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Installing pickup covers - holes or not?

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barnsleyboybarnsleyboy Frets: 41
in Making & Modding
I'm going to put pickup covers on my newly purchased Harley Benton TE-20 HH. two choices of pickup cover - blank i.e. with no holes, or with 6 holes for the pickup screws to poke through. Apart from the bleedin' obvious that you can't adjust the pole piece height on the former, does anyone have a view on the difference in sound between the two? searching the interweb, there only seem to be comparisons between covered and uncovered pickups, not solid or with holes.
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 15264
    Depends on the precise design of the humbucker. Without a cover, some of the innards of Gibson Firebird and Tony Iommi signature humbuckers would fall out.

    Given a choice, I prefer six polepiece screw holes. On some DiMarzio humbuckers, I would prefer either twelves pole holes or, better still, a cover with solid sides but an open top.

    IMO, some DiMarzio humbuckers are better with open bobbins. i.e. Designs with a bar polepiece such as the X2-N, D Sonic and Crunch Lab.
    You say, atom bomb. I say, tin of corned beef.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 74484
    Probably no difference in sound, but if you get ones with holes, they must match the pickup pole spacing *perfectly*. This is not as simple as it sounds… there are many small variations, and if they don’t line up properly you will probably kink the cover when you raise the poles.

    There’s also the potential problem with microphonics if you don’t pot the pickup into the cover, or at minimum use double-sided tape on top of the bobbins.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

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  • barnsleyboybarnsleyboy Frets: 41
    Thanks chaps. These are the stock pickups which actually sound pretty good for an £85 (new) guitar. I got mine for £50 used off FB marketplace. I did the same thing on my Squire Bullet Mustang, as again the pickups were very impressive for the price. The covers are more of an aesthetic thing than anything else. I was just interested in whether the holes would make a sonic difference! Cheers
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  • robertyroberty Frets: 10932
    With holes the screws will be adjusted outwards a lot more and the slugs will have a sheet of metal over them so it will affect the sound
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