Pickup Cover Removal

[LedZeppe75]

So i have a 1999 Gibson LP studio it has the 490r & 498t pickups i was thinking of removing the 498t cover. Does it change the sound at all, like make it brighter or anything and if it does, how would i do this?

[JimmyPage1977]

Take the whole ring out, pickup and all. Separate the ring from the pickup. You will see that there are solder points on each side of the bottom of the pickups. Get the solder hot with a solder gun and break the solder joint loose with a small screwdriver. There are desoldering tools, but you probably have a screwdriver handy.This will allow you to pry the cover off. I used to think that it made the tone a littler brighter... now, I'm not so sure that it does anything.

[Olipticle]

Might be something you want to leave up to the people at your local Guitar shop, I mean if you screw something up you might not be able to fix it back to original state. I dunno if you've done work like this before but its best lef to a gutiar tech.

[Humbucker]

I removed the cover from the bridge pickup of one of my Les Pauls, as it was slightly microphonic and would squeal at performance volumes. I did this in the same way as described by JimmyPage1977 above. It cured the problem to a large extent, but doing this exposes the coils to anything coming its way, such as dirt and sweat. I eventually replaced the pickup altogether. In all honesty, unless the unit is causing sonic problems I'd be inclined to leave it alone. Doing this modification for cosmetic reasons is not a good idea.

RB

[JimmyPage1977]

I removed the cover from the bridge pickup of one of my Les Pauls, as it was slightly microphonic and would squeal at performance volumes. I did this in the same way as described by JimmyPage1977 above. It cured the problem to a large extent, but doing this exposes the coils to anything coming its way, such as dirt and sweat. I eventually replaced the pickup altogether. In all honesty, unless the unit is causing sonic problems I'd be inclined to leave it alone. Doing this modification for cosmetic reasons is not a good idea.

RB

You can wrap the coils with a layer of black vinyl (electrician's) tape to protect them.

[huw]

So i have a 1999 Gibson LP studio it has the 490r & 498t pickups i was thinking of removing the 498t cover. Does it change the sound at all, like make it brighter or anything and if it does, how would i do this?

The pickup cover is made of metal. The pickup is an electro-magnetic device. Therefore the cover will have a small effect on the overall sound. This varies, depending on the thinkness of the cover, & the particular alloy used.

Usually what happens is that the cover causes a small capacitence effect, which is heard as a slight loss of treble. Again, the amount and quality of this depends on the actual materials of your pickup cover.

So removing the cover removes that capacitance & you get the treble back.

Remember that these are small amounts we're talking about. You may not even hear a difference on your guitar.

The other thing is more basic: with the cover off you can get the pickup just a bit closer to the strings, which will make the sound a bit louder & a bit fatter.

Whatever the overall effect is on you particular guitar, these two factors will be working in combination, making it very hard to make an exact prediction of what you will experience.

Have fun...