rite?) may not be strong enuf to be picked up by wat magnets u use, but enough to effect tone?

 

[motorhead]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

I am not 100% sure why, but is a well known chemistry fact. Also being nickel plated (am i rite?) may not be strong enuf to be picked up by wat magnets u use, but enough to effect tone?

Place the magnet under the cover where it's not plated. This topic is more of a riddle.

All I can say for sure is that my '69 PAF cover (while still attached) feels much thicker and stronger (metal like than tin like) than the modern covers. I could take the cover off my PAF and stick a magnet to it but I'm not that gutsy.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

This whole thread reminds me of arguments I used to have in fourth grade about why the Millenium Falcon could easily destroy the Starship Enterprise.

-X

 

[edi_87]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Anyone know Jaroslaw Smietana? Great jazz guitarist, he plays on telecaster (!) like this... Sounds great for me!!

 

[motorhead]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

This whole thread reminds me of arguments I used to have in fourth grade about why the Millenium Falcon could easily destroy the Starship Enterprise.

-X

Don't have much of an inquisitive mind ... do you?

 

[take2]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Oh come on, the strength of the Enterprise was in its Captain. Brains over Brawn baby!

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Yeah but man, the Millenium Falcon was FAST! And Han Solo would think of SOMETHING to outsmart Picard or Kirk.

....hahahahaha

Nah, the mind is inquisitive, but the heart is kind of apathetic about things like this...for the player, HOW isn't as important as WHAT.

 

[motorhead]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Yeah but man, the Millenium Falcon was FAST! And Han Solo would think of SOMETHING to outsmart Picard or Kirk.

....hahahahaha

Nah, the mind is inquisitive, but the heart is kind of apathetic about things like this...for the player, HOW isn't as important as WHAT.

You'll eventually learn that the WHAT comes after a lot of HOW.

 

[Cory_Dylan]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

you guys are so silly :laugh2:

 

[motorhead]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

you guys are so silly :laugh2:

Yep, that's why you're question should be better answered on Guitarnuts

 

[Mac-P]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

So what looks like tin and is NOT metal is actually nickel? Regardless, this would not interfere with the magnetic pull .. hence no difference in tone.

Nickel is a metal.

I believe it's Brass. Brass with nickel, chrome or gold plating. And they still sound differant with or without the cover...just like they always have. Duncan's sure do! I have a new double cream coil Seth Lover as the neck pickup on my Hamer Monoco and I left the stock cover unsoldered so I can slide it off if I want to. Sounds brighter with the cover removed. Lew

I have actually spoken to Seymour himself, indirectly through MJ in the Custom Shop (they were together in the shop, she was on the phone with me and was talking to him and relaying my questions). Seymour has never used brass covers in any pickup cover. I asked that specifically. He even balked at the idea. "BRASS - no way. Never" was his response. Duncan uses thin nickel covers. Chrome or gold plating is available as a custom shop option. Otherwise the covers are solid nickel and always have been.

I have listened to covered and non covered Duncan pickups. I have not heard a difference between the two that was not attributed to the pickup's distance from the strings. When comparing covered & non-covered: keep in mind that a covered pickup will have to be closer to the strings for the actual pickup to be at the same distance. This will explain the extra brightness in the uncovered pickup. It is closer and will produce more highs. Back it off till it approximates the distance of the interior of a covered pickup and it sounds pretty much the same.

:burnout:

 

[motorhead]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Nickel is a metal.




I have actually spoken to Seymour himself, indirectly through MJ in the Custom Shop (they were together in the shop, she was on the phone with me and was talking to him and relaying my questions). Seymour has never used brass covers in any pickup cover. I asked that specifically. He even balked at the idea. "BRASS - no way. Never" was his response. Duncan uses thin nickel covers. Chrome or gold plating is available as a custom shop option. Otherwise the covers are solid nickel and always have been.

I have listened to covered and non covered Duncan pickups. I have not heard a difference between the two that was not attributed to the pickup's distance from the strings. When comparing covered & non-covered: keep in mind that a covered pickup will have to be closer to the strings for the actual pickup to be at the same distance. This will explain the extra brightness in the uncovered pickup. It is closer and will produce more highs. Back it off till it approximates the distance of the interior of a covered pickup and it sounds pretty much the same.

:burnout:

Thank you for your post.

You are right about the PU height factor and I appreciate you clearing up the nickel makeup of PU covers.

It make me wonder when Micheal Schenker and others started taking the covers off of old PAFs to get more attack the results were based on having an unpotted PU. i.e adding or removing a cover to an already wax potted PU is irrelevant....? This would explain why the majority of players that say they hear a difference in tone are using Ants.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

If nickel is magnetic and replacement PU covers are made of nickel then why can't I get a Gibson replacement PU cover, a PRS PU cover, a DiMarzio and a Duncan PU cover to stick to a magnet?

Cuz they are probably BRASS or BRASS ALLOY with a nickel plating. When I install covers I always sand through the nickel plating so the solder sticks better. When I sand through the nickel coating I see what sure looks like brass or brass alloy. Lew

 

[papersoul]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

I tried the uncovered vs covered with a JB in a Hamer and the notes bloomed more with the uncovered and I tried raising and lowering but it didn't matter....as Lew put it once...the uncovered p'ups seem to have more spray. I heard a slightly bigger tone.

I never understood the idea behind covers other than for aesthetics. Maybe someone can explain. I'd rather save a few bucks and get pickups without covers.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: uncovered pickups paired with covered pickups?

Any metal can exert capacitance. Ever notice that you r guitar is brighter while using a wireless system than it is with regular cables? That's because you removed a certain amount of capacitance from the signal chain. Any metal can be used as a shield, hence the use of copper shielding, lead paint, et. al.

Plastic does not affect capacitance or inductance.