I'm not sure it does anything to the capacitance! To the magnetic flux and field shape yes but the capacitance!? Perhaps you could explain to me how it changes the capacitance as I'm only a simple electronics engineer.
@@prook2001 I think it's the same as changing the capacitance because the pickup is model is an RC circuit. But yes it just affects the permeability of the magnetic field which reduces highs.
My 2 cents: Uncovered the pickups sound brighter and more articulate. Covered sound somewhat muted. I experienced the same thing on a Tele neck pickup. I do want to note that chromed brass seems to sound really muffled, and Nickel covers are less attenuating. I prefer uncovered in all situations except High gain . Then its a matter of taste. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.
You can get back more highs, with a cover on, if you raise the screw poles (like an EQ). Then you maintain noise suppression. Try recording in front of an electrically noisy PC with and without covers sometimes. I have and shielding is important.
Open sounds more open and covered sounds more covered 🤔🤣 but you know what they say... never judge a pickup by its cover 😂 Great comparison Kris, thank you 🙏
So many people miss the point that every tone is a tone. it may not be a tone that you grew up idolizing but it's a tone nonetheless and it's up to the musician to make that tone magic. Also what's never talked about is that tone is reliant on the sounds around it. If you have a great tone in your bedroom it may not jive in the studio with a bunch of other tones and musicians in a recording session. Also, with all the available tools for EQ none of this should be fussed over. 98% of the people on the planet can't hear the difference anyway.
Man, great post, but to a pro musician, it matters even if you're the only one that hears it. Always start with the best tone you can have, then modify it to your likening. Absolutely correct about changing locations with sound. You have to be able to adjust to different rooms. My 7 string Ibanez sounds great one place, but my Fender Squire sounds ten times better in others. Its just crazy.
The uncovered pickups sound more open and I feel all the high-mid frequencies are more defined. With the covers on everything sound a little bit muddier and more "boxy". Anyway, you enjoy a guitar with your hands and with your eyes as well and covered pickups still look way way way classier and cooler on a Les Paul.
In this comparison you can definitely hear more clarity from the uncovered pickups. They are brighter and clearer to my ears. I know I prefer that tone because all of my humbuckers are uncovered. I prefer that brightness and clarity. If you want a darker or smoother tone it’s easy to roll off a bit on your tone knob or on your amp. Great video, Kris. Thanks for your time and hard work.
Yes, that is exactly right! If you want a muddier or warmer tone, you use the knobs. Always start with the cleanest tone and best separation you can get, then adjust your sound.
Well, you can alway roll off the tone with the pickup covers off. But you can’t add it back in with them on. Well, not as easily. I like both. I have some guitars with , and some without. But mostly without. Depends on the guitar and pickup combo.
@@Wargasm644 Yes I have an even mix of covers and open coils. I tend to prefer to leave them as designed rather than to actually take to the soldering iron to remove any.. I mean, these days, everything is so well made & designed...I trust the experts! I defer to their expertise !!
@@lueymeteora1410 I agree, I leave most things stock , as designed. Typically works best that way. Even down to the strings. If it came from the factory with 9-42’s, I stay with them. I know this sounds a bit ridiculous. But the guitar was set up and the nut slot cut for these particular strings. But if I have to change something I will. But I’ll make sure to set up the guitar accordingly. If I absolutely can’t enjoy a guitar with its stock appointments, I won’t hesitate to change it. As long as it’s reversible. I prefer stock, but I’m not afraid to put EMG’s in a Les Paul custom either. Some pickups sound good with the covers, some don’t. My 57 classics are great with covers. My burstbucker pros, not so much. With or without covers, they don’t do much for me. So I actually swapped them to Seymour Duncan’s. There’s a lot of variables to factor in. And if the guitar needs too many mods, I probably won’t be happy with it anyways. So I’ll just sell it and buy something else.
Very interesting! I mostly noticed the difference on the attack and not so much on the sustain. When you let some notes/chords ring out my ears adjust. That being said, I think the difference is subtle and simple enough (as in not complex harmonics) that any difference could be erased by just a little EQ. That could be an idea for a series, getting two or more sounds to sound the similar if not the same by adjusting EQ.
I had a really hot, old school uncovered humbucker from '74. I put a cover on it recently and it took the nasty barks out of the sound. I think the field is more unified across the pole pieces with the covers off, making all the tones intermix. The covers force more individual string vibration detection, then its summed in the core. It definitely makes a difference! Imagine the tone you want then go find it! I like it dialed back, it was too hot back in the day...
Really good comparison. I was expecting that I wouldn't hear much difference - but in fact I could hear a difference all the way through. I think that with covers the sound is more kind of 'smoothed out' between pitches. Without the covers the sound has more 'edge' between pitches. I'm used to playing with covers - but now I want to try without.
It's subtle but there's definitely a difference. Though I say "subtle," it's no more subtle than the kinds of small differences people will swap an entire set of pickups for, too. Your videos are great! I really appreciate people who do actual controlled testing, with back-to-back A/B comparisons, which put to bed the things many other people just argue about endlessly because it's rooted in their beliefs. I've pointed numerous people to your neck comparison video as proof that necks and fretboard material change tone, and some still refuse to admit it even with the evidence right in front of them. I've even extracted EQ curves from that video to prove there was a difference when people still insisted there was none. Sad, yet funny.
i use a bareknuckle aftermath humbucker in the bridge of one of my guitars and after some time, i decided to contact bareknuckle and get them to add a cover. before adding the cover i asked them would it reduce noise problems when playing live and they told me yes,which it did, but they also told me the pickup would sound a little darker,which it did. In my case, this was a good thing, and it really made the pickup more pleasing to the ear and gave it a more rounded sound. Killer tone
Wait, so you paid them to put a cover on a pick up for you? Dude, it's so simple. Watch some YT tutorials. Do you own work brother, save that cash for strings, picks, hookers.
I did some really quick frequency response analysis for the bridge clean and the bridge high gain comparisons. The covered pickups has a touch more mids, making it sound a little darker. The uncovered had a bit less mids and slightly less lowend, only about 1 bd difference from what I could quickly determine. I did not do some super scientific stuff, just a quick check with a DAW because I wanted to "see" the results in a graph.
As usual a very good and interesting job with your channel ! There is a huge difference in fact but in my opinion the covers are more "Gibson tone" and It's not just a difference in spectral equilibrium that you could find by adjusting the tone buttons. The covers bring a kind of mix, a typical blend of the Lespaul sound, something we lose a little by removing them. A french musician.
On the clean sounds I preferred covers. On the distorted I liked them open. The difference was so big that I'm gonna have to remove the covers on my guitar.
This is the exact reason why I think Jimmy Page uncovered his T-top bridge pickup. I copied him but that is because I love the bold and almost “muddy” tone of the neck pickup for cleans and crunch. But that openness and chime for the bridge is a massive upgrade (I mean not really since it’s just a slight tonal difference) for my current gear. Although I’d recommend checking out other videos on how to add and remove pickup covers. This guys way works obviously but I have found better explanations and tips.
Great video. I was hearting exactly what you describe at 4:45. Same way I would have described it. Well done. No superfluous baloney. Just cut to the chase and get the video out. 8 minute vid - very impressive.
