Gibson R7 Creamery pickup cover test: covers on, covers off!

Next up is the set of pickups that I chose to keep in the '57 Les Paul Goldtop but NAKED!
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That old myth about the removal of pickup covers leading to searing unrivalled lead tones and an increase in valve pummelling output levels will be explored.

Creamery '59 pickups won the day in my 2010 Gibson 1957 R7 re-issue, so moved onto the winner's round and got the covers rudely de-soldered.

Yes, time to remove those covers and do a comparison between covers on and covers off whilst maintaining all other variables. I have removed the covers, to reveal double black coils; no easy task I have to say, as all 4 corners were soldered down. I went in with my big bolt and solder braid but after getting most of it off, I resorted to the Stanley blade and hammer. The solder had wicked between the baseplate and the cover, so only a few hard thumps with the hammer on the blade, which luckily spanned the two joints, were enough to split them.

I re-installed and popped the covers back on from the top and re-strung prior to setting the height from the pickup cover to top of the string as before.
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I did buy some 3/48" nuts which were glued onto the short leg baseplate mount with epoxy so I could use vintage style slotted and aged screws, given that the screws supplied were Phillips and M3 thread.

Spoils the vintage vibe!
Eagle eyed viewers might spot the change from Phillips to slotted heads on the height adjusters.

Hence the need to reset the height but rest assured, I have the pickups at the exact same height as before and then loosened the new strings and popped the unsoldered covers out again.

Ready for the next comparison then, which will be when I play the strings in to maintain this 'scientific' methodology.

Waiting in the wings are 2 lovely Area '59 aged PAF covers from Crazyparts in Germany to complete the test but I am expecting to hear very little change between cover on and cover off, so the addition of new covers will bring it full circle; small though that circle may be. Perhaps so small it's a tiny dot!

Maybe I will keep the covers off though.

Setup is consistent as always, using the Carr Skylark with SM57 and Rode NT1-A that has been sitting unchanged for months now in my front room.

Order of play:
00:00 Intro
00:48 Fingerpicking - covers on (neck)
01:12 Fingerpicking - covers off (neck)
01:37 Fingerpicking - covers on (both)
02:03 Fingerpicking - covers off (both)
02:29 Fingerpicking - covers on (bridge)
02:54 Fingerpicking - covers off (bridge)
03:17 Chords - covers on (neck)
03:44 Chords - covers off (neck)
04:08 Chords - covers on (both)
04:32 Chords - covers off (both)
04:55 Chords - covers on (bridge)
05:21 Chords - covers off (bridge)
05:44 Single note - covers on (neck)
06:01 Single note - covers off (neck)
06:27 Single note - covers on (both)
06:46 Single note - covers off (both)
07:07 Single note - covers on (bridge)
07:29 Single note - covers off (bridge)
07:55 Chords - covers on (neck)
08:16 Chords - covers off (neck)
08:37 Chords - covers on (both)
08:58 Chords - covers off (both)
09:21 Chords - covers on (bridge)
09:42 Chords - covers off (bridge)
10:03 Amp overdrive - covers on (neck)
10:17 Amp overdrive - covers off (neck)
10:32 Amp overdrive - covers on (both)
10:47 Amp overdrive - covers off (both)
11:01 Amp overdrive - covers on (bridge)
11:18 Amp overdrive - covers off (bridge)

So what do you think? Any difference? I'll leave it up to you to decide but I certainly have my view!

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