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The first player I ever saw that removed the covers from their humbuckers was Jeff Beck during the mid 60s while playing in the Yardbirds. Jeff removed the covers on his sunburst Les Paul to get the pickups closer to the strings thus increasing the output of the pickups. It also reduced the microphonic feedback…

The potting solution that’s used to seal the coils can flake when turns of magnet wire are removed. The wax or other solutions can become hardened and dry out with age. The best thing I found to make it look better is to use a hot hair dryer or carefully use a heat gun. The…

If you remove the 6 adjustable pole pieces the pickup will still work because the bobbin with 6 studs is still conducting the magnetic field to the strings. The studs are ferrous and are in contact with the bar magnet beneath the two bobbins held in place by 4 wood screws. The output will be…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 aftermarket product. Make sure you check…

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…