Wow! Very noticeable to me. I recently bought a 2000 Les Paul Classic and was about to buy covers for both pickups but now I won’t because I’m all about clarity and sparkle. I admit that covered looks better and more “classic”, but the tone and response under your fingers is most important. Of course to each their own. This is just my personal preference. I am primarily a Tele player and love the snappy-ness of the single coil pickup. Having the covers off on my Les Paul Classic gives me some of that snappy-ness that I was always missing when playing a Les Paul. And the growl it makes when playing with gain is so GLORIOUS!! 😄 Slash was definitely on to something! Now I enjoy playing my Les Paul Classic so much more than other Pauls I’ve owned because it has a snap and sparkle that I really love. So it’s 😊NO COVERS for me 👍🏼 Thanks a million Kris! So helpful to me! 🙏🏼
The difference is huge! Which is better, is all about taste and application. For a warm rounded tone, leave the covers on, for a tighter and brighter sound with the most output - take 'em off.
I was honestly surprised by the degree of difference I heard! I can't say that I like one over the other per se; I think it really comes down to style. Your description around the 5:20 mark seems spot on. Which is "better" would really come down to a stylistic choice I think.
Man, the difference is not even subtle. The high end vanishes. Thank you for doing this! Now I'm having second thoughts on putting covers on my LP Menace... I guess I'm going to have to roll back the tone and play it for a while before I commit XD. Again, big thanks.
I'm blown away. I didn't believe it made any difference. But without the cover it was brighter maybe a little more articulate. I do prefer the covered to my ears.
I have a Dimarzio D Activator X with a 1meg volume pot and open brass humbucker cover. It covers the edge of the pickup from strings catching and covers the ribbon but leaves the majority of the pickup top uncovered. You lose the absolute sizzle of the bridge pickup by 10%. It calms down the absolute highest frequency of your pickup. Just like Telecaster neck pickups have a warmer and more buttery sound compared to a Strat neck pickup. But if you have an overdrive pedal, presence/treble on your amp then you can dial in some more highs and focus. But because my covers mostly cover the sides you still get a load of that bridge crisp sound coming through. At the same time the more you cover the more of the high end gets mellowed out which might be perfect if a pickup is to bright or ice pick like for your years. A Dimarzio PAF Pro is quite bright and might sound better if you uncovered one in the bridge and covered the other in the neck.
Yeah, definitely a difference. Without the covers it sounded quite a bit more open and a big "stronger" but I have to admid I really like the sound of the middle strings with tthe cover on as it's less harsh and a bit more of what I want to hear from a Les Paul against a PRS or something like that. On my Framus Diablo maybe a cover could bring the sound of the bridge pickup a bit closer to what I feel might be "right".
I did not expect there to be a difference at all. The pickup covers make the pickup slightly darker sounding in the upper mids, tamp down on the chime. That's wild.
To me it was a subtle difference of a slight decrease in the highs with the covers. Like turning down the tone knob a tad. Barely noticeable once you added gain though. I don't think I'd be able to tell easily without a side-by-side comparison. I wonder if it would make less/no difference if the covers were made of something else like plastic, rather than metal. Or a metal that is non-magnetic, since pickups are magnets. Interesting video as always, Kris! :) Would love to see you do similar tone tests for things like nut material, bridge saddles, and tremolo blocks that people claim make a big difference in tone. I've even heard people say that different tuning machines/pegs will change the tone, which sounds kinda crazy to me.
I prefer look and sound of covered humbuckers. All of my lespauls have had covers removed by previous owners. I've tried puting covers back on but this created a massive feedback issues. Decided to leave the as they are(without covers) now:) Thanks Kris for another great video.
Use a hair dryer and melt wax in the cover then quickly insert PU and lightly clamp together. While clamped solder, when done tap on cover to make sure wax filled voids. A lot of squeal is from the cover vibrating. Even on unpotted PU's it helps a lot. My Shaws in my 335 squealed bad (unpotted PU's). Didn't want to use wax so just put a layer of electrical tape on backside of cover, no more squeal. I use a thin piece of plywood the size of the cover with a thin boarder of felt to go against the cover then a c clamp with felt on the pad of the screw side to not scratch bottom of PU. Just have to get PU in cover and clamp (lightly) before wax sets.
I find with the Covers off you can really get that stinging high end Mike Bloomfield Tone. But yet he played with covers on and likely just cranked the treble. It's all personal ear love. Thanks brother. This video was a lot of work. I appreciate you. Thank you
Hi. Good one and excellent idea. Open sounded better but after 2 minutes of playing I think my brain would not recall the difference, once into a groove or a song. Few ideas for myth busting follow. 1. Does a amp sound different with a 8 vs 16 ohm speaker? 2. Can a 10" speaker provide the same bass response if you adjust the eq c.f. a 12" speaker? 3. Why do some guitar volume pots when turned to to less than 10, eg: 5 or 6 produce more hum, only referring to Humbucker guitars here. 4. Does a roller bridge on a LP or 335 change the tone? 5. Does string angle change anything? 6. Does a 2 point locking tremolo guitar sound different to a locked Floyd Rose? 7. Do good quality volume/tone pots, cabling, output jack, pickup selector improve sound or noise? I think all these may have been done before but I really like how you do videos. Regards.
I don’t recall Seth Lover saying that pickup covers don’t change the sound. What I read was that he specifically went to great lengths to figure out what material to use for the covers to produce the sound he wanted, and it was nickel-silver that sounded best. I honestly can’t say which I like better, sonically, because covered they sound a bit more focused, but obviously less bright. I can definitely say that aesthetically, I prefer them covered, and since I can always turn up the treble a bit on my amp or pedals, my preference would be to have covers.
My covered 2022 LP 50's standard takes me right back to the 70's, it's a sound, I don't know if I should mess with that... I have lots of other guitars with open humbuckers just not Les Pauls.
I'm a fan of the channel and would suggest just one more element to include in future. Clearly there is some darkening of tone with the covers but perhaps adding a segment where we go to just simple amp settings to try to re-create the uncovered pickup high end response? Something tells me that with a very slight adjustment the differences between the two would disappear completely.
Thanks a lot Owen! I think I’d a little more complex to match the uncovered sound with the amp’s treble knob. An EQ pedal in the FX loop might work better for it. My problem with that, is that if you swap guitars you have to turn that EQ off for the other ones. My goal is to make my guitars work best with the same rig settings. That’s why I removed the cover at the end. This way my tele, strat and LP sound as good as the get (for me at least) without changing anything on the board or on the amp. Cheers!
I can hear a slight difference, in a full mix i don't think you would notice it. With an isolated guitar track you can definitely hear it and there it just comes down to personal preference. I have my bridge cover removed, my neck pickup is still covered but the pole pieces are set higher. The difference in tone is much higher when setting the pole pieces or pickup height, uncovering the bridge pickup was just for aesthetic reasons
My two cents is that I agree with the differences mentioned on the nickel covers but it also depends on the material of the covers,steel covers tend to sound much closer to non covered pickups
The brightness is nice for like open voicing on chords without covers; but the covers when you had distortion on is definitely more creamy and rich for lead guitar. Hope that helps? I was actually debating to put covers on my SG but now after watching your video...lol I am not sure what I will do? Great job in your presentation!
I know there are a few videos, but I’d like to see you take on the “sustain” of neck-thru, Bolt-on; and set neck. They’d have to be similar guitars I guess though so maybe that might be difficult. You’re quickly rising up the ranks as one of my favorite guitar channels, you play beautifully.
There is a definite difference ... that was interesting. I've been playing a Gibson Custom Shop Historic Les Paul, a 58 and know if I removed the covers I would be not happy. Also I have a lot of wear that I've put in the covers from playing and it is a part of the vibe. I would not like a brighter tone with it and love the "warmth" I call it.
Thanks for another great vid, Kris. Keep 'em coming! Love this nerdy stuff. The difference seems slight but clearly audible. I tend to prefer the better defined sound of uncovered PUs, but aesthetically I like the covers more.
it is different. both have great qualities. they should make the covers easier to remove so you don't have to keep buying new pickups to get a different tone.
