Question about Pickups

[drummerdoug86]

Just wondering....
what's the difference between open coil and closed pickups?
sorry if it's a stupid question.

 

[D.G.]

I assume you're talking about humbuckers here. Anyway, the difference is capacitance. The metal cover on a pickup leaches out a little bit of the high end from the pickup (tube shields on amps do the same thing) which can either make your pickups sound duller or mellower, depending on which side of the fence you land on Anyway, a lot of people take the covers off to boost the "presence" of the pickups slightly. YMMV.

 

[drummerdoug86]

Thanks for that. It cleared a lot of stuff up.

 

[Hard2Hear]

I can't tell a thing from humbuckers with covers and not covered. It's all about the look to me. I don't think it changes stuff very much. Lots of guitar players think little changes make a big difference to them on their guitars, but most of it is just smoke and mirrors. But hey, whatever floats your boat. I think uncovered pickups on a Les Paul or SG look like Crap, so I always have covered ones.

H2H

 

[Farview]

I used to get feedback problems if I left the covers on, so I took them off. I'm sure that it changed the sound, but not enough to cripple you.

 

[Aaron Cheney]

...but most of it is just smoke and mirrors.

H2H

Yup.

And now I have to add some words so that I fulfull the 10 word minimum...

A

 

[Light]

I can't tell a thing from humbuckers with covers and not covered. It's all about the look to me. I don't think it changes stuff very much. Lots of guitar players think little changes make a big difference to them on their guitars, but most of it is just smoke and mirrors. But hey, whatever floats your boat. I think uncovered pickups on a Les Paul or SG look like Crap, so I always have covered ones.

H2H

That's about right. There may be a measurable change, but there is no noticable difference.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi