Wood pickup covers?

Does anybody here know how to make wooden pickup covers?
Do you have to take off the original cover?
Can you cover any pickup with wood and not hinder output?
Do you use veneer?

Thanks, Jon

[Kelly Lee]

This is the only link I know to some info on it:

http://home.versatel.nl/wilmaremy/cover.html

[Dirk Diggler]

I've done it before with a set of ADX6 pickups on an import Tobias. I just ground about an 1/8" of plastic off the tops of the pickups, and glued 1/8" slice of body wood on, sounds warmer than plastic to me and the same power output. I didn't do the side though just the top.
Good Luck,
Dirk

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler

I've done it before with a set of ADX6 pickups on an import Tobias. I just ground about an 1/8" of plastic off the tops of the pickups, and glued 1/8" slice of body wood on, sounds warmer than plastic to me and the same power output. I didn't do the side though just the top.
Good Luck,
Dirk

You really feel that it sounds different?

[Hambone]

Originally Posted by drpocket

Does anybody here know how to make wooden pickup covers?
Do you have to take off the original cover?
Can you cover any pickup with wood and not hinder output?
Do you use veneer?

Thanks, Jon

Did you do a search?...

If you had you would have found this:

how to make wood pickup covers?

and this...

lets talk about making pickup covers

and this...

Wooden pickup covers. How thick?

and those are just the ones with "wood pickup cover" in their title.

[Dirk Diggler]

Hello Geoff,
Yeah I really do, or at least think I do. The only real test I suppose would have been to do them one at a time. Like I say I don't know if it's real or just imagined, and it could be I didn't grind exactly 1/8th off the old plastic. But honestly I really do feel a warmer tone, and this is on a fretless. I mostly use the bridge pickup and I noticed I needed to roll a little more highs and mids with the onboard aggie OBP3.
Dirk

[ILLINOX]

What about wood pickups, instead of plastic?

[Musiclogic]

See Reed James Engineering custom Woodbuckers, pickups with wood bobbins, many winders have done it at one time or another all the way back to the 50's

[wabbit]

Wooden pole pieces. Oh yeah!

[ILLINOX]

I've seen reed James' stuff, but are there any considerations with wood bobbins? Or is it a better idea to use plastic bobbins, longer pole pieces and wood with pole holes?

[HaMMerHeD]

The only requirements of the bobbin material are that it is strong enough to maintain its shape, and that it does not conduct electricity. Fiberboard, wood, plastic, silicon-dioxide, glass, paper...it's not magic.

And I have a significant amount of doubt with regard to tonal changes when using wooden covers. Pickups are electromagnetic sensors. Wood is not a magnetically excitable material. The only realistic explanation would be that the pickup height was modified a bit, due to a difference in thickness between the plastic and the wood.

[Musiclogic]

Exactly. Wood is magnetically transparent, if the cover still allows for the standard string to sensor distance, three is no difficulty in maintaining the sound. People have been doing covers for years, and Ramps are becoming more common these days without any sonic problems.

[DannyIgasinov]

I got this
rosewood/buckeye

nice work