To my ears (and with my eyes closed) I'm hearing a little more warmth with the covers, than without. So to get more clarity and less wooley sounding on the low strings, I would follow your advice and lower the pickups in this case. Great a/b comparisons Kris.
Oh I didn't expect that much of a difference; but there is. Uncovered are a lot brighter... i like the tone with covers on, but i feel it's a lot easier to tame the uncovered ones, than to bring the note clarity and brightness back from covered pickups. Basically, what you miss from covers in uncovered ones can be made up by EQ'ing. What you lose from covers is irreplaceable.
Vielen dank! No doubts at all, they're brighter w/out the covers, expecially on the neck pup and, both of them, on wound strings. I have a Harley Benton SC-450 Classic Series, black finish (LP inspired), the baby sounds great, the only complain is the rough frets' finish, but the thing is a winner in terms of tone and overall built quality. Through the decades I owned four real Gibsons (including a Cherry Red 335 DOT Reissue and a Wine Red SG '62 Reissue) and now with this HB I have no regrets, at all. I noticed a quite warm neck pick-up, not a defect but being mainly a Strat-guy, I just like an overall brighter tone, and since I have to wax-pot the neck pup (due to the typical microphonic feedback), I'll let it uncovered after the job and I'll uncover the bridge pup too, I just want a bit brighter sounding axe when needed. And when I'll need smoother tones, I'll use the tone controls. Thanks a lot again! 👍🏼👍🏼💪🏼💪🏼
I usually rearly can hear a difference in this kind of TH-cam guitar A/B comparisons. But here I could clearly hear the difference. The sound without the covers was crispy, sparky... and with covers it sounded more muddy and hollow.
Nice job! Very clear comparison. The covers do seem to make a slight difference - a bit more high end. That said, when playing, I usually will tweak my amp or guitar tone, or overdrive tone until it sounds good to me. That changes if my strings are new, or older, or if I'm playing my LP, or Tele, or if my tubes are sounding good/bad that day.
this video must have taken an eternity to make lol, I appreciate that! Really informative! Yes, the covered pickups lost just the tiniest amount of high end but for me personally, I love how covered pickups look like. I would pick the covered ones everyday of the week just for aesthetics lol. cheers man!
You can find a lot of Bill Lawrence's articles on the gear Page and other sites and he swears that putting metal around the pickup greatly reduces the highs. I think this is why people put metal around the telecaster pickup and sometimes around the single coil. The problem is is that some metals reduce the highs more than others and I think you want brass to reduce the highs whereas most pickup covers are German silver or nickel and they have very little effect. That is my understanding and I could be completely wrong.
Excellent video! Congratulations. Very pedagogical and very educational. With covers or without covers it won't be better or worse. It's like you say: only after editing the video did you notice the real differences. It's a matter of taste. I preferred it without the covers. And maybe has to do with the mood of the day. :) Well Done. Cheers,
Excellent video, I agree they do sound much more open dynamics uncovered however covered sound mellows the sound so sweetly maybe adding some extra harmonics even? In the end isn't whole les paul business about darker mellow tone compared to single coil open sounding?
It does also depend on the pickups you have. If they’re really bright and you want to take some of that brightness off, the covers seem to be a good way to do that.
Suggestion for the next myth-busting video: body mounting pickups vs pickup rings/pickguard. Honestly, I heard a different in my own guitar but I'd like for it to be peer reviewed haha
Hello Kris, as a suggestion for a next episode, I would like to know, how tone changes with different bridge and tailpiece models/materials. For example stock TOM vs ABM solid brass, vs. steel, vs titanium. Or stock tailpiece vs aluminium... Cheers, Andy
I really like the looks of the covers. I normally buy pickups with more highs than I need and put covers on it. Also I use a capacitor to do a high pass filter to remove some of the muddy sound.
The only difference is there is a mild low cut in the humbuckers with the cover on while the ones without the cover it has more crunch to the low mid range sounds
The differences are quite audible and pretty much as you described. I like the sound of the open pickups, more airy and present. One could easily roll off the tone pot a bit if it's too bright.
It is necessary to record the guitar "in line" without processing in any DAW program, with or without a cover, and you will really see the visual difference in the signal. The cover reduces the amplitude of the signal. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing this experience. I not sure maybe someone elso already written that point, but it would be interesting to see and to hear how will sound the humbuckers with & without the covers while one of 2 coils of humbucker is cutted/disabled. Like will that cover will chage the tune of single coil, if so how deep it would be. Withy regards to your awesome job!
That’s effect A LOT to me.But I’m a floyd rose player some time after using the floyd.1st will get stuck by the pickups so I'd choose covered one and set the amp brighter
I was told by a friend to remove the covers, but as a beginner I wasn’t able to hear a huge difference that could be worth damaging this expensive guitar, I will just keep them for now. Thank you for the video 🤙🏼
There's no need to remove the covers. Yes, they give a brighter, higher output without covers, but the covered tone is also very appealing. I think you can get either tone by using coated vs uncoated strings. Coated strings sound a bit like covered pickups and uncoated sound like uncovered pickups.
There is a little more crispness to the high when played clean. In this comparison it is quite noticeable, but I struggle to hear any differences played with higher gain.
Material makes a huge difference though. Nickel silver covers have the least effect. Brass/copper is worst. Even chrome plating can mess with highs. What covers did you use? Nice demo btw.
These are the original covers of these pickups. Bridge: Seymour Antiquity Bonamassa Skinnerburst, Neck: Raw Vintage PAF. Nickel plating for sure, don’t know what’s the core material. I’m guessing nickel silver since these are PAF reissues. Cheers
@@KrisBarocsi They put cover on zebras...? Cool. :) Anyway the difference is much bigger than I expected. You either made a hell of a demonstration or just accidentally bumped some settings between the takes, :) it was worth the 8min anyway. I imagine this vid becoming a classic reference in the cover - no cover debate.
Great Great GREAT vid!!!! its obvious that there are differences ... at leat to my ears !!!! without cover the sound is clearer and like you said more open !!!! with the covers it sounded more warm vintage sound ... the Bad thing is .... i LOVED Both ways !!!!!! grrrrr ..... the differences in tone are small ... but really noticeables i bet if you didnt have the A-B comparisson you wouldnt remember if one or other sounded better .... for what i felt from the video ... the feel, the mood changes ... with the cover it almost makes wat to play some 70's classic rock, i dont know why, but it took me immediately to the sound of bands like "the who" and so ... some POwer Rockn n Roll ... and it might be better for bluesy sounds too.... without the cover it took me to a more modern sound ... Hard rock ... i dont know ... perhaps some Gun n Roses type of sound .... well this is not a great exemple but i mean ... a more modern rock ... like i said i loved both ... the vintage sounds overall (with cover) pleasures me more ... but many times in use with some pedals it gets a bit "muddier" than i wished for ... and it gets me wonder if uncovering the pickups would helep me ... i guess it would .. but then i would lose some of that lovely "vintage" warmth ... Oh Lord Help me !!!! perhaps the best solution is like Plant's and yours ... neck covered ... and bridge uncovered ... now i believe it is the best solution ... if you cant afford two Les Pauls .... :P Thanks Best regards Rui from Portugal
In my opinion covers are there just for the dust to keep the pick up cleaner. I don’t really hear a difference in the sound.maybe the look is different. Great video thank you.😊
Even the slightest change in the picks location between the 2 humbuckers WILL change the tone of the guitar. It appears to me that there actually was a slight change of location between 1:53 and 2:10 and that could greatly affect the tone.
