LOVE YOUR LES PAUL

1 REMOVE YOUR PICKUP COVERS

his is one of the earliest modifications players performed on their humbucker-equipped Gibsons. It was generally thought at the time that removing the covers made the pickups sound louder. In fact, players who removed their covers were probably just hearing a little more treble, because the capacitive effect of the covers caused high-frequency roll-off. Loose covers can also be a cause of microphonic feedback. Vintage nickel-silver covers were very thin and kept treble loss to a minimum, but later covers–especially thick brass ones–did the upper frequency response no favours.