Pickups with covers

[Nebulous]

The otehr day I was given the oportunity to play a new Schecter C1 30th Anniversary. It was one of the nicest guitars i've had the pleasure of playing. The inly gripe I had was that it had covers over the pickups. It got me thinking:
Do these make a noticable difference to the sound? What sort of characteristic would such a difference be? Are the covers removable (without damaging any part of the pickup/ cover/ guitar) ?

Cheers for any help.

Daniel

 

[006]

I'm not sure of this, however, if I remember correctly you don't really want to take them off. I think I had a conversation with a guitar tech before about it and that was one of the things he said. I wouldn't be surprised if they really didn't do anything tone-wise for the pickup, but rather were just there for aesthetic purposes. Don't take my word for it though, I have no educated clue.

~e.a

 

[cobhc]

Err, EMG's cannot have their covers removed without damaging the pickups, dunno about other covered pickups like the older Epi/Gibson pickups, but I think they can be removed. I'm sure there was a thread about this on the JCF once. I'll see if I can dig up what was said about it.

 

[006]

Well, EMG's are completely different obviously. I was, and I think Neb was too, referring to the covers on the Gibson/PRS/Shecter/Epi pickups. On my Custom22 I have the DragonII's with those covers...look great on there but it depends on the guitar I suppose.

~e.a

 

[Gnash]

I have a Schecter C1 stealth, "Left handed". It came stock with an SH-6 in the bridge and an SH-2 in the neck, with covers. I hated the look of the chrome covers at first, but now I don't give a fuck! They rule! My tech told me, the covers are soldered or glued to the pickups. I can't remember which, but he said they shouldn't be fucked with, so I've left them. These pickups fucking "ROAR"!!! I don't know if it's the all mahoghany "Gibson style" set neck construction, or what. I have SH-6s in a few guitars, including "Gibsons," and this Schecter just has the best fucking tone! If you take the covers off, let us know the outcome, bro!

 

[ConspiracyBass]

I took the covers off the pickups in my Les Paul Standard. BAD MOVE!

The neck pickup wasn't affected too much, but the bridge pickup lost all of its low end. I ended up just replacing the bridge pickup because I didn't want to go through the hassle of re-waxing the pickup. I may someday as the gibson pickups are awesome, but not anytime soon.

The covers on the pickups were just held on by solder. Easily removed. Wax took a little time to get off.

 

[Gnash]

WAX! Now I remember. Yeah, I wouldn't fuck with 'em!

 

[Nebulous]

Oh fuck yeah. The pup's in mind were SD's, which are reknown for being the shit due to their waxing. I guess they stay on haha. Cheers for the help guys.