A SIMPLE TRICK that will give you instant VINTAGE HUMBUCKER TONE!
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Guitar pickup tips! 2013 Gibson SG CS into a Zagray amp into a 1968 Marshall 1982A closemiked by one beyerdynamic M160 at bedroom volume level. Apogee Duet sound card and an IPad with cubasis.
There is a very simple and scientific reason why this works, and I can't understand why nobody has mentioned it. Well, actually I can - it's because guitarists (and quite a few pickup winders) don't generally know what makes any given pickup sound the way it does. This is not helped by manufacturers who insist on quoting the DC resistance, which is almost completely meaningless, but ignore the inductance. Inductance is what gives a pickup its voice. The lower the inductance, the brighter and twangier the pickup sounds - a Filtertron is very low inductance and so is a Strat pickup. If you increase the inductance you move the resonant frequency down. By sticking a piece of steel to the pickup the inductance of an average PAF might change from around 5H to maybe 6H, and thus the resonant frequency from about 2500Hz to nearer 2200Hz. The highest frequencies are slightly less apparent and the uppers mids just a little more present. So the pickup sounds warmer.
This is not a new phenomenon. Leo Fender specifically put a steel plate on the bottom of the Telecaster bridge pickup to increase the inductance and make the pickup less piercing. There wasn't enough room on the coil to fit more wire (which would also raise the inductance) so a steel plate added to the coil moved the resonant frequency down to a more musical place. A Strat pickup doesn't have this plate, which is the main reason why Strats sound 'scratchy' in the bridge position.
You don't have to take my word for this. Bill Lawrence really understood how pickups work and he sold his pickups graded by inductance. You could (and still can) buy a 2H, 4H, 6H and 8H version of the same pickup, which all sound different. There is even a book called "Electric Guitar: Sound Secrets and Technology" by Helmuth Lemme, which explains everything scientifically. There is also an Excel simulator called Guitarfreak which allows you to display graphs of varying pickup inductances, amongst other things.
If you like the effect the plate gives but not the look, stick it to the bottom of the pickup. It will have exactly the same effect of increasing the inductance. A decent pickup will have a baseplate made of German silver and the steel should stick to the magnet through the baseplate. Double sided tape will make sure it doesn't fall off.
Thanks John, I really appreciate the great feedback. Cheers Johan
What a comment ! Thanks John ! :)
Fascinating...thanks for breaking it down.
It is so refreshing when an educated person comments and shares actual knowledge, rather than the usual Donald Trumps who spew idiocy in vain attempts to appear knowledgeable. Thank you John, very very nice post indeed!
@@Im2Old4ThisShite They're called #BaldingSeagulls
Johan, you clearly put a huge effort into these videos that provide us with such reference to decide in our purchases or just our enjoyment.
Wow. Johan you are a wizard. Instant warm vintage tone, I tried it on my guitars, I had a large piece of sheet metal and cut it to size. That will be a permanent item in my guitar case , instant tone change. I had enough to make a piece for all my guitars pickups.
+Xosis cool, that's great to hear! Cheers
Johan, you make tone comparison videos that look as beautiful as paintings. Your video setup and editing skills are amazing, as is your audio recording technique and your eye for what makes an interesting shot.
+Oqsy Thanks my friend, it's so good to hear that!
Awesome trick! The cover definitely mellowed the sound up and made it sound more vintage
+ESPLover™ Thanks! :-)
Johan Segeborn i like your videos. You inspire me. You have always beautiful amps and guitare. And your tone is always AWESOME really. Futhermore i like hear you pleaying.
Thank you for your great job ! you are a passionate and we love
+DIEU YEAH Thanks my friend, that's so good to hear!
I like the tonal variations... This would be a nifty studio trick, when you want to try a different tone that you're not getting with your current setup options.
