Under cover

Sharing some stuff here since I received quite a few queries pertaining to pickup covers / cover installation. Do note that the pickups in question here are passive Seymour Duncan Nazgul & Sentient humbuckers.

Are pickup covers necessary? No they are not. Pickups work fine with or without covers.

Do the covers (regardless of the materials) impede performance? Thusfar, there have been no records / documentations to show a significant difference in performance between covered & non-covered pickups. The pickup's magnetic field are strong enough to penetrate the cover materials. If there was ever an anomaly that significantly affected output / performance, companies like Gibson for instance, would have given up covering their pickups a long time ago. 

What are the supplementary steps to be taken after covering pickups? If you are covering your pickups like how the manufacturers are doing it, wax potting would help prevent microphonic occurrences. If you are doing it for novelty reasons (like yours truly), it's a mere covering of the bobbins & pole pieces; drop in & ready to go.

Will a typical pickup cover fit into any humbucker? From my personal experience, this is the case with the flapless version (refer to the top-most pic of this post). As for the flap version (depicted above), the length is not universal. Wider pickups, eg. Seymour Duncan Trembuckers, would manifest minor fitting issues. FYI - SD Tembuckers feature a longer bobbin vs a DiMarzio F-Spaced pickup. DiMarzio keeps the bobbin length the same for both standard & F-spaced versions, only the pole pieces spacing are different.

What are the advantages of covering pickups if this doesn't affect performance? 1) Covered pickups are protected from the player's sweat or other external moisture interference. This way, the pole pieces won't rust / oxidize easily. 2) Covers also protect the pickups from pick scratches. Some of us tend to scratch the coil tape as well (the brute players especially) so the covers protect the tape & coil wires. If you intend to sell off the pickups in time to come, covered pickups would look more presentable once the covers are removed (obviously, duh...). 3) If you are bored or experience a surge in artistic assimilation, you can doodle on the covers with paint markers or simply paste stickers on them.

How much? Plastic covers are $3 each (average price), metal versions typically lists for $5 each or more.

Bottom line - covered pickups are neither inferior nor superior to their uncovered counterparts. It's a cheap, reversible, fun mod.

Purple S

Did another quick re-finish since the weather was good with eventual downpours in the evening. Nothing fancy, just my Ibanez S521. I will continue to hunt for used fixed bridge S-Series because I prefer it to the RG, really. I wouldn't pass the chance to acquire the older 22-fretted version if a good one comes my way but understand the fact that these are usually equipped with a whammy bridge.

As usual, Beez handled the electronics with ease. I tend to replace the default 5-way selector to a 3-way because these days, I do not fancy the split coil option.

That's right, I'm still pre-occupied with the metallic flake finish. Also, those pickups are passive humbuckers given the cover treatment. This guitar was strung with a set of DR 10s & tuned a half step down. It's designated for heavy tunes as the pickups on board are (Seymour Duncan) the Nazgul / Sentient pairing.

Pink Friday

Despite being smaller than its standard counterparts, the Jackson Minion RR is still very protrusive in its outline. In fact, the last time I played it, that extended tail end knocked onto boxes & I barely moved save for some bending down to turn on / off the amp. That V outline somehow allows a complete rest of the picking arm so it's less tiring for the picking hand but it has to be strapped on. 

This guitar has a pair of LACE humbuckers onboard which are passive models. I'm beginning to like covered pickups more as my pick does not get caught between pickup pole pieces. 

DD

Starting off July with something new. No, this Ibanez S1620 isn't new. Been with me since 2007 if memory serves me right. I've been having a love / hate relationship with this one for a simple reason - the pickups.

But not this time, of course. I now have likeable pickups in there; a pair of covered Seymour Duncan Distortion humbuckers, specially brought in for me by Davis GMC. The TB-6 there is a tight fit. It has a wider dimension to accommodate the TB spacing. Every TB model comes with its own pickup mounting ring because the people at Seymour Duncan know the guitar's default pickup ring won't be the right one for the job. After a few rotations of pickups, the Distortion will stay put here because they simply sound good for all my needs. 

1st July is SAF there so there's no National Day rehearsal today at the Padang & that made the visit to Gloria Jeans more enjoyable - no crowd. We're already into the other half of 2023. Time flies.

Cover up

I recently removed my Gibson SGJ pickups which are covered versions (left) of ordinary Gibson units. I'm not bent on reproducing the exact livery of this guitar but I find this cover feature rather easy to replicate. I'm well aware that the Gibson cover method involved a sealing procedure back at the factory which I'm not keen to follow. So I simply used a removable plastic cover (right) instead.