Painting Pickup Cavity

[redwhiteandthemaple]

(tried the search but no luck so help me out here)

I hear in this forum time to time you shouldnt paint pickup cavities?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

And I see painted cavities all the time.

Why or why not? I'm suspecting there's a sound/tonal difference, but also how?

-IR

[thegarehanman]

I will give you every penny I make from now until the day I die if you can tell the "tonal" difference of two identical guitars, one with painted pickup cavities, one without, in a totally blind test. Little things like this are given too much credit and consideration. The most important things to worry about are going to be pickup choice, scale length, and wood choice, in no particular order. As you can tell, I don't mask my pickup cavities, there's no reason to unless they're so tight that your pickups won't fit after you finish it. Even that would be bad in the sense that the guitar has absolutely no room for expansion/contraction due to climate changes.

peace,

russ

[Guitarfrenzy]

I personally agree with Russ, if there is any difference at all it would be very minute one. Just my opinion though.

[Mattia]

Not going to be an audible difference, ever, not in blind listening test. Heck, I have serious doubts about blind listening tests being able to pick out differences in finish, period, in electrics.

[soapbarstrat]

depends on the color of paint.

[Guitarfrenzy]

depends on the color of paint.

true.. white deflects sound waves, while black absorbs... um wait, that might be sunlight I'm thinking about. Hopefully everyone knows your just joking about the color of paint affecting tone.. lol

[soapbarstrat]

I floss my guitars, to help fight pickup cavities

[redwhiteandthemaple]

I floss my guitars, to help fight pickup cavities

Ok.. then I was wondering.. a different question sorta

Some people like the mount pickups ON the pickup cavity so it'll be in contact

NOW.. if the cavity was painted would it still not make a difference?

-IR

p.s. Thx for the replies (and the jokes).

[thegarehanman]

Still no difference. The only issue, once again, would be that if you made the cavity super tight, it might be to tight(after being finished) to fit the pickup in. Think about it this way, even if you've got finish in the cavity, you're still screwing into wood.

Just in case your next question is what I think it will be:

In all likeliness, you won't be able to hear the difference between a directly mounted pickup and a ring/pickguard mounted pickup.

[Doeringer]

Soapbar you sleigh me!

The painted cavities that redwhiteandthemaple mentioned could be painted with conductive paint for sheilding purposes. I also don't mask cavities and don't see (or hear) a tonal reason not to.

[Jalien21]

i feel like there probably is an audible difference between a pickup mounted to the wood and one suspended from a ring or pickguard or whatever. the plastic bits that a suspended pickup is connected to are gonna resonate differently than the wood will. so, the pickup itself is actually vibrating differently in each case. i don't know. i don't know much about this stuff, but i always considered the way that a pickup is connected to a guitar is one of the few things that really matters to the sound.

[redwhiteandthemaple]

I asked the second question because I remember seeing a luthier who only mounts the pickup in the cavity..

So I did some search and got something, not much. but..

http://experts.about.com/q/Guitar-649/Pick...nstallation.htm

Everything there is irrelevant.. except "...contact with more solid wood than the other pick-ups, causing more resonance" in the Answer section.

Therefore I would expect more clarity in the tone. More definite and maybe even a brighter tone, No?

and also not to drift away from my original question, paint = less contact with wood, by means of the paint layer acts as a little "wall"..

-IR

Edited February 16, 2006 by redwhiteandthemaple

[MoCaster]

Pickups on a strat aren't in contact with the wood at all, they're mounted on the pickguard. Even if they were I don't think it would make any difference.

[thegarehanman]

You guys are verging on voodoo. This path is the one to Romanization. The way a pickup is mounted is simply not one of the things that really matters. What matters are big things, like pickup placement, pickup type, pickup resistance, scale length, wood choice, etc. Paint and how pickups are mounted are just simply not noticeable influential factors when it comes to electric guitar tone. Now get into acoustic territory, and then you'll start noticing slight tonal difference based on different finish types. I sometimes wonder how people can fail to take into account the thousands of great sounding guitars on the market with these allegedly "tone inhibiting" factors. Seriously guys, tone is relative. The only thing that we're most likely guaranteed to agree on is sustain. If you're really that worried about 2 very tiny mounting springs eating all of your humbucker's tone , then replace your springs with narrow copper pipe. I think a lot of you guys don't realize that most "directly mounted" pickups actually have a bit of rubber tubing between the humbucker and the body.

peace,

russ