+Hamid Shibata Bennett Thanks Hamid, maybe one could have whole range of plates for different tones in the case! Cheers
Chris H the thicker the plate is on the magnet the weaker the magnetic field will be so it should change the tone also having a small plate per magnet should change the tone to
Wow, didn't expect that the strings played alone sound so much better with covered pickups 💥🚀
Im a SG man, see your SG melts me, so great guitar.
+Diego Funes Thanks, that SG gets a lot of playing time around here :-)
For me are the best working-man guitar, light-way, easy to play, no bugs to play (due the neck-joint), and great loocking. Your tone is great, bye man.
+Diego Funes Thanks man
Two very different sounds, Both are nice, Gotta love music and the many ways of making it.
+Brian Knickerbocker Thanks man, indeed!
I've had to make do with a reissue model scraper
+Guy R.C. ;-)
Well, you probably don’t know this, but a Gibson embossed T-Top cover from the early ‘70s makes a wonderful paint scraper! The screw holes let the paint scrapings out so it doesn’t clog up when you’re working! And the embossed name on it makes it easy to find your own paint-scaper pickup cover when there’s a bunch of paint-scraper pickup covers on the table!
Played my SG for 10-158 years with the cover off on the bridge, last 10 years or so I’ve had it back on and don’t regret it... but tastes change...
Great vid!
Johan, that seemed to be sick idea, but whoaa, in reality it worked. Great way of sweetening uncovered pickups, and works. Man, you have great things in your mind, thank you!
+Balázs Banó Thanks man :-)
For those interested in what alters the sound: Eddy does it. Eddy current.
And thus a new version of "Metal" has emerged.
"Plate" Metal?
+Tommy Golden ;-) Cheers
LOL! Good one!
First came plate armour, now we have plate guitar.
Next we shall see plate pop... (dear god no)
more like "scaping the pu metal"....;-)...but it does sound better, clearer....the "normal"pu sounds dull and wooly (or rubbish)....
With this trick the humbuckers on my cheap epiphone les paul just sound amazing, thanks man!
Everytime I hear that distinctive "Let's go!" I know I'm about to become immensely better informed while, at the same time, being thoroughly entertained! This is a great tip for creating a new library of performance sounds with an existing instrument and the blade off of a paint scraper. Nice... very nice indeed!
+Richard Workman Thanks my friend, Cheers!
Interesting trick. I would think it's acting in a way to artificially lower the pickup output.
On another note, your videos are always refreshing. Love 'em. Some days, no lie, right after my amp is warmed up and I go to insert my instrument cable I say out loud to myself in my best Swedish accent "Let's go." It is a respect salute to Johan!
+divebomb99 Thanks my friend, it's so good to hear that :-)
My fave trick for vintage T-Tops is to install a ThroBak A-4 long magnet. Then they sound much closer to a PAF or early Pat#.
+LPCustom3 cool!
What magnets do vintage T tops have in them? Thanks!
Wow that is a much more significant difference that I would have thought. When you said it sounds more focused I think that is a good description, with the cover it seems to gain a lot of single note clarity.
+whiskeyboy Thanks man
Agreed. That's also how I felt. The high end was more clear but still had the tone.
Always loved the super 2 it's great with 250k pots to calm down the highs. An average pick up is very basic in its magnetic circuit, bill Lawrence and bartolini and more recently dimarzio and kinman have done lots to shield and redirect and focus the fields. These pickups are inherently more expensive due to their added parts and complexity so never catch on but it's well worth it. I was recently given a cheap parts guitar with bartolini mini humbuckers that were lying around never bought and they sound amazing. A great tip anyhow. Back in the seventies no one cared about magnetically transparent covers and market competition I think a big part of the seventies era pickups is the natural mid focus created by the capacitance and field disturbance of the alloy used for the covers.
PoJoWo I quite agree.
I believe how it works is you are essentially reducing the strength of the magnet in the pick up by placing the relatively thick steel on top of the pickup in comparison to a normal metal pickup cover so it gives you the impression of a lower output and softer attack very cool sound though.
+bchant19 Thanks!
