A lot of Humbuckers today come without covers. What is the reason for this?
Jeff Beck was the first player in the 60’s I saw that removed the cover from his Late 50’s Les Paul. He told me he removed them because of uncontrollable feedback using high powered amplification and speaker systems. I started removing covers from my Humbuckers thinking I would sound like Jeff and looking to see if my pickups were the same color as his. I believe Jeff was the first to start the fad of removing covers from humbuckers that exposed the bobbins. Jeff’s Les Paul had a Double Cream and a Zebra (Cream & Black) Humbucking Bobbin. Removing the covers also helped get a little more output from the pickup. Jeff raised the 6 height adjust (Fillister Head) screws so the bottom of the screw head was about equal to the top of the bobbin (not screwed into the recessed hole in the bobbin). His pickups were setup this way when he recorded “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” using a guitar I gave him called a “Tele-Gib”. It was a Telecaster with a cut down 3 position bridge and Two Humbuckers t