It ain't a myth. Is real! I had an issue with a guitar, the hb neck pup (shn1 59) was sound too pearcing. I considered replacing the pup, so as a last shoot, I installed a cover, and voila, rounded and warmer sound 🙌🏼
I agree with most(?) comments: Yes, there is a difference, more muted with cover. However, I regard that difference to be subtle at best, the difference between an aluminium bridge and a brass one being large by comparison, at least for (semi)acoustics. Also, I think of myself as a musician rather than a sound technician. If a closed PU sounds bad, removing the cover won't probably solve the problem.
Great video Kris! It definitely sounds different, a touch ore open and a bit more high end sparkle. Usually I prefer the look with covers, but without is starting to grow on me.
It's definitely changing the sound. This is tough one. I prefer the look of ones with cover and sound of ones without them. Guess I'll be playing without pickups :v
I was prepared to not hear a difference but I did, even without headphones! It was very clear that there were more high tones with the covers removed. I have watched other videos on this subject with it not being entirely clear but this time it was. Maybe you used better recording equipment Kris? I don't know but this established it for me. Well done!
I have done this my self! Uncovered WINS every time! More higher treble, = clarity and attack! Don't forget, hum buckers by the very nature of their construction, have a lower resonant peak than single coils, so uncovering them, brings back some of the treble by most likely, widening the pick up's bandwidth!
Tone as a quality of sound doesn't change. Timbre is what the focus is here. Loud tone/soft tone would change the darkness or mellowness. Timbre of that loud or dark tone applies more to the harmonics. In this case, I would say covered has a lower gain and therefore darker or less treble. You could easily identically match covered to the uncovered sound by merely raising the gain or adding a little treble to it. Vise versa, to make the timbre darker to emulate the covered sound when you have uncovered pickups, all you need to do is lower the gain and/or lower the treble. Since covered pickups create a cleaner track for recording purposes, All you need to do for a cleaner sound on uncovered pickups is lower the gain and/or treble before you record. No different than just wrapping a sock around the nut to prevent string noise. Basically, TLDR, pickup covers are an aesthetic and probably help keep the poles from rusting from sweat and gunk over time.
The covers add more humbucking, the cover is like a humbucker expander… and therefore more high end compression. I do notice that the low end seems to have more articulation with the cover on. I think if you want a split coil tap to get single coil sounds from a humbuckers, then the cover will make things worse for you. I think if you are going to commit to a humbucker sound, then get the covers also. If you want versatile range of sounds then get something like a PSE SE custom with uncovered 8515 humbuckers that allow single coil sounds with a coil tap on both pickups, it does not go all the way with single coil sounds or with humbucking sounds, but can be a great test instrument that lets you decide whether you need to ultimately play a song on a strat, tele, or les paul.
You get more audible frequency response with the covers OFF it seems. Some say they prefer that sound, BUT to me, it seems more logical to go for the MAXIMUM freq output, then roll off the highs with the tone knob ( that's why it has one) rather than be FORCED to live with it "choked off" output wise by the cover. why limit yourself, when you can have it all, or have less, at YOUR choosing?
Interesting video. Even on my crappy computer speakers I noticed a difference. Uncovered seemed brighter with a very slightly sharper attack especially on the higher notes. I don't think one is better than the other that is a matter of taste. Thanks for the vid
Great video Kris! Something i like to do to my humbuckers is adjust my top screws to match the fretboard radius. Just seems to sound more even. Plus the material of the cover makes a difference. Pure nickel covers are best! IMHO lol
Maybe you messed up the distance between humbuckers and strings. Using the same distance for both definitely wrong. You need to figure out the gap between Polepiece and Coversurface and substact that value from the uncovert distance. I hope i could explain it correct. Your Videos are Amazing please keep pushing it 😍😍
as a guitarist, i noticed the cover really made the pickup sounded "metallic" or as you may refer to "muddy" but metallic and muddy are not the same metallic is where pickup sounded like damping some mid frequencies but really chimey on top, the same thing also happened on tele neck pickup..why it sounded really dull? it's because its cover, why it doesn't sounded similar to strat? its also because of the cover muddy is where pickup sounded like almost completely rolled off tone, no chimey highs but rather smooth top
I like the look!!! and in the neck position it prevents the string from catching on the edge. The tonal changes seem like they can be mostly negated by Eq IMHO.
There is a noticeable difference in the mids... I preffer it myself and my own 2 favorite guitars have metal covers ,I just tweak my amp tone settings or pedals if I want more brightness
I was surprised at the sound difference. I was thinking the highs would be less pronounced, but on the neck pickup, it sounded to me like the highs stayed the same, but the low end just mellowed out (in a good way.) On the bridge pickup, I didn't hear much difference at all.
For my old ears the sound without the covers is brighter than with the covers! I knew it before that I love the sound of my Les Paul and the ES 335 WITH covers more than without and so I chose both guitars with covered humbuckers. Thats the sound I was looking for and so I never would remove them - btw personally I like the look of the covered PUs more! Thanks for the nice video - Greetings from Germany! Take care of you!
With covers, I would describe as Lo-Fi vs Hi-Fi with out. With covers had a very low-mid centered peak that was always noticeable, but it also had a hollowness that wasn't entirely unappealing. Almost like it was slightly out of phase. I would want covers for jazz, indie rock, classic rock, and uncovered for metal or punk.
I hear the difference. Im am also listening to the attack and solidness of the note. I definately hear a muffled softer attack on low notes with the covers on. In my playing style i want max definition because you can always soften it up with right hand technique and tone knobs. This all subjective to each person, but in my case im taking the covers off. I also appreciate the clarity and treble of no covers. And its not just the high strings, the lows have more too. I want zero mud. This is the ticket.
From a pure electronic perspective the covers are a shield slightly increasing capacitance. This rolls off some high end.
Yes that is the physics of the matter. I just haven't heard it so clearly before as in this video.
True! I HATE covered hum buckers!
agree
I'm not sure it does anything to the capacitance! To the magnetic flux and field shape yes but the capacitance!?
Perhaps you could explain to me how it changes the capacitance as I'm only a simple electronics engineer.
@@prook2001 I think it's the same as changing the capacitance because the pickup is model is an RC circuit. But yes it just affects the permeability of the magnetic field which reduces highs.
My 2 cents: Uncovered the pickups sound brighter and more articulate. Covered sound somewhat muted. I experienced the same thing on a Tele neck pickup. I do want to note that chromed brass seems to sound really muffled, and Nickel covers are less attenuating. I prefer uncovered in all situations except High gain . Then its a matter of taste. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.
Ever so slight but without it’s snappier, „Chris“per tone....Great job as usual 👍
Yeah I like a good Krispy tone for sure! 😂 cheers buddy
Slight?
@@KrisBarocsi he missed a trick with that comment 😆 Krisp
You can get back more highs, with a cover on, if you raise the screw poles (like an EQ). Then you maintain noise suppression. Try recording in front of an electrically noisy PC with and without covers sometimes. I have and shielding is important.
This is a good point and is my experience as well.
I’ve noticed less noise overall using covered pickups, and I actually prefer the smoother highs.
bridge - uncovered, neck - covered..wait, Jimmy did it long long time ago..and was damn right)) Thanks for work, Kris!
Jimmy wacked his t-top bridge pickup cover off when using his bow and never put it back on
Whose jimmy?