Wow! Amazing difference Johan! I would have never thought to do that.
+Tom Fortin Thanks Tom! :-)
It was hard to imagine this was a true statement as I listened to your explanation , but it not only worked, it was a impressive improvement . Thanks for the tip.
I'm very pleased to hear that i can calm down my Seymour SH-4 in the bridge which sounds much to modern to me. Thanks.
+soaring138 Thanks!
I do this on my Grestch, but what I do is I take a piece of metal and stick it between the pole pieces only under the three treble strings which seems to lower the volume on them to give me a more balanced tone because I finger pick with my bare fingers and I always have a hard hard time hearing the bass strings. When I do this it disturbs the magnetic field and sucks some of the volume out of the treble strings and maybe a little tone as well but it balances out the volume across all the strings giving me more of a bass sound instead of an overpowering treble sound from the first three strings which is what I needed to help get a better Chet style tone since I can't use a thumb pick because my guitars strung right-handed on a lefty guitar. You could also achieve the same thing on a humbucker by getting a thin flat piece of Steel as this gentleman does in this video but you don't have to cover the whole pick up if you don't want to. There are always options
Basic blue collar explanation is you are turning an individual post pick up to a bar (lipstick) style pick up , you can also try adjusting the hight of both the pick up itself and then raising the screws up to compensate for tone differences as well but this only works on Humbucker style as you need the adjustment screws .
Your presentation is great! Plate seems to make it sound 1970 straight away, without it it seems raw and harsh.
+AncientBlast Thanks!
Amazing, makes a big difference. hard to explain but the cover makes the breakup tighter and more focused......tricks of the trade, thanks
+John Miller Thanks John!
Johan, you’re such a good player! Fantastic channel!
Cool trick! Sounds marvelous!
I really like this guy, he leaves no stone unturned!!
Lovin' your videos Johan, this one has given me an idea to help me solve an issue with my telecaster's humbuckers, thank you.
My layman's theory is that there are two things happening here. First, the plate is dampening the magnetic pull against the strings. Second, and possibly more important is that it's distributing the magnetic field more broadly and picking up on some of the sympathetic vibrations outside of the normal range of the pole pieces. Cool trick. The difference in tone is definitely noticeable, and not undesirable.
+Jeff Curran Thanks man, yeah that other part is really interesting. Cheers
Thats EXACTLY what's going on, I think. Hence why the best vintage Les Pauls sound like beefy Tele's. The output of the pickups are much less than the modern versions.
Whats going on here is the plate is creating Eddy currents which lowers the resonant frequency and lowers the Q as well. Many players remove the covers from their stock humbuckers. Sure you get more volume but the covers are a big part of the pickup's designed sound.
I was thinking of it that way as well. The plate is really not a whole lot different than a pup cover. Maybe a little thicker. A pup cover is probably around .010 inches thick. The putty knife is probably around .030. Would the thickness make a difference?
The thickness makes a huge difference as does the cover material but more than anything is the "closed loop" that a humbucker cover cover creates when it's placed over the coils. The closed loop creates the most eddy currents.
I'm going to see you on tv in the middle of the night in the US selling pick scrapers to make your guitar sound better, aren't I?
+James Lantz Hahahahaha! Damn you got me there
You need to find these on Amazon Europe and US sites and make an affiliate link URL in your video description.
Wow that makes a huge difference. Now I don't feel so guilty in converting my tele to a metal machine, I can just put a plate over the pickups to go vintage :)
Cool idea and one I'd never have thought of...
The covered sound reduced the output and scooped the midrange blur that so many HB's tend to have. Great hack!
+Paul Simmons Glad to hear it! :-)
I relic'd my scraper before applying
me too! don't tell anybody, but i did mine by scraping my saltwater fish tank. how did u do yours?
Lol... I taped it to a string and drove around the block a few times dragging behind the car a la Napoleon Dynamite, then I used a mixture of apple cider vinegar and salt water, let it soak for a day, then put in freezer overnight, then baked on 350 degrees for 37 minutes.
what! a torrefied scraper?! i am not worthy!
