BKP Tutorial: Covered vs. Uncovered humbuckers
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- Опубліковано 20 бер 2012
- This is a tutorial video to demonstrate the difference in sound and performance between covered and uncovered humbuckers.
We used a Gibson Les Paul Standard, fitted with a Bare Knuckle Riff Raff bridge humbucker, and a "The Mule" in the neck position.
Visit the Bare Knuckle website at www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk
Finally, a basic explanation of this subject. Every time I look this stuff up, I hear 19 different opinions about scientific stuff that no one can keep track of. This is a clear cut explanation and a great sound demo. I love this video
Uncovered sounds to have more bite you'd normally expect from a single coil - awesome sound and glad I went for uncovered on my SG.
David Shaw I’m gonna get covers on my Les Paul, but I’m also planning on getting an SG with uncovered.
I uncover every single one of my Gibsons bridge pickup....after replacing it with their 500T! The snappiest pup alive!
I took my silverburst and removed the bridge cover. I keepted the neck cover. So now I have both options
Two things I take from this:
1. They're close enough that if I wanted a specific aesthetic I wouldn't let tonal considerations overrule it.
2. On tone alone I'd tilt towards covered neck and open bridge.
can't you really hear A HUGE difference? really?
I agree completely with the second thing you said. I wasn't too surprised because that's the pickup setup Jimmy Page used for one of his sounds I'm trying to emulate.
Makes sense then that Jimmy Page had a covered neck and uncovered bridge. I prefer the look of covered but I prefer the tone of open coil, especially on the bridge.
The uncovered pickup is more clear and defined. If you want the sound of covered pickups but have uncovered pickups, turn the tone pot down a bit. Take those covers off and you get more versatility.
My left ear really enjoyed this comparison. Right one... Not as much ;-)
Thanks. Great video. The back to back comparisons in the latter part of the video were most helpful for me. I did find the uncovered pickups a bit brighter sounding. Since you can use your tone knob to reduce the brightness if necessary, this seems like the way to go for me.
Thanks for making this, helped educate me about one of those questions I would feel stupid asking in a brick and mortar guitar shop. 😭
Well guys, I think the best thing to do is uncover on bridge and covered on neck
You get this really cutting sound on the bridge, and still the warmth and roundness on the neck
That's what I do. Uncovered C-Pig in the bridge, covered A-Pig in the neck. It's crazy how warm and smooth the Warpig neck is
Without cover sounds more open and bright… specially in clean. I prefer with cover though. Good video!
Uncovered please my ears. Great explanation of the topic.
Ordered a Riff Raff (Bridge) and Mule (Neck) with the pots and caps. Can't wait to get it, and put them in my LP.
Uncovered always for me. I can always turn down the tone knob. Can't add high end sparkle however on the fly.
Covered for looks, uncovered for tone.
This is interesting! I always thought it was just about the aesthetics. I almost always prefer the look and sound of covered humbuckers, so I guess I lucked out.
Great video.
If you play classic rock go for covered pickups they have that nice warmth. Uncovered gives you a nice punchy snap that metal requires
Basically: The Gary Moore LP vs the Slash LP
Great demonstration! I wondered how I could muffle the pick noises for my SG & Bass VI.The sound is like nails on a chalkboard for me
Thanks for the video!
Amazing pickups...
1:18 2:36 Bridge clean
1:32 2:50 mid clean
1:46 3:01 Neck clean
2:00 3:15 bridge dirt
2:11 3:24 middle dirt
2:21 3:32 neck dirt
Tom Marsh MVP- thank u
So what I’ve gathered is that with the covers, it has a more rich tone. It sounds cleaner.
MVP
Thank you. I don’t get why it’s so difficult to do this during editing before uploading. So many people mess this part up
Nice! Now if only we could get sound out of both speakers! =P
Excellent! Thanks!
Clean Neck
1:46 / 3:01
Tunning is different but the tone did not change. Funny for the tunning. I cant stand an untuned gtr
Uncovered humbuckers always sound brighter & more rocking to my opinion..👍
Will the pole spacing on a BKP pickup fit with a Seymour Duncan cover?
Beautiful sounding guitar/pickups I love your humbuckers but I think you should make more single coil options
Definitely brighter w the covers on i.m.o... What would u recommend for a Les Paul neck pickup with more high end than usual, ANYBODY? Because the neck pickup on my 2010 Gibson LES PAUL traditional sounds as if I were putting the tone knob at say 5 or 6. I need a good neck pickup with more high end along with the sustain.
I like bridge pickups with A5 magnets usually. I keep the covers on them to help with the high end. It's a subtle difference but i can usually hear it.
Excelente demostración....... por eso Jimi Page usa covered en neck y uncovered en bridge...... mira el Unledded No Quarter....!!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
will taking off the covers reduce or stop feedback ?
Sounds like the uncovered is brighter and more gain-y than the covered.
Was hoping to get the same info on the Duncan JB covered vs non-covered.
