covering existing humbuckers
My question is: Is it possible to get humbucker covers and use them on existing humbuckers that came with my guitar. I've got a noname cheap guitar that i bought and i just think it would make it look a heap better (and yes making my guitar look good makes me want to play it more so it is a good investment!). So is there a way? does it depend on the humbucker or is there a universal standard? And how do metal humbucker covers work? - would they just screw with the way pickups work with magnetic fields and stuff?
# 1
I think you can buy gibson pickup covers on musician's friend somewhere. from what I've heard, covers slightly reduce the output of humbuckers, I'm not sure if that's true though. I think as long as you have a gibson standard sized pickup then it'll fit. just as long as you don't have F-spaced. I'm not sure how they go on, but my guess is that the two screws that allow you to adjust the height of the pickup (I've never had a rear mounted guitar, so I don't know how those pickups are held in place) need to be taken out, and the the cover is placed over the pickup, then the screws go back in. not sure on that though.
# 2
When I replaced the pickups in my first Yamaha SBG1000, I installed a DiMarzio SCHB humbucker at the neck, and a DiMarzio Dual Sound at the bridge. The SCHB (Super Clear Humbucker, now discontinued) came from the factory with a chrome cover engraved with the DiMarzio eclipse logo. Very cool, but the guitar just looked wrong with the exposed bobins of the bridge pickup. So I installed a plain chrome cover on the Dual Sound pickup.
Metal covers are all made of brass. There is [u]no[/i] reduction of the magnetic coupling between the strings and the pickup. Chrome or gold plating just makes the cover look diferent, again, no effect on the sound.
The cover goess over the pickup, and should fit snugly against the edges of the backing plate. Solder the cover to the plate. This can be a tricky task, because you don't want to apply too much heat to the pickup. You may want to get a tech to do this for you.
Metal covers are all made of brass. There is [u]no[/i] reduction of the magnetic coupling between the strings and the pickup. Chrome or gold plating just makes the cover look diferent, again, no effect on the sound.
The cover goess over the pickup, and should fit snugly against the edges of the backing plate. Solder the cover to the plate. This can be a tricky task, because you don't want to apply too much heat to the pickup. You may want to get a tech to do this for you.
# 3
