covering Super Distortion Hex screws with cut-off pole screw tops.

[jasyr]

Ok, this is purely cosmetic. i just want my old SD in a chrome cover and to look like a PAF-style, with screws protruding slightly. Would you think this doesn't harm the tone any? (not the cover, the screws). The main question is would you make them have real contact with the hex screws, or say, place them on top with a layer of rubber cement?

My own feeling is 1 or 2mm of 1018 pole screw tops wont hurt anything...

thanks for any opinions!

jasyr

[David Schwab]

Why not just use a closed chrome cover. I wouldn't stick fake screw heads on, but it won't hurt anything. The cover will change the tone of the pickup quite a bit however.

[jasyr]

I would, but i like the traditional look of PAFs. Thanks for the info!
full steam ahead...

[CRU JONES]

Hi Jasyr
Super distortion poles measure .625" long. The head part of a PAF filister is about .121".

Replace those .625" long hex slugs with 10-32 x 0.5" cup point alloy steel hex socket set screws from mcmaster carr. The filister head will jam itself friction fit style into a slug bobbin, but you may want to glue it. I wouldn't TRY to electrically isolate it, but I doubt it would matter.

You don't have to buy from mcmaster-carr or be picky about the thread pitch.

Should work fine... It will sound different, but you may totally like it

Have fun!

[jasyr]

Cru Jones thank you!

[RedHouse]

Easier to just loosen the bobbin screws (and if it's a 70's/80's SD clean the dabs of white silicone off) and slide a shim under the magnet so you can get the hex pole pieces down far enough to let the cover go on flush when re-assembled.
(and re-silicone the poles so they don't vibrate)

That's what we did back in the 70's when they came out and we wanted them in our Les Pauls without looking like Rick Derringer or Tom Sholtz. IIRC we used to use a strip cut from a Maxwell House coffee can lid, ach, it doesn't really matter, just don't use Sanka lids for shims 'cause the decaf just doesn't sound right and you really can't do anything off the (Jeff Beck) Wired album with Sanka shims.

[David Schwab]

I'll just point out again that the pickup is going to sound very different. You might not like it. In that case you might want to get a Duncan Distortion or JB, or something that looks more like a PAF. But even then, covers will kill the high end and flatten the resonant peak.

[RedHouse]

I'll just point out again that the pickup is going to sound very different. You might not like it. In that case you might want to get a Duncan Distortion or JB, or something that looks more like a PAF. But even then, covers will kill the high end and flatten the resonant peak.

With all due luv-n-respect, I disagree with that, having covered all three of the pickups mentioned here (which are overly bright to start with when playing with any distortion) I can truly say covering these particular pickups won't really make them sound flat. I know "generally" that can happen and does, but these pickups with their ceramic mags retain their brightness.
(unless played through a clean "jazz" amp, then you notice some midrange peaking)

[jasyr]

forgot to say that i had a cover on from '79 till '95 so i'm sort of used to it w/ a cover anyway... good or bad. After that i had it un-covered and it wasnt earth-shakingly different. its a great mid-70's Dual Sound so it's very cool tone. (i tried a '90's DS and its not nearly the same sound) so changing pickups rather a cover seems like throwing the baby out with the bath-water. I am concerned mostly with that little bit of a 1018 cap i am thinking of putting on and whether or not to have it in contact with the hex top or not. Now that i've read up on it, seems like it wont do anything. It's the least intrusive way to get the look of a PAF and the sound of an old DiMarzio.

[David Schwab]

I have that same DiMarzio pickup. I've had since the 70s. I painted mine white when I had it in my Charvel. I used to have it in my '81 LP Standard. I actually left the cover on the stock Shaw nick pickup, because I liked it better that way. I generally never use metal covers on humbuckers in my personal guitars because they remove the what I like about the pickups. I don't like dark sounding humbuckers.

However, I do make humbuckers with either closed nickel silver covers or closed plastic covers. I'm using neo magnets. There is a difference in the tone between the two. It's not a huge difference, but it's easy to hear. If you like the tone of a pickup, you will notice you lost that tone, and got a different tone. How much that matters depends on how fussy you are.

[jasyr]

sounds cool...

i wish someone would make plastic, chrome-covered paf covers... like Bill does for his tele pups.

