276. How are plastic covers made?
Plastic covers are normally injection molded. Molten plastic is forced under pressure into a cavity of desired shape. Various materials can be used for injection molding and certain types are used to obtain consistent specifications.

277. How are thermoformed covers made?
Thermoformed covers can use a male mold or cavity to make the plastic form to a desired shape. Many older covers used on Guilds and Gibson’s had thermoformed covers as injection molding was quite expensive. Thermoforming can be done with different colored plastics to desired thickness. You can see thermoformed covers on the early Gibson “Dog-ear” covers used on P-90’s.

278. How do I remove the covers on my humbuckers?
You need to carefully remove the solder joints that connect the bottom plate to the cover. I find it best to heat the solder and tap it gently to release the solder. Do not try to pry the cover off with a screw driver or knife as the coil can be damaged. You need to carefully inspect the inside of the cover before removing it as the solder can snag and cut through the protective tape around the coil and damage the magnet wire or coil wrappings. If your pickups are epoxied, it will be difficult to remove. I have removed epoxied covers by placing the pickups in hot water but this is dangerous and you can burn yourself if not careful...So I don’t suggest doing this...

279. I put the metal cover on my pickup and now it's shorted out. What happened?
This can happen if the “pigtails” or connections from the bobbins to the cable are not carefully insulated with tape or shrink tubing and the bare or exposed wire can touch the cover that’s normally soldered to ground. If any wires from the coil are connected to ground they can short out or cut one coil out. Be careful putting covers back on that have solders burrs that could cut into the side of the bobbins. At times I’ve put a piece of tape of the inside wall of the metal cover at the end where all the wires are connected. This helps keep them from accidentally shorting out.

280. I took the cover off my humbucker and it stopped working. What happened?
Like I said in question # 10, there can be damage to the coil if you remove the cover carelessly. If the coil gets snagged by the solder joint burr or jabbed with a screwdriver when trying to get the cover off can cause extreme damage to the coil or coils. Make sure the connecting wires from each bobbin didn’t get snagged or pulled and check to see that the solder joints from the cable didn’t get pinched or broken. Make sure the hot wires don’t short out with the ground. Breaking one turn of magnet wire on a coil will make the pickup inoperative.

281. Should I take my covers off?
Removing humbucker covers will allow slightly higher adjustment to the pickups and can increase unwanted electrical interference. I do not like to remove covers from most Fender guitars as the strings can easily get snagged under the lip of the flatwork. Removing covers on Fender style pickups normally exposes the bare coil or magnet wire which could become easily damaged by accidentally hitting the coil with a guitar pick, fingernails, strings and foreign debris. Removing covers can expose the coil and bobbins to excessive moisture from condensation, sweat and humidity. And don’t let anybody play your guitar that’s not familiar with your setup and string gauge.

282. What are the various metal covers made from?
Metal covers can be made from Nickel Silver, Brass, Aluminum. Brass is probably used the most as it is economically priced and can be deep drawn easily. Nickel Silver is also called German Silver and is also used in a lot of jewelry. Steel should not be used as it will absorb the magnetic field that would normally be attracted to the strings. The various covers are plated making it difficult to determine what the actual material under the plating is.

283. What are the various metal covers made from?
Metal covers can be made from Nickel Silver, Brass, Aluminum. Brass is probably used the most as it is economically priced and can be deep drawn easily. Nickel Silver is also called German Silver and is also used in a lot of jewelry. Steel should not be used as it will absorb the magnetic field that would normally be attracted to the strings. The various covers are plated making it difficult to determine what the actual material under the plating is.

284. What can you do with worn or damaged covers?
Depending on the condition of the covers and the collectability you should always keep or find a place for your covers even if you don’t use them. If the cover is broken or damaged upon repair than I would suggest looking for a replacement either an original or an after market product. Make sure you check the dimensions and pole spacing as many after market products can be metric and not alien up with your current pole spacing. If you have an old “Patent Applied For” humbucker cover, I would not change it in any way as they are quite valuable. Some pickups are epoxied and the covers are difficult to remove and at times impossible.

285. What materials are various covers made of? -Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, etc.
Fender humbuckers designed by Seth Lover are normally Nickel Silver unless someone decided to change the specifications. Gibson also used a grade of Nickel Silver and I’ve seen Gretsch covers made from brass and chrome or gold plated. The Fender covers are made from a special grade of Nylon and is quite durable and will last a long time. Earlier Strat covers were made from a plastic called “Cycolac” and was discontinued because it was brittle and would chip when molded with thin walls. The constant plucking of a pickup would eventually fatigue the plastic. The “Cycolac” covers are not Bakelite covers as they are commonly called. The “Cycolac” covers often have a marbled texture.