@@paulsmyth508 some iconic Jimmy, you can find him on every guitar magazine Page
Open sounds more open and covered sounds more covered 🤔🤣 but you know what they say... never judge a pickup by its cover 😂 Great comparison Kris, thank you 🙏
So many people miss the point that every tone is a tone. it may not be a tone that you grew up idolizing but it's a tone nonetheless and it's up to the musician to make that tone magic. Also what's never talked about is that tone is reliant on the sounds around it. If you have a great tone in your bedroom it may not jive in the studio with a bunch of other tones and musicians in a recording session. Also, with all the available tools for EQ none of this should be fussed over. 98% of the people on the planet can't hear the difference anyway.
Man, great post, but to a pro musician, it matters even if you're the only one that hears it. Always start with the best tone you can have, then modify it to your likening. Absolutely correct about changing locations with sound. You have to be able to adjust to different rooms. My 7 string Ibanez sounds great one place, but my Fender Squire sounds ten times better in others. Its just crazy.
They hear it whether they know it or not, let alone could describe it
"You may not have noticed it... but your brain did."
@@KomboAndy ???
Majority of guitar players are dumb and really don’t understand.
The uncovered pickups sound more open and I feel all the high-mid frequencies are more defined. With the covers on everything sound a little bit muddier and more "boxy". Anyway, you enjoy a guitar with your hands and with your eyes as well and covered pickups still look way way way classier and cooler on a Les Paul.
The difference in tone is slight. In fact, most people can't really hear the difference. 😏
yes ... thes the biggest pois ... covered are way more cool and classier ... and we all know that (we) guitarists are all show off !!!!! LOLOLL ; )
Imho uncovered PUs look cooler and rockier. 👍😁
@@Juno58 sorry sir, I had to denounce you to the competent authority for this :D
I disagree. In a strat or tele I like the look of covered but in a Gibson I prefer uncovered
In this comparison you can definitely hear more clarity from the uncovered pickups. They are brighter and clearer to my ears.
I know I prefer that tone because all of my humbuckers are uncovered. I prefer that brightness and clarity. If you want a darker or smoother tone it’s easy to roll off a bit on your tone knob or on your amp.
Great video, Kris. Thanks for your time and hard work.
Yes, that is exactly right! If you want a muddier or warmer tone, you use the knobs. Always start with the cleanest tone and best separation you can get, then adjust your sound.
Yeah this sounds right, you cant get back frequencies which you have lost
Im finding I like the covered sound better. It's like rolling back your tone just a smidge , to roll off some of the nasty icepicks.
Well, you can alway roll off the tone with the pickup covers off. But you can’t add it back in with them on. Well, not as easily. I like both. I have some guitars with , and some without. But mostly without. Depends on the guitar and pickup combo.
@@Wargasm644 Yes I have an even mix of covers and open coils. I tend to prefer to leave them as designed rather than to actually take to the soldering iron to remove any..
I mean, these days, everything is so well made & designed...I trust the experts! I defer to their expertise !!
@@lueymeteora1410 I agree, I leave most things stock , as designed. Typically works best that way. Even down to the strings. If it came from the factory with 9-42’s, I stay with them. I know this sounds a bit ridiculous. But the guitar was set up and the nut slot cut for these particular strings. But if I have to change something I will. But I’ll make sure to set up the guitar accordingly. If I absolutely can’t enjoy a guitar with its stock appointments, I won’t hesitate to change it. As long as it’s reversible. I prefer stock, but I’m not afraid to put EMG’s in a Les Paul custom either. Some pickups sound good with the covers, some don’t. My 57 classics are great with covers. My burstbucker pros, not so much. With or without covers, they don’t do much for me. So I actually swapped them to Seymour Duncan’s. There’s a lot of variables to factor in. And if the guitar needs too many mods, I probably won’t be happy with it anyways. So I’ll just sell it and buy something else.
Roll back Robbie? ;oP
I love those icepick sounds. Same reason I love the bridge pickup on a telecaster.
Very interesting! I mostly noticed the difference on the attack and not so much on the sustain. When you let some notes/chords ring out my ears adjust. That being said, I think the difference is subtle and simple enough (as in not complex harmonics) that any difference could be erased by just a little EQ. That could be an idea for a series, getting two or more sounds to sound the similar if not the same by adjusting EQ.
I had a really hot, old school uncovered humbucker from '74. I put a cover on it recently and it took the nasty barks out of the sound. I think the field is more unified across the pole pieces with the covers off, making all the tones intermix. The covers force more individual string vibration detection, then its summed in the core. It definitely makes a difference! Imagine the tone you want then go find it! I like it dialed back, it was too hot back in the day...
Really good comparison. I was expecting that I wouldn't hear much difference - but in fact I could hear a difference all the way through. I think that with covers the sound is more kind of 'smoothed out' between pitches. Without the covers the sound has more 'edge' between pitches. I'm used to playing with covers - but now I want to try without.
It's subtle but there's definitely a difference. Though I say "subtle," it's no more subtle than the kinds of small differences people will swap an entire set of pickups for, too.
Your videos are great! I really appreciate people who do actual controlled testing, with back-to-back A/B comparisons, which put to bed the things many other people just argue about endlessly because it's rooted in their beliefs. I've pointed numerous people to your neck comparison video as proof that necks and fretboard material change tone, and some still refuse to admit it even with the evidence right in front of them. I've even extracted EQ curves from that video to prove there was a difference when people still insisted there was none. Sad, yet funny.
This is the exact reason i play uncovered bridge for that chime, but covered neck pup for a singing-vocal-like tone.
i use a bareknuckle aftermath humbucker in the bridge of one of my guitars and after some time, i decided to contact bareknuckle and get them to add a cover. before adding the cover i asked them would it reduce noise problems when playing live and they told me yes,which it did, but they also told me the pickup would sound a little darker,which it did. In my case, this was a good thing, and it really made the pickup more pleasing to the ear and gave it a more rounded sound. Killer tone
Wait, so you paid them to put a cover on a pick up for you? Dude, it's so simple. Watch some YT tutorials. Do you own work brother, save that cash for strings, picks, hookers.
I did some really quick frequency response analysis for the bridge clean and the bridge high gain comparisons.
The covered pickups has a touch more mids, making it sound a little darker.
The uncovered had a bit less mids and slightly less lowend, only about 1 bd difference from what I could quickly determine.
I did not do some super scientific stuff, just a quick check with a DAW because I wanted to "see" the results in a graph.
As usual a very good and interesting job with your channel ! There is a huge difference in fact but in my opinion the covers are more "Gibson tone" and It's not just a difference in spectral equilibrium that you could find by adjusting the tone buttons. The covers bring a kind of mix, a typical blend of the Lespaul sound, something we lose a little by removing them. A french musician.
On the clean sounds I preferred covers. On the distorted I liked them open. The difference was so big that I'm gonna have to remove the covers on my guitar.
This is the exact reason why I think Jimmy Page uncovered his T-top bridge pickup. I copied him but that is because I love the bold and almost “muddy” tone of the neck pickup for cleans and crunch. But that openness and chime for the bridge is a massive upgrade (I mean not really since it’s just a slight tonal difference) for my current gear. Although I’d recommend checking out other videos on how to add and remove pickup covers. This guys way works obviously but I have found better explanations and tips.
Great video. I was hearting exactly what you describe at 4:45. Same way I would have described it. Well done. No superfluous baloney. Just cut to the chase and get the video out. 8 minute vid - very impressive.
Wow! Very noticeable to me. I recently bought a 2000 Les Paul Classic and was about to buy covers for both pickups but now I won’t because I’m all about clarity and sparkle. I admit that covered looks better and more “classic”, but the tone and response under your fingers is most important. Of course to each their own. This is just my personal preference. I am primarily a Tele player and love the snappy-ness of the single coil pickup. Having the covers off on my Les Paul Classic gives me some of that snappy-ness that I was always missing when playing a Les Paul. And the growl it makes when playing with gain is so GLORIOUS!! 😄
Slash was definitely on to something!
