pickup cover materials...

[asm]

sorry for the stupid question but what kind of materials can you NOT put over the top of the pickup? (where the magnets arent visible). i know ive seen people use wood on top, and plastic, but what is a bad idea to use?

thanks!

t

[Saber]

I wouldn't put anything made of metal because that would affect the magnetic field. Anything else is fine as long as it doesn't conduct electricity.

[Biblical]

you could always attach a microwave magnet to the pickup, youll have really powerful pickups, acctully i might try that

[Devon Headen]

I wouldn't put anything made of metal because that would affect the magnetic field. Anything else is fine as long as it doesn't conduct electricity.

Last time I checked most covers were made out of metal

[JPL]

The big no-no is to use any kind of ferrous metal. Aluminum, brass or anything nonferrous should be fine but still may have some effect (good of bad depending on your taste in tone) on the sound.

[Saber]

I wouldn't put anything made of metal because that would affect the magnetic field. Anything else is fine as long as it doesn't conduct electricity.

Last time I checked most covers were made out of metal

But they don't cover the magnet polepieces; I believe that's what asm meant by (where the magnets aren't visible). Even adding a metal cover that has holes to let the polepieces through will slightly affect the sound whether it's ferrous or not, but ferrous metal is worse. There are exceptions of pickups having metal covers with no holes for the polepieces but they are designed to be used with them. Here, we're talking about adding a cover to an existing pickup without affecting its sound, or at least that's how I understood the original question.

[Devon Headen]

It's all so clear now

Devon

[KeithHowell]

The only magnetic metals are Iron, Nickel and Cobalt hence the nic and co in Alnico.

Keith

[PxP]

It feels like anything non-magnetic would work. Never tested it though...

Let us know what you find out asm, allright?

[KeithHowell]

you could always attach a microwave magnet to the pickup, youll have really powerful pickups, acctully i might try that

I wouldn't do that, the magnetron magnet would probably realign your pickup magnets and destroy the humbucking in the case of humbuckers and who knows what else in the case of single coils!

Keith

[PxP]

I wouldn't do that, the magnetron magnet would probably realign your pickup magnets and destroy the humbucking in the case of humbuckers and who knows what else in the case of single coils!

You're right. That sounds like a bad idea. Would definitely kill (or severely harm) the pickups.