I could pretty much just listen to this guy play all day,he could probably play a blender through a toaster and it would sound good.
+straight2helll hahaha! thanks my friend
I liked them both ways. The difference Isn't really radical but there was a sweetness when the cover was on. Cool, I'm going to have to try this thanks for the guitar hack!
I hear the difference, subtle yet succinct - and I like the plate cover 'vintagey' sound - great trick !
With that cover it does sound much warmer. Nice. Thanks for the tip.
+J Burrough Thanks!
One more serious note... Surprised at how much difference that scraper makes ,keep up the good work
+Guy R.C. Thanks :-)
EXCELLENT topic. Showing some of the most intelligent curiosity and answer seeking I've seen in awhile. Love this kind of info from those who have a passion for it. Thanks to all for the replies. As a total beginner in amplification and circuit analysis, I learned, and questioned alot....Thanks Johan.
Johan has the most awesome RUclipsr vocal accent ever ... just saying in my California dude accent
Hahaha! Thanks John ;-)
In principle it just does whatever a vintage pickup do. Less effect of magnets on strings. Cool!
+KrautMasker Thanks!
I used my Epiphone SG400Pro with the pup covers on. I used a steel plate covering the ADGBE poles. I did not like it very much. So I experimented. I tried it with 4 different types of steel bits. Only two sounded good. The plate sound I did not like. I used a round key chain piece and it only effected 2-3 poles by encircling them and making contact with the B and E pole- it sounded the best. I also tried paper clips and they were not too bad, only on the 3 high poles: GBE. I ran through a solid state amp. Next I will try it though a tube amp.
He is correct the steel placed on top of the poles will effect the sound. I found it did do in a way that I did not like. Well I did like the 1 inch round Key chain ring to sound good. Not a big difference. Maybe just pulled out some of the harshness on the GBE strings. Well see how I feel about this tomorrow.
+PeterDad60 The search goes on! ;-) Cheers Johan
I have a 70's with all original electronics. There is a real difference between the sound of the old and a new one. And this about hits it. I tell people all they have to do is turn their volume and town down to 7 or 8 and you get that sound. Unless your fixing a vintage instrument there's no real reason to pay $$$ for parts. Totally dig this. And going to use it.
Now what I really wanted to post was,
I tried this with a plastic scraper. I couldn't get it to stick.... : )
Phenomenal trick for instant tone change! I just cut some heavy old galvanized zinc and filed/rounded all the edges and Voila! Get a totally different tone on my Manalishi humbucker. Thanks!
Great video🙂👍
Sounds good and I like your calm to the point verbal delivery👍🙂
Really cool idea! I like the sound difference. It seemed subtle but definitely a difference. I can't wait to try it in the studio.
IMO it sounds more marshally with the cover. It gets a more noticeable mid hump.
I took off the covers on my LP, but then realized it sounded much better with the covers.
Keep on rockin', Johan !!!
+MadDrummer100000 You too man! Cheers
@@JohanSegeborn Johan, six years later, I stumbled upon my comment in this video, I honestly didn’t remember watching this one, so I clicked in it, and, much to my surprise, I even wrote the above comment, to which you kindly replied. Just thought I’d share that I prefer the sound without the covers, as of late (few recent years). Interesting how our tastes change over time.
Cheers, my friend.
Once again, keep on rockin’!
Sounds like you've got a business opportunity in making aftermarket solid steel humbucker cover replacements! Sounds great!
+Zan Preston Cheers ;-)
wow what a difference, but it sounded great even without the cover, ill take it both ways, great job as always
+Reaper Rooney Thanks, great to hear that :-)
WoW that's a big difference and a huge surprise ...cover on was tight but not compressed and sharp, cover maybe smoothing/balancing out the magnetic field ...there's a lot of scrapers here that never seen paint but are about to be snapped onto a humbucker - great info Johan
+Gerry Loughran Hahaha! Cheers Gerry!