Now I enjoy playing my Les Paul Classic so much more than other Pauls I’ve owned because it has a snap and sparkle that I really love.
So it’s 😊NO COVERS for me 👍🏼
Thanks a million Kris! So helpful to me! 🙏🏼
The difference is huge! Which is better, is all about taste and application. For a warm rounded tone, leave the covers on, for a tighter and brighter sound with the most output - take 'em off.
I was honestly surprised by the degree of difference I heard! I can't say that I like one over the other per se; I think it really comes down to style. Your description around the 5:20 mark seems spot on. Which is "better" would really come down to a stylistic choice I think.
Man, the difference is not even subtle. The high end vanishes. Thank you for doing this! Now I'm having second thoughts on putting covers on my LP Menace... I guess I'm going to have to roll back the tone and play it for a while before I commit XD. Again, big thanks.
I'm blown away. I didn't believe it made any difference. But without the cover it was brighter maybe a little more articulate. I do prefer the covered to my ears.
I have a Dimarzio D Activator X with a 1meg volume pot and open brass humbucker cover. It covers the edge of the pickup from strings catching and covers the ribbon but leaves the majority of the pickup top uncovered. You lose the absolute sizzle of the bridge pickup by 10%. It calms down the absolute highest frequency of your pickup. Just like Telecaster neck pickups have a warmer and more buttery sound compared to a Strat neck pickup. But if you have an overdrive pedal, presence/treble on your amp then you can dial in some more highs and focus. But because my covers mostly cover the sides you still get a load of that bridge crisp sound coming through. At the same time the more you cover the more of the high end gets mellowed out which might be perfect if a pickup is to bright or ice pick like for your years. A Dimarzio PAF Pro is quite bright and might sound better if you uncovered one in the bridge and covered the other in the neck.
Yeah, definitely a difference. Without the covers it sounded quite a bit more open and a big "stronger" but I have to admid I really like the sound of the middle strings with tthe cover on as it's less harsh and a bit more of what I want to hear from a Les Paul against a PRS or something like that. On my Framus Diablo maybe a cover could bring the sound of the bridge pickup a bit closer to what I feel might be "right".
I did not expect there to be a difference at all. The pickup covers make the pickup slightly darker sounding in the upper mids, tamp down on the chime. That's wild.
To me it was a subtle difference of a slight decrease in the highs with the covers. Like turning down the tone knob a tad. Barely noticeable once you added gain though. I don't think I'd be able to tell easily without a side-by-side comparison. I wonder if it would make less/no difference if the covers were made of something else like plastic, rather than metal. Or a metal that is non-magnetic, since pickups are magnets. Interesting video as always, Kris! :)
Would love to see you do similar tone tests for things like nut material, bridge saddles, and tremolo blocks that people claim make a big difference in tone. I've even heard people say that different tuning machines/pegs will change the tone, which sounds kinda crazy to me.
I prefer look and sound of covered humbuckers. All of my lespauls have had covers removed by previous owners. I've tried puting covers back on but this created a massive feedback issues. Decided to leave the as they are(without covers) now:)
Thanks Kris for another great video.
Use a hair dryer and melt wax in the cover then quickly insert PU and lightly clamp together. While clamped solder, when done tap on cover to make sure wax filled voids. A lot of squeal is from the cover vibrating. Even on unpotted PU's it helps a lot. My Shaws in my 335 squealed bad (unpotted PU's). Didn't want to use wax so just put a layer of electrical tape on backside of cover, no more squeal. I use a thin piece of plywood the size of the cover with a thin boarder of felt to go against the cover then a c clamp with felt on the pad of the screw side to not scratch bottom of PU. Just have to get PU in cover and clamp (lightly) before wax sets.
I find with the Covers off you can really get that stinging high end Mike Bloomfield Tone. But yet he played with covers on and likely just cranked the treble. It's all personal ear love. Thanks brother. This video was a lot of work. I appreciate you. Thank you
Hi. Good one and excellent idea. Open sounded better but after 2 minutes of playing I think my brain would not recall the difference, once into a groove or a song. Few ideas for myth busting follow.
1. Does a amp sound different with a 8 vs 16 ohm speaker?
2. Can a 10" speaker provide the same bass response if you adjust the eq c.f. a 12" speaker?
3. Why do some guitar volume pots when turned to to less than 10, eg: 5 or 6 produce more hum, only referring to Humbucker guitars here.
4. Does a roller bridge on a LP or 335 change the tone?
5. Does string angle change anything?
6. Does a 2 point locking tremolo guitar sound different to a locked Floyd Rose?
7. Do good quality volume/tone pots, cabling, output jack, pickup selector improve sound or noise?
I think all these may have been done before but I really like how you do videos. Regards.
Glad to hear you liked it! Such awesome suggestions. Let me note them real quick. Haha
I don’t recall Seth Lover saying that pickup covers don’t change the sound. What I read was that he specifically went to great lengths to figure out what material to use for the covers to produce the sound he wanted, and it was nickel-silver that sounded best. I honestly can’t say which I like better, sonically, because covered they sound a bit more focused, but obviously less bright. I can definitely say that aesthetically, I prefer them covered, and since I can always turn up the treble a bit on my amp or pedals, my preference would be to have covers.
Absolutely right!
Thanks for this, the difference is so much bigger than I expected. I would not call it subtle.
My covered 2022 LP 50's standard takes me right back to the 70's, it's a sound, I don't know if I should mess with that... I have lots of other guitars with open humbuckers just not Les Pauls.
Slight difference but noticeable. Funny I always play the guitars with covered pups for warmer and open for brighter. What I heard here too!
I'm a fan of the channel and would suggest just one more element to include in future.
Clearly there is some darkening of tone with the covers but perhaps adding a segment where we go to just simple amp settings to try to re-create the uncovered pickup high end response?
Something tells me that with a very slight adjustment the differences between the two would disappear completely.
Thanks a lot Owen! I think I’d a little more complex to match the uncovered sound with the amp’s treble knob. An EQ pedal in the FX loop might work better for it. My problem with that, is that if you swap guitars you have to turn that EQ off for the other ones. My goal is to make my guitars work best with the same rig settings. That’s why I removed the cover at the end. This way my tele, strat and LP sound as good as the get (for me at least) without changing anything on the board or on the amp. Cheers!
I can hear a slight difference, in a full mix i don't think you would notice it. With an isolated guitar track you can definitely hear it and there it just comes down to personal preference. I have my bridge cover removed, my neck pickup is still covered but the pole pieces are set higher. The difference in tone is much higher when setting the pole pieces or pickup height, uncovering the bridge pickup was just for aesthetic reasons
My two cents is that I agree with the differences mentioned on the nickel covers but it also depends on the material of the covers,steel covers tend to sound much closer to non covered pickups
The brightness is nice for like open voicing on chords without covers; but the covers when you had distortion on is definitely more creamy and rich for lead guitar. Hope that helps? I was actually debating to put covers on my SG but now after watching your video...lol I am not sure what I will do? Great job in your presentation!
I know there are a few videos, but I’d like to see you take on the “sustain” of neck-thru, Bolt-on; and set neck. They’d have to be similar guitars I guess though so maybe that might be difficult. You’re quickly rising up the ranks as one of my favorite guitar channels, you play beautifully.
Wonderful. Only suggestion would be blinded comparison- a and b and let people guess which is which. Clear difference as people have mentioned. Ty 👊🤙
There is a definite difference ... that was interesting. I've been playing a Gibson Custom Shop Historic Les Paul, a 58 and know if I removed the covers I would be not happy. Also I have a lot of wear that I've put in the covers from playing and it is a part of the vibe. I would not like a brighter tone with it and love the "warmth" I call it.
