I think covering my humbuckers has made them worse.

Cirrus

Last week I posted a thread about how clever I felt putting chrome covers on the SD Alnico IIs in my Explorer. Cosmetically I certainly prefer the look of the guitar now.

BUT.

I get it to practice in the room we've had for the last 6 years, plug it into a rig I know intimately, go into a familiar song we've played hundreds of times...

And they sound different. Too muted in the top end. The thing I liked about them is that they've got a warm tone but chime on the top, which meshes well with my Vox amp and means they work clean/ lightly overdriven as well as distorted. Now the chime on top is gone, and they sound flatter, muddier, less defined. I've raised and lowered them, looking for the sweet spot. I've done the same with the adjustable pole pieces. The open top end just isn't there any more.

And it's not a massive change - it's not like I've plain gone and broken them while fitting the covers. It's just that before they had just the right amount of top, now they don't have quite enough. Funny thing is, A2 Pros are considered darker humbuckers and probably aren't the first choice for a mahogany/ rosewood guitar, it's only now they're covered that I'd agree.

And despite being thought of as bright amps, Voxes need pickups with a bit of sparkle/chime/jangle to deliver clarity at volume.

So has anyone else ever noticed a change when covering pickups? Think I've just gone mad?

guitarfishbay

Yes.  I always remove them, they sound better to me that way.

bloodandtears

I added some to an epi SG I had.. complete feedback melt down... never again without fully researching how to do it properly

MartinB

Which covers did you use?  Plated brass covers will kill a lot of your treble, the more expensive nickel silver kind will still shave off a little high end but the effect is more subtle. 

Cirrus

They claim to be "German Silver/Nickel", so I'm surprised the difference is so profound.

guitarfishbay

Well I'm not - if you think about what makes the AC30 so awesome, it's that chime.  You'll have everything dialled in perfectly, then you've gone and reduced the amount of high end entering the signal flow.  Also it's entirely possible you don't have the exact same pickup height after re-fitting.

But in general I've always felt removing the covers on Duncans and Gibson pickups (the only two I've tried) the sound has been nicer, more open, and brighter.

This video shows on/off, back to back comparison at 4:05

Cirrus

I'm going to have to take the covers back off, aren't I?

My wife's probably going to laugh at me.

ICBM

Yes, they make a difference. Anyone who thinks they don't needs new ears .

There are two mechanisms - the softening of the magnetic field caused by eddy currents generated in the metal cover, and capacitance from the cover (which is grounded) to the coil, like a tiny tone control which is always turned down.

For what it's worth I generally find A2 pickups more affected than A5, and ceramic least. I don't think of Duncan Alnico II Pros as dark-sounding pickups at all - quite the opposite - but I would certainly expect them to be quite noticeably affected even by good-quality nickel-silver covers. Higher-wound pickups also seem to be more affected than lower-wound ones in my experience - the most cover-sensitive pickup I've come across is the Duncan Custom Custom, which is unusual in being fairly high-wound but also A2.

Alegree

You could replace the alnico 2 for alnico 4 to compensate for some treble loss.
That still requires removing the covers to do though, which is probably the most difficult thing to do to a pickup.

Cirrus

Any hints for me to help me not break them as I try to take the covers off?

Cirrus

Oh, gas. An unstructured Googling and subsequent youtubing has made me want to get a firebird type pickup instead.