286. What problems can you have when removing humbucking covers?
The humbucker bottom plate and cover can act like a heat-sink and it can be difficult trying to heat the solder joint hot enough to remove the solder. If you don’t carefully remove the majority of solder than the solder burrs can damage the coil. Trying to heat the solder joint with a small tip or low wattage soldering iron will be insufficient in removing the solder properly which usually leads to using a screwdriver or kitchen knife to pry the cover off thus damaging the coils. Also using soldering “guns”, the one’s with a large coil can de-magnetize the magnets in the pickup.

287. Why are covers put on pickups?
Covers are usually put on pickups to protect the coils from damage as on Fender style pickups and metal covers are used to help reduce unwanted electrical interference as on Gibson style humbuckers. Plastic covers don’t reduce hum or other electrical interference but add a desired cosmetic look and help reduce the wear and tear on a pickup. Some pickup covers are used to hold the components together as in a Gibson Firebird or Mini-humbucker. If you remove the cover, all the components can become loose and fall off the bottom plate.

288. Why are metal covers put on pickups?
As stated in question # 18, metal covers are basically used to reduce electrical interference and also can be cosmetically altered with Chrome, Nickel, Gold or other desired plating. Many players have used the metal pickup covers as an extra fret or to get enhanced guitar sounds from the pickup.

289. Can my pickups be customized?
The majority of pickups can be customized in one way or another. The difficult pickups to alter or customize are the one’s that are epoxies in a hard resin. Pickups can be rewound with a numerous gauges and turns, tapped for in or out of phasing, single coil, split, magnetically modified, various pole arrangements and types of poles to conduct the magnetic field to the strings. Pickups can be also custom wired to be used with two or more other pickups. Pickups can be customized for a specific position, tone, and output to satisfy your needs.

290. Do major pickup manufactures make custom pickups to your specifications?
I have talked with most pickup companies and they all do some kind of pickup alterations for your needs. They all try to help their clients and do the best they can with the components available. I have given clients the name of other pickup builders as they may be more suited to make a pickup of the player’s particular needs. I have often been referred by other pickup builders for something unique to my pickup building. I think we all help each other and try to help the player find what he is looking for.

291. How do I get more bass out of my pickup?
First I would turn the treble control counter clock-wise to knock off the high end of a pickup. You can also solder one side of a capacitor to the hot terminal of a pickup and solder the other side to ground. I would start with low values until you find the desire roll-off. A typical capacitor used for a tone control can be .05 mfd or .022 mfd., which can roll off too much high end on a pickup. I’ve used .0022 mfd, .0033 mfd, .0047 mfd. between the hot and ground and it can give a pickup more bass. Using a weaker magnet will make the pickup sound warmer and softening the high- end. Adding turns to the existing pickup or using a smaller diameter gauge of magnet wire will give the pickup more bass. Adding turns can increase output and by adding more turns will add capacitance to the pickup making it have more bass or decreased high-end. Moving a pickup closer to the neck position will add more bass and using heavier strings will give the pickup more bass or fuller sound.

292. How do I get more treble out of my pickup?
You can get more treble of your existing pickup by increasing the magnetic field by using a stronger magnet or re-magnetizing the existing magnet or moving the pickup closer to the bridge to change the harmonic string vibration. If you decide to alter the pickup, you can use less turns per coil or use a thicker gauge of magnet wire. You could also change the volume and tone pots. If you currently use a 250 K audio taper potentiometer, try using a 500 K or 1 Meg. Pot. You can also use a .001 mfd. capacitor in parallel with a 150 K Ohm resistor soldered between the # 2 & # 3 lug of your potentiometer. This will keep the pickup brighter as you reduce the volume.