Thanks for another great vid, Kris. Keep 'em coming! Love this nerdy stuff. The difference seems slight but clearly audible. I tend to prefer the better defined sound of uncovered PUs, but aesthetically I like the covers more.
Uncovered definitely has a clearer sound. The covers make it about more mid woofy
Can you do one of these with nickel vs chrome vs no cover?
Covers definitely round the sound out a lot... I like to run a cover on my neck but not my bridge pup. Awesome video man. Thanks for doing it.
it is different. both have great qualities. they should make the covers easier to remove so you don't have to keep buying new pickups to get a different tone.
To my ears (and with my eyes closed) I'm hearing a little more warmth with the covers, than without. So to get more clarity and less wooley sounding on the low strings, I would follow your advice and lower the pickups in this case. Great a/b comparisons Kris.
Oh I didn't expect that much of a difference; but there is. Uncovered are a lot brighter... i like the tone with covers on, but i feel it's a lot easier to tame the uncovered ones, than to bring the note clarity and brightness back from covered pickups.
Basically, what you miss from covers in uncovered ones can be made up by EQ'ing. What you lose from covers is irreplaceable.
Vielen dank! No doubts at all, they're brighter w/out the covers, expecially on the neck pup and, both of them, on wound strings. I have a Harley Benton SC-450 Classic Series, black finish (LP inspired), the baby sounds great, the only complain is the rough frets' finish, but the thing is a winner in terms of tone and overall built quality. Through the decades I owned four real Gibsons (including a Cherry Red 335 DOT Reissue and a Wine Red SG '62 Reissue) and now with this HB I have no regrets, at all. I noticed a quite warm neck pick-up, not a defect but being mainly a Strat-guy, I just like an overall brighter tone, and since I have to wax-pot the neck pup (due to the typical microphonic feedback), I'll let it uncovered after the job and I'll uncover the bridge pup too, I just want a bit brighter sounding axe when needed. And when I'll need smoother tones, I'll use the tone controls. Thanks a lot again! 👍🏼👍🏼💪🏼💪🏼
I usually rearly can hear a difference in this kind of TH-cam guitar A/B comparisons. But here I could clearly hear the difference. The sound without the covers was crispy, sparky... and with covers it sounded more muddy and hollow.
Nice job! Very clear comparison. The covers do seem to make a slight difference - a bit more high end. That said, when playing, I usually will tweak my amp or guitar tone, or overdrive tone until it sounds good to me. That changes if my strings are new, or older, or if I'm playing my LP, or Tele, or if my tubes are sounding good/bad that day.
this video must have taken an eternity to make lol, I appreciate that! Really informative! Yes, the covered pickups lost just the tiniest amount of high end but for me personally, I love how covered pickups look like. I would pick the covered ones everyday of the week just for aesthetics lol. cheers man!
I think a slight treble adjustment is all that's needed to make them sound the same.
You can find a lot of Bill Lawrence's articles on the gear Page and other sites and he swears that putting metal around the pickup greatly reduces the highs. I think this is why people put metal around the telecaster pickup and sometimes around the single coil.
The problem is is that some metals reduce the highs more than others and I think you want brass to reduce the highs whereas most pickup covers are German silver or nickel and they have very little effect.
That is my understanding and I could be completely wrong.
Excellent video! Congratulations. Very pedagogical and very educational.
With covers or without covers it won't be better or worse. It's like you say: only after editing the video did you notice the real differences. It's a matter of taste.
I preferred it without the covers. And maybe has to do with the mood of the day. :)
Well Done.
Cheers,
Excellent video, I agree they do sound much more open dynamics uncovered however covered sound mellows the sound so sweetly maybe adding some extra harmonics even?
In the end isn't whole les paul business about darker mellow tone compared to single coil open sounding?
oh men I was thinking to take off the pickup covers of my Gibson and now I really have to :D
It does also depend on the pickups you have. If they’re really bright and you want to take some of that brightness off, the covers seem to be a good way to do that.
Suggestion for the next myth-busting video: body mounting pickups vs pickup rings/pickguard. Honestly, I heard a different in my own guitar but I'd like for it to be peer reviewed haha
You can adjust for either sound with either look by simply adjusting the pole pieces.
Hello Kris, as a suggestion for a next episode, I would like to know, how tone changes with different bridge and tailpiece models/materials. For example stock TOM vs ABM solid brass, vs. steel, vs titanium. Or stock tailpiece vs aluminium...
Cheers, Andy
The signal loss is due to eddy currents. Its always affects magnetic circuits such as power transformers, and has larger effect at higher frequencies.
I really like the looks of the covers. I normally buy pickups with more highs than I need and put covers on it. Also I use a capacitor to do a high pass filter to remove some of the muddy sound.
Uhh that sounds awesome with the capacitor. Gotta try that one day. Thanks for the comment buddy!
The only difference is there is a mild low cut in the humbuckers with the cover on while the ones without the cover it has more crunch to the low mid range sounds
The differences are quite audible and pretty much as you described. I like the sound of the open pickups, more airy and present. One could easily roll off the tone pot a bit if it's too bright.
When you start playing the more aggressive tone /licks at 6:05, what amp and settings are you using? That sounded amazing!!
It is necessary to record the guitar "in line" without processing in any DAW program, with or without a cover, and you will really see the visual difference in the signal. The cover reduces the amplitude of the signal. Thanks!
Preferred the sound without the covers. The pickups sounded muffled with the covers on.
Would' loved to see the sound waves in the daw... The difference is astonishing.
Thank you for sharing this experience.
I not sure maybe someone elso already written that point, but it would be interesting to see and to hear how will sound the humbuckers with & without the covers while one of 2 coils of humbucker is cutted/disabled. Like will that cover will chage the tune of single coil, if so how deep it would be.
Withy regards to your awesome job!
That’s effect A LOT to me.But I’m a floyd rose player
some time after using the floyd.1st will get stuck by the pickups
so I'd choose covered one and set the amp brighter
Thanks for the demo. Enough of a difference for someone to have a preference I'd say.
I was told by a friend to remove the covers, but as a beginner I wasn’t able to hear a huge difference that could be worth damaging this expensive guitar, I will just keep them for now. Thank you for the video 🤙🏼
There's no need to remove the covers. Yes, they give a brighter, higher output without covers, but the covered tone is also very appealing.
I think you can get either tone by using coated vs uncoated strings. Coated strings sound a bit like covered pickups and uncoated sound like uncovered pickups.
There is a little more crispness to the high when played clean. In this comparison it is quite noticeable, but I struggle to hear any differences played with higher gain.
Material makes a huge difference though. Nickel silver covers have the least effect. Brass/copper is worst. Even chrome plating can mess with highs. What covers did you use? Nice demo btw.
These are the original covers of these pickups. Bridge: Seymour Antiquity Bonamassa Skinnerburst, Neck: Raw Vintage PAF. Nickel plating for sure, don’t know what’s the core material. I’m guessing nickel silver since these are PAF reissues. Cheers
@@KrisBarocsi They put cover on zebras...? Cool. :) Anyway the difference is much bigger than I expected. You either made a hell of a demonstration or just accidentally bumped some settings between the takes, :) it was worth the 8min anyway. I imagine this vid becoming a classic reference in the cover - no cover debate.