I love humbuckers with covers! ... had the covers on/off my timbuckers for a while but there's just something i dig w/on. must be that lowered resonant freq thing you mentioned earlier in the thread. But my WCR's i prefer off... my seymour '59: sounds too hard w/o a cover.

i only get covers from places i know use good materials (dmc, throbak, etc)... actually, wish i didnt like the sound of covered buckers. its a drag to spend the ridiculously inflated prices on them, but oh well. For me, its not a strict rule but pretty much the only guitars i like w/ plain covers are firebirds.

[big_teee]

sounds cool...

i wish someone would make plastic, chrome-covered paf covers... like Bill does for his tele pups.

I love humbuckers with covers! ... had the covers on/off my timbuckers for a while but there's just something i dig w/on. must be that lowered resonant freq thing you mentioned earlier in the thread. But my WCR's i prefer off... my seymour '59: sounds too hard w/o a cover.

i only get covers from places i know use good materials (dmc, throbak, etc)... actually, wish i didnt like the sound of covered buckers. its a drag to spend the ridiculously inflated prices on them, but oh well. For me, its not a strict rule but pretty much the only guitars i like w/ plain covers are firebirds.

If you haven't tried them, try the Mojo Bare Nickel covers.
They are much thinner, and sound pretty good IMO.
Also If you are careful, you can polish them, If you want them shinier.
Mojotone Nickel Silver Humbucker Pickup Cover Bare 50mm

[David Schwab]

i only get covers from places i know use good materials (dmc, throbak, etc)... actually, wish i didnt like the sound of covered buckers. its a drag to spend the ridiculously inflated prices on them, but oh well. For me, its not a strict rule but pretty much the only guitars i like w/ plain covers are firebirds.

Why would you spend inflated prices? Just get them from Mojo.

As far as your strict rules, you are limiting yourself based on nothing important. Try to let go of that stuff. Be different and stand out from the crowd. Do you dress like everyone else too?

Visually I prefer pickups that don't look like PAFs. But i have some of them on my guitars too.

These look pretty cool to me. Why mess up the clean look with poles? (these pickups have blades anyway)

[CRU JONES]

With all due luv-n-respect, I disagree with that, having covered all three of the pickups mentioned here (which are overly bright to start with when playing with any distortion) I can truly say covering these particular pickups won't really make them sound flat. I know "generally" that can happen and does, but these pickups with their ceramic mags retain their brightness.
(unless played through a clean "jazz" amp, then you notice some midrange peaking)

I'm with Brad. And I agree on his rational too. I played an '82 lp in a band for many years with a DiMarzio SD in the bridge covered with the original gibson cover. It sounded great. The SD gets its clarity from having a high field intensity. Just a hunch. When winding for guitarists I pay attention to their preferences to pickups that are "bright" and those that have strong magnetic fields. There is a difference. The Super Distortion has a strong magnetic field, the evolution does, the blaze does... etc. The JB does not have a strong magnetic field in comparison, but it is still considered "bright" by guitarists. A cover on a JB will effect the tone more than a cover on a SD. I agree with Brad that it has to do with the ceramic mag. Not sure why, but that is my very crude and un-scientific observation.

I also like the sound of covers. It can mellow a pickup out, but it can also sound really smooth. So, I say,"Do it Jasyr!" Make your guitar work for YOU. I think you should electrically connect the pole and the screw head. That is getting kinda picky though. My reasoning to do it would be to create a path for electrostatic to discharge. I did wind a set of humbuckers with black powder coated slugs. They weren't electrically grounded and would make "discharge noise" as you played. You could charge them up by scraping your pick against them. Pretty sure that would only happen to me. I'm unlucky like that. I think physics has it out for me. And when Physics has it out for you, paranoid is just good thinking. So, ground it! Not sure what sort of "glue" conducts. JB weld doesn't conduct once it hardens. Any one?

[David Schwab]

The JB does not have a strong magnetic field in comparison, but it is still considered "bright" by guitarists.

I've read this, and for the life of me can't understand how anyone would call that a bright pickup. It's not. Maybe when distorted, but then you're not hearing the pickup as much as the generated harmonics. Played clean it's very dark and has no snap. Strats and Teles are bright!

You also don't need a strong magnet to get a loud bright humbucker. I make some using alnico 5 magnets. But I'm not winding it to 16k!

A guitarist I play in a band with has a JB in the bridge position of his Brian More guitar. He liked the Duncan Distortion in his Gibson Victory guitar better. He wanted to swap pickups, but the DD was not spaced for the trem. So as an experiment I replaced the alnico 5 magnet with a ceramic of similar strength to the Distortion, since the two pickups are similar. It did not really get much brighter, but now has a bit more mids and sounds clearer when playing chords. You can hear the individual notes a little better.