293. My pickups are thin and bright, how can I get a fatter sound?
I would check using a volt-ohm meter to see if your pickup has a DC Resistance reading. If they are stock pickups and checked to be working properly than I would try a few little tricks. First, if you have two or more pickups in your instrument and are of the same shape, I would put the one with the highest DC reading in the bridge position if you need more power from that position. If you play a lot of Jazz or mellow music, you may want to use the hotter pickup in the neck position. At times the magnets in a pickup could be faulty or de-magnetized and need to be checked by a reputable repairman with equipment to check magnetic gauss (strength) polarity (north or south) and orientation (direction of magnetic field within the coil or bobbin). Sometimes magnets are put in wrong and will make the pickup sound weak and thin. If a turn of the magnet wire or coil is broken the pickup can sound thin and bright. Even though the coil is broken and you get no DC resistance, you can still get a small amount of inductance or induced current to the amplifier. If the coil is broken, the coil will have to be repaired and this will usually restore the fatness and fullness in a pickup. Make sure there are no shorted wires or components in the circuit. A capacitor in series with the output of a signal will make a pickup sound thin and brighter. I would remove one side of a pickup to be tested from the circuit so it doesn’t affect other components that could be faulty or hooked up wrong.
Seymour W. Duncan history.
A brief article was done by Vintage Guitar Magazine contributor Dave Hussong was featured in Vintage Guitar Magazine articles: Part 1 Issue...Part 2 Issue...
The history of Jeff Beck and the Fender Esquire he used in The Yardbird’s.
I’m often asked about Jeff’s guitar used in The Yardbird’s and you can get a brief history of this guitar in issue: VGM March 1993...

294. What is the Shim Pickup and what does it do?
I developed the shim pickup with a thin piece of ferrous shim-stock around the outer portion of the coil to retain and confine the magnetic field within close proximity to the coil to brighten and tighten up the sound of the pickup. The grounded shim acts as a magnetic keeper and acts similar to the ferrous bridge plate on a Fender Telecaster. This also keeps the magnetic field from straying towards the height adjustment screws and makes the pickup more efficient in relation to the coil, magnetic field as a unit.

295. What are some of the Seymour Duncan pickup specs?
Various Seymour Duncan pickup specs can be found in VGM Pickup Question # 33. This is updated often with the addition of new and custom models being added to the Seymour Duncan pickup line.

296. What does the little ID labels on the bottom of Seymour Duncan pickups mean?
The small ID label usually found on the bottom of the pickups is a quick reference to the model and final assembler. Each model has several procedures with a few or many production workers making each pickup. The ID label usually has the initial of the final assembler with prior quality control inspections.

297. How can I reduce feedback in humbuckers without covers?
If the pickup has 4 screws on the bottom to hold the bobbins in place, I would carefully tighten them and not strip the plastic in the bobbin. Make sure the pole pieces are not loose and if they are, carefully put a small bit of silicone around the threads if the plastic is stripped out. Some bobbins have holes the size of studs that the adjustable poles go through and they will need extra work. I’ve often put a small amount of silicone on the magnet if the pickup hasn’t been wax potted. Wax potting can be done for extreme volumes and should be done by a qualified and reputable repairman. Wax potting needs to be done under a controlled environment and with proper equipment and ventilation. I’ve put rubber bands around the ferrous spring steel heights adjust springs to keep them from feeding back under loud conditions. Jimmy Hendrix also plucked his springs on the back of his Stratocaster to get great tones especially when using his vibrato arm.

298. How can I reduce feedback in humbucking pickups with covers?
Normally when using high volumes and your pickups feed back, I check to see if all the external components such as screws and pole pieces are firm. On older pickups, I don’t like to alter the pickups as potting and shielding can alter the value of the pickups. If the covers are on and the pickups are newer, I would use a vacuum wax potting done under complete supervision. At times I’ve used a small bit of silicone under the cover and filled in the pickup cavity with a foam rubber often found in pickup boxes. I try to fill all voids that could also cause the pickups to feedback and also raising the height of the pickup to get a better signal to output ratio. Remember, altering old vintage pickups will reduce the value and collectibility. If you ever decide to sell the instrument, the buyer will most likely want the unaltered “stock” original pickups.

299. How can I reduce feedback in single coil pickups with covers?
Make sure the problem isn’t with the height adjust screws or springs. Make sure the components are firmly tightened and chatter free. Wax potting would probably be my first choice and that it’s properly done. Silicone can be put inside the top of a metal cover such as on Fender Telecaster Rhythm pickups. If needed the silicone can be removed at a later date. The wax potting will leave a wax coating on the bobbin and can cause a small problem in rewinding the pickup and you need to glue the bobbin if it becomes loose or broken. It’s hard to glue parts with wax on them.

300. How can I reduce feedback in single coil pickups?
Again check the procedures in above question # 32 and most likely wax potting will be the best solution. I don’t care for potting pickups in epoxy because it’s like having your automobile tire permanently fixed to the wheel. Make sure the height adjust springs are firmly holding the pickup in place and not loose where it can vibrate freely.