Me too
Exactly the same if there is a difference its so mynute ahouond even matter al preferences on looks i took my pick guard off love it
I'm wanting to replace the 909 pickups in my 9 string but I want passives. But I'm worried if it'll effect the tone in some way. Thoughts anyone? I also want to replace the blackouts in my 8 string.
funny that a pickup company makes a video with the audio panned to the left heavily ! love the pickups
The pick-ups sound top Shelf but damn that last run you did tripped me out!!! Shit that was smooth and AWESOME!!!! KILLER PICKING. ID LOVE TO MASTER THAT LITTLE LICK!!!
Uncovered bridge it is. Thanks for this
For my ear the covered sound the best. Also depends what guitar and type of music you are playing.
Absolutely! Open and covered both have their benefits, for sure!
I wonder if the uncovered on the bridge with Page helped with picking up the bow. I'm considering that before upgrading.
I mean the pickup cover fell off around 1970 as you can see on the albert Hall show but when he replaced the Bridge pickup it was all covered as seen in 1973 msg and 1975 earls court shows
I’m Hearing more subtle transients without covers; more fingers, more pick:
It’s a minor difference, but the covered sound more smooth to me. Eliminating the minor subtleties.
What kind of Gibson les paul is this, and what kind of color, i really want to buy one just like this.
Nolly Getgood??? Is that you?
yes
Uncovered for sure. I'm yanking the covers off tomorrow
Look at the LP on the rack, are you sanding the neck? all of them?
Would the sound be kinda inbetween, if you would just cut out a rectangular window just as big to show the screws of both coils (TV Jones pups lookalike) ??
As a bedroom noodler, I don't particullarly preffer one over the other, I just go with what's on (or I swapped with on) the guitar. It's not a big deal for sound. More a thing of aesthetics. I think to do the same if I would be gigging...
you have to take into account that with a covered one, the Screws on the adjustable bobbin are a lot higher than they are on an Uncovered one - this makes a far bigger difference to the sound than a thin piece of nickel on top of the pickup ........
Offered efot
I prefer the cover on, so warm
question: is real gold use to plate pickup covers and other hardware found on guitars???
I like uncovered more
wow i really did prefer the covered one on neck. on bridge i felt like it was very subtle. but i wonder if its really the pickup covers or other factors like the performance etc. hmmmmmm. then again JP did go uncovered in bridge and covered in neck... hmmm
To me they are so close that my preference goes with covered pickups on vintage guitars just by the look. Tonal diference is too little to be a deal for me
I felt the same until I got my Les Paul classic, got it for cheap so I decided to experiment with it besides my custom and standard so I did, and I must say, if you haven’t tried it on your own and hear it raw, then it may change your mind. There are differences in different guitars by weight as well so it’s not the same to compare 2 different guitars, but I will say although I do like the look of the covers on my custom, there may be a chance I’d swap just for the bit raspier sound!
Fucking Nolly. Fancy seeing you here mate.
I personally like my neck pup Covered Bridge open
Can I change humbucker polepiece screws without rewaxing pups? Do I need to dip new screws in wax before installing?
screws are a tight fit, so they are usually fine to adjust or change without the need to wax-pot afterwards
Holy shit, Nolly actually had hair at one point?
Dude looks unrecognizable.
While I like the look of covered humbuckers I much prefer the sound uncovered.
Low output pups sound better closed, definitely Riff Raff does. THAT is the sound we are used to hearing from Les Pauls from the day. Jimmy Page might be an exception, but no idea whether all his guitars had open bridge pup and what we are hearing when. On the other hand, I got a closed Black Dog set that I regret getting such, that is a dark and nasal pup. Make a clip on waxed/lightly waxed /unwaxed will you... Cheers! Do you offer a light waxing option?
I know your video's have been done ages ago.. but why didn't anyone do a proper demo of the '59 Slab Board Single Coils? Mickey Crystal did you a wonderful service - as well as Rabea, with Mothers Milk and the Veneer Board singles but the '59's have been left out? Even the Irish Tour's get a play.. am I the only one asking??
We would really like to cover every model eventually, so it will come!
@@BKPickups so glad you got to read my praise of your great pickups. After the many, many video's of single coils, yours have something else others don't. Mojo? I don't know but it makes strats come alive, no matter how old they are..!
How can i tell bkp apart? I have a set of bkp in my les paul but can't tell if they're mules or stormy mondays. Can't remember which a mate said but i kind of need to know. Do they have any markings at all that tell me this?
Multimeter and the stats of the pickups. Unless they have identical winds and different alnico magnets. I can't tell different alnico by looks alone.
Could be placebo but I feel like the uncovered pups are ever so slightly snappier(?).
If nickel silver covers are magnetically inert, what is the mechanism that causes the difference between covered and uncovered pickups?
Adding any mass of metal into the magnetic field will have an effect on tone, as even though the cover is pretty non-magnetic, it is still a conductor, so the same forces that generate an electrical current in the coil when you play will try to generate a current in that conductor (obviously a very small one, as the cover is pretty effectively grounded) but that does generate a slight electromagnetic field from the cover itself, thus affecting the overall behaviour of the pickup as a whole. The cover will also have its own small amount of inductance, which can serve to absorb a little bit of energy from the disturbances in the magnetic field that are made by your strings vibrating, again, very slight, but it all plays a part. You'll get some similar effects by adding foil shielding behind the pickup, which tend to be more pronounced with better conductors such as copper.