Great Great GREAT vid!!!! its obvious that there are differences ... at leat to my ears !!!!
without cover the sound is clearer and like you said more open !!!!
with the covers it sounded more warm vintage sound ...
the Bad thing is ....
i LOVED Both ways !!!!!! grrrrr .....
the differences in tone are small ... but really noticeables
i bet if you didnt have the A-B comparisson you wouldnt remember if one or other sounded better ....
for what i felt from the video ... the feel, the mood changes ...
with the cover it almost makes wat to play some 70's classic rock, i dont know why, but it took me immediately to the sound of bands like "the who" and so ... some POwer Rockn n Roll ... and it might be better for bluesy sounds too....
without the cover it took me to a more modern sound ... Hard rock ... i dont know ... perhaps some Gun n Roses type of sound .... well this is not a great exemple but i mean ... a more modern rock ...
like i said i loved both ... the vintage sounds overall (with cover) pleasures me more ... but many times in use with some pedals it gets a bit "muddier" than i wished for ... and it gets me wonder if uncovering the pickups would helep me ...
i guess it would .. but then i would lose some of that lovely "vintage" warmth ...
Oh Lord Help me !!!!
perhaps the best solution is like Plant's and yours ... neck covered ... and bridge uncovered ...
now i believe it is the best solution ... if you cant afford two Les Pauls ....
:P
Thanks
Best regards
Rui from Portugal
In my opinion covers are there just for the dust to keep the pick up cleaner. I don’t really hear a difference in the sound.maybe the look is different. Great video thank you.😊
The cover takes off some of the high end. However I don’t hear as much of a difference when you run it through overdrive
Even the slightest change in the picks location between the 2 humbuckers WILL change the tone of the guitar. It appears to me that there actually was a slight change of location between 1:53 and 2:10 and that could greatly affect the tone.
It ain't a myth. Is real! I had an issue with a guitar, the hb neck pup (shn1 59) was sound too pearcing. I considered replacing the pup, so as a last shoot, I installed a cover, and voila, rounded and warmer sound 🙌🏼
I agree with most(?) comments: Yes, there is a difference, more muted with cover. However, I regard that difference to be subtle at best, the difference between an aluminium bridge and a brass one being large by comparison, at least for (semi)acoustics. Also, I think of myself as a musician rather than a sound technician. If a closed PU sounds bad, removing the cover won't probably solve the problem.
Great video Kris! It definitely sounds different, a touch ore open and a bit more high end sparkle. Usually I prefer the look with covers, but without is starting to grow on me.
It's definitely changing the sound. This is tough one. I prefer the look of ones with cover and sound of ones without them. Guess I'll be playing without pickups :v
Same here dude! Haha!
I was prepared to not hear a difference but I did, even without headphones! It was very clear that there were more high tones with the covers removed. I have watched other videos on this subject with it not being entirely clear but this time it was. Maybe you used better recording equipment Kris? I don't know but this established it for me. Well done!
I have done this my self! Uncovered WINS every time! More higher treble, = clarity and attack! Don't forget, hum buckers by the very nature of their construction, have a lower resonant peak than single coils, so uncovering them, brings back some of the treble by most likely, widening the pick up's bandwidth!
Tone as a quality of sound doesn't change. Timbre is what the focus is here. Loud tone/soft tone would change the darkness or mellowness. Timbre of that loud or dark tone applies more to the harmonics. In this case, I would say covered has a lower gain and therefore darker or less treble. You could easily identically match covered to the uncovered sound by merely raising the gain or adding a little treble to it. Vise versa, to make the timbre darker to emulate the covered sound when you have uncovered pickups, all you need to do is lower the gain and/or lower the treble. Since covered pickups create a cleaner track for recording purposes, All you need to do for a cleaner sound on uncovered pickups is lower the gain and/or treble before you record. No different than just wrapping a sock around the nut to prevent string noise.
Basically, TLDR, pickup covers are an aesthetic and probably help keep the poles from rusting from sweat and gunk over time.
The covers add more humbucking, the cover is like a humbucker expander… and therefore more high end compression. I do notice that the low end seems to have more articulation with the cover on. I think if you want a split coil tap to get single coil sounds from a humbuckers, then the cover will make things worse for you. I think if you are going to commit to a humbucker sound, then get the covers also. If you want versatile range of sounds then get something like a PSE SE custom with uncovered 8515 humbuckers that allow single coil sounds with a coil tap on both pickups, it does not go all the way with single coil sounds or with humbucking sounds, but can be a great test instrument that lets you decide whether you need to ultimately play a song on a strat, tele, or les paul.
This was the exact science I came for! I love the way the covered looks, but the sound is better without them. What to do...? What to do......? :(
You get more audible frequency response with the covers OFF it seems. Some say they prefer that sound, BUT to me, it seems more logical to go for the MAXIMUM freq output, then roll off the highs with the tone knob ( that's why it has one) rather than be FORCED to live with it "choked off" output wise by the cover. why limit yourself, when you can have it all, or have less, at YOUR choosing?
Interesting video. Even on my crappy computer speakers I noticed a difference. Uncovered seemed brighter with a very slightly sharper attack especially on the higher notes. I don't think one is better than the other that is a matter of taste. Thanks for the vid
Great video Kris! Something i like to do to my humbuckers is adjust my top screws to match the fretboard radius. Just seems to sound more even. Plus the material of the cover makes a difference. Pure nickel covers are best! IMHO lol
Maybe you messed up the distance between humbuckers and strings.
Using the same distance for both definitely wrong.
You need to figure out the gap between Polepiece and Coversurface and substact that value from the uncovert distance.
I hope i could explain it correct. Your Videos are Amazing please keep pushing it 😍😍
as a guitarist, i noticed the cover really made the pickup sounded "metallic" or as you may refer to "muddy"
but metallic and muddy are not the same
metallic is where pickup sounded like damping some mid frequencies but really chimey on top,
the same thing also happened on tele neck pickup..why it sounded really dull? it's because its cover, why it doesn't sounded similar to strat? its also because of the cover
muddy is where pickup sounded like almost completely rolled off tone, no chimey highs but rather smooth top
I like the look!!! and in the neck position it prevents the string from catching on the edge. The tonal changes seem like they can be mostly negated by Eq IMHO.
There is a noticeable difference in the mids... I preffer it myself and my own 2 favorite guitars have metal covers ,I just tweak my amp tone settings or pedals if I want more brightness
Awesome comparison! I still prefer the tones with cover, sounds more clear (less noise) to me with headphones.
And really appreciate your efforts!
I was surprised at the sound difference. I was thinking the highs would be less pronounced, but on the neck pickup, it sounded to me like the highs stayed the same, but the low end just mellowed out (in a good way.) On the bridge pickup, I didn't hear much difference at all.
For my old ears the sound without the covers is brighter than with the covers!
I knew it before that I love the sound of my Les Paul and the ES 335 WITH covers more than without and so I chose both guitars with covered humbuckers.
Thats the sound I was looking for and so I never would remove them - btw personally I like the look of the covered PUs more!
Thanks for the nice video - Greetings from Germany!
Take care of you!
With covers, I would describe as Lo-Fi vs Hi-Fi with out. With covers had a very low-mid centered peak that was always noticeable, but it also had a hollowness that wasn't entirely unappealing. Almost like it was slightly out of phase. I would want covers for jazz, indie rock, classic rock, and uncovered for metal or punk.
I hear the difference. Im am also listening to the attack and solidness of the note. I definately hear a muffled softer attack on low notes with the covers on. In my playing style i want max definition because you can always soften it up with right hand technique and tone knobs.
This all subjective to each person, but in my case im taking the covers off. I also appreciate the clarity and treble of no covers. And its not just the high strings, the lows have more too. I want zero mud. This is the ticket.