Closed Humbucker Covers

[wayner]

Hi guys,
need some advice .I own a gibson lp standard and i am looking to customise it a bit with a bit of bling and was wondering if it is possible to replace the humbucker pickup covers with closed ones.I am happy with the removal but not sure about the six screws as the new cover is completely blank.They will be gold plated What difference will this make to the sound.

[Mark Hammer]

I put those on some HBs I wound for a late 50's Epiphone Windsor that was stolen from me by a thieving piece of scum about 20 years back. They looked great and did not appeatr to affect the tone deleteriously.

Having said that, the absence of holes means the polepieces will need to be lower than you might otherwise prefer on the adjustable side (the unthreaded side is always the same height and flush with the bobbin). That is not necessarily bad or good, but it may end up not being what you like, when it comes to setting pickup height.

[David Schwab]

If you already have covers, the closed covers wont sound any different as long as they aren't made from brass.

You need to lower the six screws flush with the top of the bobbin. You will lose adjustability, but I think that's pretty useless anyway.

[Brock Little]

Yes, you will lose adjustability, but that may or may not have a detrimental effect on the tone. The effects (if any) are noticable under different levels of gain, especially with high output pickups that need to be articulate. I always like to adjust polepieces in order to balance string outputs.
Try lowering the polepieces down and see if there are any issues at all gain levels. Look for muddy and harsh tones when playing pairs of strings and chords etc. If you've never balanced the pole heights, then you probably won't notice any effects - good or bad. It's not an issue for a lot of guys, who don't play at high gain levels. It's just a matter for your own discernment.