Casi1
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2017
- Messages
- 1,313
To my ears, a covered humbucker almost always sounds like it has a bit less presence than an uncovered one. I’m sure this has something to do with the cover material, the fact that the cover is between the pickup and the strings, and the resulting field. Regarding the cover material, I recently did a little experiment with some Holmes pickups. It was interesting.
Some folks will say the covered pickup sounds warmer or ‘further away’ than an uncovered one... and some folks say there’s no difference at all.
But...
In all of my guitars, I’ve been able to tell the difference. It’s easy to hear it when you mix a calibrated set in the same guitar... I once had a covered set of 57/08s in my McCarty. Sounded fine. Then I put an uncovered set in the same guitar, using same amp settings, same distances from strings, they sounded punchier or more up close/in your face. Of course I might have been able to achieve this sound (or similar) with the covered set if I had raised them to the strings but I didn’t want to do that. The particular McCarty now has a covered neck pickup and an uncovered bridge.
I tend to prefer putting covered pickups in McCartys and Hollowbody models... because I’m going for a warmer, bluesier thing with them and putting uncovered pickups in Custom 24s or similar models that I use for straight up rock/metal. For the McCarty with the mixed pickups, I use that one kinda as a universal tool. It can be sweet or angry, depending on the pickup selection.
Also a lot depends on the characteristics of the chosen pickup. The 53/10s tend to surprise folks with their fatness. I recall reading an article about how they were spec’d to get that 50s single coil tone whereas all of those guitars from that period sounded monstrously HUGE for what they were. The 53/10 nails that. 100%. I love it.
