Gibson Les Paul Standaard 2013 Goldtop

[Fast Ed]

Hi, is there any differents in sound when you remove the shields from the pickups ?

[btoth76]

Hello Ed!

 

"Pickup cover types are another important aspect of tonal influence. Contrary to popular conception, it’s not so much whether you use covered or uncovered pickups that makes the most tonal difference. Nor, does the type of plating on a given cover make any considerable difference. Rather, what is most crucial to a pickup’s tone is two things: the exact metal or alloy a pickup cover is made of and the cover base thickness.

 

Solid-brass covers are usually the worst in terms of transparency and loss of high-end. Solid nickel-silver is the most transparent cover alloy, and it retains highs best. Yet, covers that are too thick (even nickel-silver) can impact tone as negatively as brass covers even. Specific covers to avoid are brass, too thick nickel-silver and cheap alloys in general, as varying compositions of metal alloy effects tone differently.

 

So, a quality nickel-silver cover that isn’t too thick will not exhibit tonal degradation compared to an uncovered pickup. Any competent pickup maker will know if the covers on their humbuckers are quality nickel-silver of moderate thickness, so be sure to ask when purchasing aftermarket pickups."

 

Source: http://musicalilluminism.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/vintage-gibson-humbucker-specs-and-general-pickup-tech/

 

Cheers... Bence

[mastersja]

You had to open another can of worms, right?

 

Like asking if paper-in-oil capacitors really "sound" better than poly or ceramic caps, or storing your guitar in a closet with speakers blasting music at it with the intent to simulate years of playing to "mature" the wood.

 

Sort of like beauty being in the eye of the beholder, tonal differences of pickup covers on or off is in the ear of the beholder.

 

I bought a Gibson Les Paul Studio 50s Tribute Humbucker earlier this year. It is the gold top and came with uncovered pickups.

 

After a few weeks I bought and carefully installed a set of Gibson covers on the pickups.

 

I could not hear a difference, but then again, I worked around screaming jet engines for years, so...

 

But I do know that when you put a metal cover on a pickup and connect it to the base plate, you've just created a capacitor, so it's very possible that some highs are routed to ground (i.e, you lose some higher frequencies) with the covers on.

 

I just can't hear any difference, if it's there.

 

So if you know for a fact that you have a super sensitive ear, you could very well hear it, but I doubt that would be the case once you started adding any distortion at all to the signal.

 

I would say that pickup covers, well made ones as others mentioned, shouldn't make a noticeable difference, leaving you with an aesthetic, visual choice of whether you like that guitar with pickup covers or without.

 

I simply thought my gold top Studio looked better with the pickup covers on, but had the guitar come standard with zebra coils instead of double black coils, I probably would not have added the covers.

 

My $0.02