Chrome pickup rings?

[Steve Conner]

Hi all,

I have a guitar with PAF-style humbuckers, potted with covers. (A PRS McCarty)

I fancy replacing the plastic pickup mounting rings with some chrome ones that I got from Allparts, but I'm not sure whether they'll cause the same kind of nastiness you get when putting a metal pickguard on a Strat.

I think the rings are made of chrome-plated steel, so surely that's going to pick up vibrations just the same as a string would, and make it feed back worse. I always loved the way this guitar responded to feedback, and I don't want to mess that up. It just gives pure feedback from the strings, and none of the microphonic squeals and whistles I got from cheap guitars in the past.

steve

[Sweetfinger]

I have a set of those (Allparts PC 0741-010) and they are only very slightly attracted to a strong neo magnet- maybe the plating is magnetic? I've never noticed a sonic difference, but I was never listening before and after on anything I've installed those rings on. Try 'em and let us know.

[David Schwab]

Yeah the chrome plating is magnetic. I can lift some nickel silver pickup covers with neos.

The rings shouldn't cause a problem because they are fairly small, unlike metal pickguards, which create a lot of eddy currents.

If they do cause a problem, just cut a slit through them to break the loop.

Here's how DeArmond took care of the problem: