tonal difference with chrome covers?

[kevinT]

I was just wondering if anyone has noticed a tonal difference in terms of the chrome plated covers verses the nickel & gold plated covers? Good? Bad? what is your experience with chrome covers?

[ShannonH]

Huge difference. If you want to bleed off your highs and muffle your tone, chrome is the way to go.

But seriously, the reason the custom makers (I guess that includes some of us) use nickel, is because it doesn't kill the tone you've worked to produce like chrome will.

[kevinT]

Huge difference. If you want to bleed off your highs and muffle your tone, chrome is the way to go.

But seriously, the reason the custom makers (I guess that includes some of us) use nickel, is because it doesn't kill the tone you've worked to produce like chrome will.

Pretty much all covers have that effect on tone. I am referring to chrome plating on a high quality nickel-silver cover. Does the chrome plating on the cover affect tone more than nickel or gold plating on the same type of cover?

I am refering to only the plating.

[ShannonH]

I am refering to only the plating.

As am I. You'll experience the effects that nickel gives, but to a far greater degree, and without some of the transparency. Case in point is most of the covers on Epiphone pickups. They are nickel, but cromed. They don't sound too good. You can compensate to some degree with your winding for a given setup, but I've had poor luck with chrome plating. It absolutely cremates the tone on mini hums.

[Electricdaveyboy]

All the Epi pickups I saw last time had BRASS covers as well as most of the mini humbucker covers.Guitar Jones mini humbucker covers are all brass.
I do not think that the reason for dull and boring tone is the plating.
Most time its the thickness and the material of the covers.

[Spence]

Any of you deep thinkers know why Gibson was using nickel from the start rather than chrome?

[Dave Kerr]

Price/availability? Chrome was scarce during WWII and the Korean war.

[Spence]

Cost and scarcity are always a factor. So what else?????

[David Schwab]

Any of you deep thinkers know why Gibson was using nickel from the start rather than chrome?

Lover wanted stainless steel covers, but settled for nickel. That's what he said anyway. He specified SS because of the tonal properties.

[kevinT]

Chrome sparkled more and he wanted them to look pretty.

Chrome was more durable than nickel plating...

[Possum]

...

supposedly some aluminum covers also exist from back then...

[Joe Gwinn]

I was just wondering if anyone has noticed a tonal difference in terms of the chrome plated covers verses the nickel & gold plated covers? Good? Bad? what is your experience with chrome covers?

I'm not sure how much is the chrome plating, how much is the nickel and copper underplating needed for the chrome to stick, and how much is the base metal (brass, nickel silver, etc).

One good test would be covers made of chrome plated plastic. Then we would be able to tell how much the chrome is really contributing.

[ShannonH]

I remember reading somewhere about those chrome plated plastic covers for single coils. The response was pretty negative, as the guy didn't like what it did, something about making the p'up quieter and less responsive. I would imagine that the magnetic field was being hampered, even though the polepieces do stick up through the top.

[kevinT]

The chrome covers that i have are by Schaller. they are, according to their web site nickel silver with the 18% nickel mix. They are not as deep as the GJ covers.

I weighed both the Schaller and GJ covers. The Schaller came in at .6 oz. There was no coating under the nickel plating on it either from what i chould tell. I sanded it down to the bare nickel, and it seems as if the nickel was the only plating on the cover....no copper-type plating between the bare surface and nickel plate.

The GJ's covers are supposedly nickel silver too and they weighed in at .8 oz. and they sounded better.

IMO the schallers did not sound that good compared to GJs, and i'm thinking that this could only be attributed to the chrome. It is hard to describe the sonic effects of the chrome cover...but it was noticable.

Spence, ....what about the answer to the question why gibson chose chrome?....nickel?...

[Spence]

There have been reports of chrome plating going back a couple of centuries but it just wasn't really done on any scale until 1926 ( UK ) and 1928 ( US ). The problem is that chrome just doesn't stick very well and it's a very dirty kind of process. The automotive industry was still using nickel until 1936. They wanted to change to chrome much sooner because it's more silvery and resistant to tarnishing. Nickel is quite quick to tarnish and is adversly effected by low level ozone which is present in car exhausts. The trouble with chrome was that you have to plate with something like copper first and quite thickly before plating with chrome. The slightest hole will result in the bubbling and peeling we old farts are familiar with.