Loud enough to need headphones outside? Your neighbors must love you!
+Brad Webb hahaha! :-)
Yes, of course. I think it works, some guitar players use this trick. Then the attack sounds differently. It’s sweat.
But I don’t do that, I just put the amp’s volume at 10. And sometimes at 9 1/2. Thanks for the video.
pretty cool Johan !!
looks to me you live near a shipyard.
I worked at the Newport NeWS shipyard back in 1999
a recognised the big crane in the background thru your window.
all the best Sir.
+John Hutsenpiller Jr Thanks John, yeah it's the Eriksberg Shipyard in Gothenburg, unfortunately it was shut down in the late 70s, but the beautiful Crane is still there. Cheers
It should be mentioned that leaving anything magnetic on the pickup for long periods of time will ruin the pickup by de-magnetizing it. Just like you don't want any traces of steel wool on your pole pieces. I would recommend a disclaimer about that in the video description :)
+DarksignHunter that would have to be a long long time :-)
I used mutes on the top four strings of my bridge humbuckers and then blend them with the unmuted neck/middle pickups, so that I can get a really bright sound from my bottom two strings and a mellower sound from the top 4.
I always pull the metal covers off of the neck pickups on a telecaster also. Less muddy, more focused.
Excellent video Johan, as always...this is very cool... Cheers!
+PedalPalFx Thanks, glad to hear that. Cheers!
Ok now this is a cool trick! Im always playing around with my tone to change the sound, never seem to get it right. The change you achieved is more along the lines as to what I was going for... thanks.. Subscribed!
I love how you love to tinker with everything Johan 😁 Me too.
I'm a member of SOS (Save Our Scrapers!) with a couple tips for those who like this sound: 1. Use a humbucker that ALREADY HAS A COVER! 2. Turn your guitar's volume control down a notch or two.
+Pickr Head I compared the Burstbucker with and without cover here on the channel the other day and the difference was almost negligible, since the material of the cover isn't that magnetic, so in this clip I tried an all steel cover (plate) instead.
Yes, cover material makes a big difference. I once bought a cheapo Xaviere guitar that came with GFS Crunchy Pat pickups with covers. They were dull, weak & mushy. Since those pickups were usually pictured on the website without covers I removed mine and it made a huge difference; made them bright & punchy although still cheap-sounding. I didn't check the covers with a magnet but they were probably ferrous.
Some pickup manufacturers, for example, Kinman, claim that pickup covers attenuate the high frequencies. Putting a think cover over the pickup warms up to tone.
There is a difference in the tone BUT that was because he changed his hand position along the test. At first (without the metal plate) he played with his hand closer to the bridge and after (with the metal plate) he played closer to the neck. This is the reason of the smoother sound. I don't know if he did this intentionally or if he didn't notice that was doing it. Now about the metal plate do the trick? I don't think so. It's the same thing that say that a PAF plate covered pickup sounds different from an opened one. The presence of a plate between the coils and the strings won't affect how the electromagnetic waves behave.
Hi it’s a solid steel plate.
Awesome!!! Like instant compression kind of. Very cool trick, thanks!!!
+Sean Antley Glad to hear it, thanks!
Cool trick Johan. The uncovered sounds, to my ears, like it's more present. The covered would make for another cool rhythm guitar sound perhaps - just my preference, but I could be losing the highs in my hearing by now! Thanks for posting
+Mike McCourt Thanks Mike!
I am so surprised! It does sound sweeter! Sounds great. What a genius idea man. What a genius idea. I know what my next purchase will be :) Paint scraper! That's too cool.
+Parker Hatcher Thanks man! :-)
Interesting experiment, the volume dropped and the sound changed slightly but in a cool way. I think I might give it a try for myself. Thanks for the tip and riffs.
+Miracle Man 7 Thanks, good to hear it!
