do pickup covers serve a purpose?

[LaklandBass]

if you are talking about the plastic pickup covers that are a part of the pickup(ex. bartolini) they help prevent the nasty sound of your string hitting the poles when your action is really low.
If you're talking about the large chrome covers from back in the day they allow a resting place. Back then a fair amount of players would pluck with the thumb and maybe the first finger as well... sort of like fingerpicking an acoustic guitar. These covers allowed them to drape their arm over the strings and rest with comfort without actually laying your arm on the string themselves and muting everything

 

[Stilettoprefer]

The metal ones just make the bass look better and heavier. Sometimes people put mutes in bridge covers.

 

[mccartneyman]

I've noticed some pick-players use the cover as a rest for their hand. This would make sense if the cover also served as a mute. I would think muting would be quite difficult with the picking hand otherwise.

I used the pickup cover on my Rick 4001 ans a handrest and manged to do muting with my left hand. Don't know if that's the "accepted" way, but it works.

 

[SJan3]

I disagree. The cover protects the pickup and the screws from the direct contact with sweaty hands thus prevents corrosion (rust) of the poles and screws as well as the bridge.

Ah, but we like that rust and corrosion on our Fenders, no??

 

[SJLee]

They tend to keep people from slapping the bass. Otherwise referred to as a slap deterrent.

 

[Bassmunnky]

I read that Gene Simmons likes his Bridge Cover because it keeps out dirt and...
FOOD...

Yum.

 

[Exploiter8]

I used the pickup cover on my Rick 4001 ans a handrest and manged to do muting with my left hand. Don't know if that's the "accepted" way, but it works.

If it works, cool! Just another weapon in your playing arsenal!

X8

 

[darkstorm]

I think fender added them to protect peoples hands from those horrible bridges with the sharp poky height adjusment screw tops and the serrated bridge saddles themself. You could seriosuly butcher your hand on them things. Theyd make a good handrest provided they had nice blunt rolled edges on them. We mostly used some good tape rolled over them to prervent the hand scrapeys against otherwise sharp edges of the covers on both fenders and gibsons. Or took them off, only to put them back on till replaced the nasty eat your handds alive, bridges.

Still, they do look kinda kewl. I wish someone would make them with nice blunted/rounded edges (That bwould require slightly thicker design) and offer both fender and gibson style ones. Also in black. Yes nice comfy hand rest black bridge and pup covers on an all black bass could be nice.

I kept the bridge cover on my Tbird bass with front edge covered over with a nice strip of heavy duty tape. It was too thin to be able to nicely blunt the edges down.

Someone could have made a nice little fortune if theyd made a company back then that offered improved bridge and pup covers to replace the stock fender and gibson etc ones. Imo. For those who liked the looks &/or who liked them as handrest.

 

[Ric5]

The history of the pickup cover.

The first pickup was the Rickenbacker Horseshoe pickup developed in the 1930s.

The horseshoe pickup had covers. Actually the covers were the magnets. Fender style basses came along in the 50s and they got pickup covers resembling the shoes of the Rickenbacker horseshoe pickups. Fender finally quit putting the covers on basses because pretty much everybody took them off. By the end of 1968 Rickenbacker phased out the horseshoe pickup and put the newer high gain pickup in the basses.

Here's a picture of my old 1968 4001 with the horseshoe pickup.

 

[CostaBass]

When I was really young (Like 14), I had a old Fender copy. It has pick up covers. I was doing a recording and I picked way to hard. Anyway, the recording picked up a "Cow bell" sound from my bass.

So they double as a cow bell.

 

[SurferJoe46]

Ah, but we like that rust and corrosion on our Fenders, no??

no

 

[ChiMakwa]

I've noticed some pick-players use the cover as a rest for their hand. This would make sense if the cover also served as a mute. I would think muting would be quite difficult with the picking hand otherwise.

I took the damn thing off of my Rick because I play fingerstyle, and my fingers are big. I just didn't have enough room. Besides, I think there's an awesome sweet spot to pick or pluck right over the neck side of the bridge pickup, which you can't get to if the cover is in place.

I figured out how to mute with my left hand if I need to, but not because of the pickup cover. The stock Rick bridge makes palm-muting impossible, and I can't stand having the foam mute on the whole time. I turned it upside down and buried it. That is the one and only complaint I have about Rickenbacker basses. I have a love/hate relationship with that beautiful and massive bridge. The string spacing is perfect, but you can't use palm-muting. But the popular Badass bridge puts the strings farther apart, though you can palm mute with it. It's also a lot easier to set up the string height & intonation. I have a few Badass bridges on other basses, and they are also nice & massive, but the string spacing is more like a Fender than a Rick. That's not a bad thing, it's just not a Rick feel, and I love that Rick feel. (Though sometimes my right forearm misses the Fender contour body...)

 

[Tampabass]

They hide the pickups from peering eyes, thereby preserving the modesty of the bass.

just read this - funny.

 

[lindseyp]

Watch James Jamerson in this Marvin Gaye vid; he's using the chrome pickup cover to anchor his two middle fingers while allowing his first finger to glide along with the funk:
Marvin Gaye "What's Going On / What's Happening Brother" - YouTube
That cover was certainly valuable for him.
Wow, this thread went an entire year without mentioning Him?

 

[bound'n'blocked]

Whats the best bridge cover for metal?

BnB

 

[shrimpflea]

its kinda like the hood on a car. partly cosmetic to hide the guts of the car (this may have been how leo thought of it since he followed car design) and partly to keep things underneath clean. it also helps shield the open pole pieces from electro magnetic radiation.

the covers do not shield the pole pieces from electro-magnetic radiation.....however they do prevent alien transmissions from entering the pickups and then infiltrating your brain.

 

[afzoomie67]

When I was really young (Like 14), I had a old Fender copy. It has pick up covers. I was doing a recording and I picked way to hard. Anyway, the recording picked up a "Cow bell" sound from my bass.

So they double as a cow bell.

We need more..

 

[Cardiholic]

When I was really young (Like 14), I had a old Fender copy. It has pick up covers. I was doing a recording and I picked way to hard. Anyway, the recording picked up a "Cow bell" sound from my bass.

So they double as a cow bell.

Ha ha! I'm laughing out loud for real.

 

[Jookbox]

probably keeps dirt out of there.