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Limited Riviera Custom P93 Pickup Covers


Fuzzy John

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I recently got one of those Limited Edition Riviera Custom P93 in Wine Red. Looks great and feels great. At this time I am going thru string sets to see which I like best.

There's one thing I noticed regarding the pickup covers. As I understand they are metal not plastic. If I touch any of the covers (while the volumes are up) I can hear a faint hum but only if I do not touch the strings. This tells me that the covers themselves are not grounded. Are they supposed to be? Should I ground them myself? Should I try to replace them with plastic covers?

This brings me to another question: where can I find plastic covers for these pickups? All my searches showed that covers with 50 mm E to E spacing (which my covers see to have) are only for bridge pickups and they are not slanted. The slanted ones are for neck but the spacing is 48 mm. I found some that are not drilled but at least for now I'd like to avoid them.

 

Thanks.

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Hey, Fuzzy, welcome aboard. I'm not the best person to ask about things electrical, so I'll focus on the covers and leave the grounding thing to someone more hip to that. I had a similar problem, finding plastic covers for some Lollar P-90s I put on my Casino. The simplest solution I came up with was to buy blank covers, use the stock ones as templates, and "fit" my own. I found the covers on eBay (cheaper than most of the supply houses). Those, and a $7.00 bit, half an hour and I had what I needed. Here's the link to that posting. Fixing the hum might be a better way to go, but I prefer P-90s with black plastic covers anyway.

 

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/113103-well-then-i-guess-ill-just-have-to-do-it-myself/page__p__1528234__fromsearch__1#entry1528234

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Hey, Fuzzy, welcome aboard. I'm not the best person to ask about things electrical, so I'll focus on the covers and leave the grounding thing to someone more hip to that. I had a similar problem, finding plastic covers for some Lollar P-90s I put on my Casino. The simplest solution I came up with was to buy blank covers, use the stock ones as templates, and "fit" my own. I found the covers on eBay (cheaper than most of the supply houses). Those, and a $7.00 bit, half an hour and I had what I needed. Here's the link to that posting. Fixing the hum might be a better way to go, but I prefer P-90s with black plastic covers anyway.

 

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/113103-well-then-i-guess-ill-just-have-to-do-it-myself/page__p__1528234__fromsearch__1#entry1528234

Thanks for nudging me towards drilling my own holes in the blank covers. I guess I'll take it up one of these days. I am curious how the sound will change with the plastic covers.

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Hmmmmmm... the description says:

These are super-low profile, COVERS ARE BLACK METAL AND BOBBINS ARE GOLD!!!

Also, it looks like the tops are not slanted (if slanted tops matter).

At this time I am not looking to replace the pickups. I just want to replace the covers with either plastic ones to get rid of the little hum I hear when I touch the metal covers and maybe improve the sound as I've read in a few places, or to ground the current metal covers to get rid of the hum. But thanks. =D>

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After an extensive search I managed to find this:

Lindy Fralin Black Plastic P90 Dogear Neck Position Pickup Cover

Fits '50s-'60s Gibson, '60s Gibson made Epiphone, Lindy Fralin and many other reissue P90 dogear pickups EXACTLY. Manufactured in USA on Lindy's proprietary molds. Corner rounding and other features are as close to a '50s Gibson as I've ever seen. Overall height approx. .345" on the high side tapering to .240" on the low side. I measured 1.981" E to E pole spacing.

Please note that this cover will not fit Korean made "Epiphone" neck pickups; the pole spacing on those pickups is slightly narrower. If you want to upgrade your "Epiphone" you should replace the whole neck pickup with a Fralin.

Looks like the string spacing is 50.3 mm which is just about the same I measured on the pickups I now have. I haven't yet measured the high and low sides.

I have 3 of these on the way. Hopefully soon I'll be able to try them out.

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I have the identical P93 and asked Fralin if they will sell just the plastic covers. They will not.

 

FWIW, I will probably sell my wine red P93 - I just bought a MIK cherry Casino and another MIK Violin Sunburst Sheraton...might have to sell my Dot, too...msp_rolleyes.gif

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I have the identical P93 and asked Fralin if they will sell just the plastic covers. They will not.

 

FWIW, I will probably sell my wine red P93 - I just bought a MIK cherry Casino and another MIK Violin Sunburst Sheraton...might have to sell my Dot, too...msp_rolleyes.gif

I got the pickup covers thru Angela Instruments. They are on the way and should be delivered tomorrow. I have all weekend ahead to play with them and with a new Wilkinson Roller Bridge. :-({|=

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After an extensive search I managed to find this:

Lindy Fralin Black Plastic P90 Dogear Neck Position Pickup Cover

 

Looks like the string spacing is 50.3 mm which is just about the same I measured on the pickups I now have. I haven't yet measured the high and low sides.

I have 3 of these on the way. Hopefully soon I'll be able to try them out.

I received these covers. The string spacing is correct and the mounting holes are spaced correctly. They have one shortcoming though... they are a tad short... about 2 mm. So next step is a spacer, or find means to ground the existing metal covers.

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