@@BKPickups Thank you for your reply. Yes, it can get complicated. First modeling then listening is the way I guess!
Does a cheap plastic cover(emg style) affect the sound?
No, plastic covers shouldn't affect the tone at all, as long as they are made of an antistatic type of plastic.
My preference changed depending on what you played. Tough to say either is better, just different
Sure, it's all about personal taste, there's certainly no clear "better" way
what was the riff being played around 4:40??? thanks
It's not the exact riff, but it's certainly a nod to "Alright Now" by Free
Covered sounds marginally darker; uncovered a bit livelier
I don't know man, do that again. I'm thinking of putting brass covers on my uncovered humbuckers for cosmetic purposes. On my dark wood tone cheapo Dean Vendetta I love to play, I think brass humbuckers or just a brass cover would look better. When I get some spare cash I'll upgrade the pickups.
Covered sounds fatter and more vintage. I have LP's fitted with both, they do sound different but, both are good. I think I'm leaning more towards covered though. Most players I grew up listening to would have had covers on theirs, so that's probably the way to go for me.
Absolutely! Covered and open both have their merits, but covers will definitely deliver a slightly fatter, warmer tone
so many different perceptions of the difference in these comments. My perception is covered pickups have more "twang" it's all about the attack of the sound, as the sound fades out it becomes harder to tell the difference.
my (frankly appalling) conclusion is, that for pure tone reasons alone, the bridge should be covered and the neck uncovered to maximise available textures.
clearly that would look like hell but it's an aesthetics vs tone debate anyway.
without hearing them back to back cant tell any difference. By the time you played the neck closed, and neck open there are different tones in between. I hear no difference.
I dunno I thought the clean sounded better with covers but crunch without covers. Ascettically covers more pleasing so at this point I'll keep then on but it i get bored and need to change strings I'll consider taking then off
There's certainly a lot of variables and there's no right or wrong setup. It's purely down to what works best for you and for the rest of your rig setup.
I wouldn't mind betting if you used higher value pots you could make up for the loss of treble detail with the covers
i notice a difference on the cleans but not on the crunch. i guess that's why i like distortion, you don't have to really listen and break down what you think you want and can just fuckin enjoy the music
Sure, clean tones will always show the differences between pickups most clearly
Uncovered all the way. In white not black or zebra. This seems to be my fav lately
No way was this posted a full decade ago
1:17 2:36
So, roll the tone down on the uncovered pickups and you've got both sounds
1:17, 2:36
2:01 3:15
What is name of the song here 4:20
That's an interpretation of "Alright Now" by Free
Uncovered is more rock n roll hence slash & Jimmy Page.
which amp and distortion are you using? please
4:37
4:50
Nice demo but hearing uncovered immediately after covered would have made it easier to hear a difference. I think I can hear the difference though when I scroll back and forth.
I prefer open Coil humbuckers
Covered = the best tone
4:20
4:07
I can't hear much of a difference. If I strain my ears, perhaps the open one sounds a bit more agressive. But that might be completely made up.
Open coil gives more output
People should stop worrying about shit like this and just play the damn guitar. not disrespecting the video though. Thanks for sorting it out !
Nechtan nah when you spend 1600+ on a guitar, this is well worth the 4 minute educational video on the subtle yet noticeable differences in the hardware
even if you're considering a 300 epiphone, it matters
then youre not really a musician - just a collector. you can gig on a guitar for a fraction of 1600
Surely, it’s important to balance playing time with tinkering time, but it’s arrogant and ignorant to assume that if someone obsesses about the details of tone they’re just “a collector”. Some people are perfectly happy and inspired playing guitars all stock, not at all concerned with details. That’s great. Some people love diving as deep as they can into the variables that affect tone, or that are historically significant. The casual listener isn’t affected so much, but musicians are in the game of chasing inspiration. Whatever inspires you and makes the experience of playing Music feel more natural to you is the best way to go. I’ve always felt that if you’re not learning, you’re not alive.
lol if you can afford a quality instrument you're not a musician! :D
covered baby, not only sounds better but has superb appeal
if you didnt touch any of the settings then there is a huge difference
amp?
IIRC it was straight into an AxeFX, I don't recall the exact patch, I'm afraid, this was over 8 years ago now!
I think it’s just down to looks. Or maybe I need a hearing test 😊
open coil every time.
Uhhhh no one noticed that when they took the covers off they also turned the pickups around thereby reorienting the distance the primary winding is from the bridge and the guitar neck?
I don´t think you are right. It is not easy to see, but I think the black coils are the one with screws, and then the pickups are oriented correct.
I zoomed right in on a big screen to confirm you are mistaken dear sir.
Neck uncovered, bridge covered
Bridge dirty 2:04 / 3:18
NOLLY IS THAT YOU
It's the ghost of Nolly past
@@BKPickups😂
cover pickup-sweet and smooth..........uncovered -nasty !!!!!!!!
🤓🤓🤓
I am band from youboob just for comments not a poster ?
I can't hear any difference!