Putting a crome cover on an uncovered pickup?

[MaxHart85231281734137]

hey guys, I know some of yall have done or asked about his before, but I have an sg with uncovered pickups on it and I wanted to crome , or nickel them out, is there a certain way to do it?, do I have to unscrew the poles to put them through the metal cover? do I need to was seal them? and how does this affect the overall sound of the humbuckers? thanks!

[jonnyg]

I did this job sometime ago on a Seymour Duncan PAF. I had to try 3 covers before I found one that matched perfectly. I had to remove the pole-pieces but they just screwed out and I had to solder the cover to the base. I've heard it said that if you don't wax pot the PUP's that they become microphonic and squeal, that may be so but mine didn't. If there was a difference in sound I couldn't hear it, I guess you'd have to check it against an identical set-up to be sure but mine still sounded the same to me. Apart from finding the cover that matched perfectly it was an easy job.

[MaxHart85231281734137]

cool thanks, I found a good tutorial vid over on mojotone web site on how to do it check it out seems easy enough

 

 

http://www.mojotone.com/iMojo-Videos/Humbucker-Cover-Video

[MaxHart85231281734137]

so you dont think that it is necessary to put wax between the pup and the cover, because that would make it super easy to do

[mbberry]

very timely maxheart, i sat down at the puter to start this very thread. so thanks for saving me the work!

[mtoy]

It might be a pain,but I would really suggest sealing it with wax, just as he does in the video. David is a great guy.

[MaxHart85231281734137]

no prob, what info have you found or hear? the more I look on the web, its basically two sided

1. dont worry about the wax, use some masking tape on the poles that dont have the screws and just solder it on to the pick up plate

 

2. put a little bit of wax on top, melt with heat gun/ hair dryer, then solder

 

 

so anyone else have opinions I dont want to upgrade my looks if it screws up my sound? mainly i want no micro phonic feedback ya diiiiiiiiig

[peeper]

Here's how to do it right.

1. Find cover that fits right and solder to the pickup.

2. Immerse the pickup in a pot of melted wax. 80/20 paraffin and beeswax. Use enough to completely submerge PU. Heat in a double boiler to exactly 150F. Maintain that temp OR ELSE YOU WILL RUIN YOUR PUP. Make sure you can keep a stable temperature the entire time. Leave in wax for approx 15-20, tilting pickup to ensure there are no voids. You are trying to warm all the parts of the PU to 150F, and remove all air pockets from inside the pickup.

3. Remove pickup from wax, and place face down on a folded paper towel. Allow the PU to cool slowly, do not put it in a freezer. After pickup is warm and wax is soft, wire pickup with a clean paper towel to remove excess wax. Allow pickup to completely cool to room temp.

4. Enjoy

[MaxHart85231281734137]

There it is!..........Ive been waiting for ya all day man!

 

so your methodology is to put the metal cover on then wax it? sounds much easyr than wax,clamp, solder,

 

since your a tech, whats the deal with people using tape or felt instead of wax? is it a real bad idea, or is wax the best and ultimate way to go here thanks!

[jonnyg]

so you dont think that it is necessary to put wax between the pup and the cover' date=' because that would make it super easy to do[/quote']

Here's a thought. If you fit the cover without the wax and it squeals it's a pretty simple job to just unsolder the pup from the controls then do the waxing as Musikron said earlier. If it doesn't squeal - job done. I don't know when all this wax potting stuff started but I certainly remember taking the covers off of an early 60's ES335 that I owned in the 70's (because it was fashionable - I never did hear a difference in tone) and there was no wax in them and there had been no squealing with the covers on. Most people (me included) would kill to own that guitar or just them old Gibson pup's - wax or no wax - go figure.

[Bender 4 Life]

Here's how to do it right.

1. Find cover that fits right and solder to the pickup.

2. Immerse the pickup in a pot of melted wax. 80/20 paraffin and beeswax. Use enough to completely submerge PU. Heat in a double boiler to exactly 150F. Maintain that temp OR ELSE YOU WILL RUIN YOUR PUP. Make sure you can keep a stable temperature the entire time. Leave in wax for approx 15-20' date=' tilting pickup to ensure there are no voids. You are trying to warm all the parts of the PU to 150F, and remove all air pockets from inside the pickup.

3. Remove pickup from wax, and place face down on a folded paper towel. Allow the PU to cool slowly, [b']do not[/b] put it in a freezer. After pickup is warm and wax is soft, wire pickup with a clean paper towel to remove excess wax. Allow pickup to completely cool to room temp.

4. Enjoy

 

thanks a million Musikron, that was the way I had read it should be done, and you just verified it for me!

when our tax return comes in i'm customizing my Gibby-V and covering/potting the ceramic p'ups is one of my plans.

[peeper]

Coil tape is really just for protecting the coils and cleaning up the look. Won't do anything for microphonics one bit.

 

And you don't see a ton of wax when removing the cover, you just want to penetrate the coils, most of the wax drains out before it cools, but enough is left deep in the coils to prevent squealing.