Mr Johan, you sir are just damn groovy man, I can't wait to give this trick a shot. That just sounds really really really cool, thank you thank you thank you!!!!
Tonally a very low tech recreation of the Gibson P100 stacked humbucker to my ears. Nice one Johan.
+ChrisBuck66JTM45 Thanks Chris :-)
In the early '90s I removed the covers from the T-Top in the bridge of my '63 SG shaped Les Paul in order to play more 'modern' stuff, then a few years ago I put the cover back on and found the same change in tone. Kept it on since... even put the Vibrola back on, though that maybe wasn't such a brilliant idea... Amazing vids you got on here! I'm sure I had other things to do today, but nah...
You can also put the metal plate over your ears for even more tonal variation
Seth lover designed the himbucker to have a nickel silver/steel cover as this helped with the inductance and sheilding. Any humbucker always sounds bigger,sweeter and more focused with the cover on,as the man who invented it intended...
great idea, the guitar sounds warmer with the plate.
I just found my new favourite channel! Really interesting videos!
I can totally get a Freddie King/Albert King/Peter Green vibe out of this tone.
If you cannot hear a difference you've been playing too loud for too long (ironic, innit?). Great vid Johan. Now I know what "airy" tone means (which is how people describe paf tone: unwaxed covers, slightly microphonic).
+jo sg Thanks! ;-)
You are the King of the sound, hahaha,...it is fantastic. Thanks Johan Segeborn.
I think this is a great quick 'n easy way to know if you want to put covers on your hb's
Very cool ! Enjoyed watching,cheers.
Wow!
It sounds kinda weaker of course but also nicer somehow. It's not just the high-end for me (don't have much hearing left for that anyways), it's mostly the tamed boomy low-end that sounds so much more pleasant with your basic scraper.
I will start to look out for suitable metal parts throughout the apartment from now on, thanks!
+DerEchteBold Thanks! :-)
An alternative to the scraper. If you by chance bought a cheapish solder iron they give you a plate with a Y cutout in it thats pops out to use as a stand when your iron is in standby. Perfect size and shape for this application :)
The pickup was very bright without the cover. The cover mellowed out the sound giving it a more sweet texture.
+Eric Stigliano Yeah, on darker pickup it might not work as well
Definitely takes some of the "hair" off, really smoothes it out - nice!
The sound of the pickup without the solid steel scraper is what I prefer.
+Platinum Black Thanks
Amazing trick!!! Congratulations
+Ton Thanks! :-)
Always such a humbling fellow.
Awesome videos brother.
Always enjoy your videos..Thank you and hope you're doing well.
Tone wise I didn't hear a significant difference. But I did hear a gain reduction of the pickups output. Same results by backing off the volume on the guitar. Or why not install a flat face pickup cover? Cool that you're always experimenting with new ideas! Rock on brother.
I like the seagulls screaming in the intro :)
Really great and interesting test ..as always !
Thank you !
I used an old boy scout knife blade.Now I'm always prepared for a jam.
alanshadyvally -and you get to solo first...Alway I’m sure! ✌️🤪🎸🎶🎵🎶🎵
Seen somewhere a guy took the adjustable pole pieces out of his humbucker and just left the one side with the slugs in and it made it sound more like a single coil.
+Ken Chuba interesting, Have to try that too :-)
Compresses the dynamic range of the treble frequencies... Interesting. Definitely warmer and more consistent sound (volume wise).
Tried this on my G&L neck P90 that is too hot and it sure did tame it a lot. Nice tip! Thanks
Use piece of diamond plate. It won't sound any better but it'll look cooler!
The SG has more output and sounds brighter w/o the plate.
I tied a dinner plate, but the macaroni caused feed back.
haha, wow, that really helps lowering the harshness of the treble
+Carlos Reyes Thanks Carlos, it will probably sound amazing with JBLs
Even the attack besides the tone changed...clever idea!
Ah, van Helsing, can i do it with a cross. The sounds of the night, my children.
Very cool trick!! Thanks!