Pickup covers... removable?

Mugician

Junior Member
Messages
82
I kinda want to take the covers off of my pickups. They're gold plated and look absolutely retarded, that and, if what people say is true about humbuckers without covers being clearer, I could go for that as well.

Is it doable? Practical?
 
First determine if the pole screws help hold the cover. Remove one and see if it is a through hole or if it's counter sunk. Just see if the screws need to be removed or if they will go through the holes without removing them.

For humbuckers you heat the small spot where it is soldered. Once the solder is soft you carefully insert a very thin blade (like a razor blade) through the solder and between the cover and the baseplate and remove the soldering iron right away. Keep the blade up against the cover when inserting. That should be all it takes to seperate the cover from the base plate.

Keeping the blade up against the cover keeps it well away from the coil. There is quite a bit of room actually but best to play it safe. Solder is the only thing that holds the cover on. (no glue) In some cases probably not yours, the whole pickup cover and all get potted in wax together as an assembly. Then you may need to gently warm the wax.

Good luck! Have fun.
 
to get the covers off of my pickups I used a Dremel with a thin cutting disc. I cut through the solder. Then I used the smallest flathead screw driver I have (like one for tiny screws, like on glasses) and carefully used it to pry up the pickup from the cover. The ones I did were on there pretty tight so it took a bit of work to get them separated.
 
Well I did it so I could swap magnets around and to make a hybrid pickup - so I ended up putting the cover back on. I didn't try to see if there was a difference in the tone without it.
 
I took a Duncan Custom and a Duncan '59 and made a hybrid with one coil from each. And I used the A5 magnet from the '59.

I learned about it here: http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22538

In this thread I wrote about all the things I tried with magnets: http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=6795.0
 
I also hear that you can also use a soldering gun to melt the points that hold the cover to the pickup... just supposed to make the pickup hotter sounding.
 
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