Main Description

These covers, are 52mm spacing, which means, when measured E to e, center to center across the poles, that spacing, is 52mm. (actually 52.2mm, but you’ll excuse me rounding a little).

Single coil covers may seem a fairly innocent little part, they are, after all, just little lumps of injection molded plastic that sits on top of a pickup, protects the coil, and makes them look nice.

Now, really? That’s all they are! But, as with all things guitar parts, there's a little more hiding in plain sight, so, they do requite a bit more a write up

Pole Spacing

These covers, are 52mm spacing, which means, when measured E to e, center to center across the poles, that spacing, is 52mm. (actually 52.2mm, but you’ll excuse me rounding a little).

Unfortunately, that isn’t a universal spacing – and single coils do exist in other sizes.

So, you can, potentially have the following

52.5mm - common on far eastern produced pickups

50mm – not as common as they once where, and again, usually a far eastern specialty.

48mm – fairly rare nowadays, once a common “neck” spacing on cheap guitars

52.8mm – the “original” Fender® single coil spacing, getting rarer nowadays, but VERY accurate historic recreations will still use that one.

And then there 52mm – which has become “The Standard”, and is used by most pickup manufacturers nowadays, at least on the after market side of things. Seymour Duncan®, DiMarzio®, Axesrus®, and, frankly, most others, will all be using 52mm.

Fairly straight forward at this point I suppose. Like most things when you get into “parts of parts” there’s some that fit some things, and some that don’t… but that brings us on to the elephant in the room.

Colours vs Spacing

As you’ve probably spotted, we’ve got loads of different colours in these covers. Plenty of options to play with.

However, the factory that make the 52mm spaced covers, DON’T MAKE ANY OTHER SIZES – I can’t stress this enough – if you’ve got your heart set on fitting a lovely set of purple covers to your Encore®, your likely going to be searching an awful long time. There's no magic wand I can wave to get the molds from factory #1 into the hands of Factory #2 – I wish there was!

So, as a quick run down… it goes like this.

52mm – loads of colours! Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Purple, all those cool Fender® colours like Vintage and Mint? No problems! And, obviously, all the normal stuff like Black and White

52.5/50/48mm – Black, some form of creamy/ivory (it changes from year to year!), Parchment, Mint (which is a little too green!) and White… You also, sometimes, see Chrome and Gold, but they’re usually a very poor quality finish, with a lot of imperfection.

They, also, come in different “heights” – a “normal” single coil cover will be about 12.5/13mm tall (which means the cover never comes into contact with the start and finish of the coil wires) – the far eastern spacing's come in 13.5mm and 14.5mm (and the usually have a “notch” to keep the coil wires safe from being crushed)

52.8mm – these are pretty niche at this point, being a purely historic consideration, so I’ve only ever seen them in Black, White and “Aged white” (which, again, changes from year to year) AND, they seem to only ever turn up in Nylon, with a slightly different bevel on the top face.

Pole Diameter

Now, this ones a bit “nice within a niche”, but whilst I’m typing, I might as well cover everything!

Single coils come with, potentially, 3 different pole diameters – 3/16” (4.75mm), 5mm and ¼” (6.35mm) – thankfully, 3/16” and 5mm are so close, that they’ll take the same covers (so much so that there doesn’t exist a specific 3/16”/5mm cover – it’s just a one size fits all thing thankfully) – but, ¼” poles require a specialist cover

So we start to see, there’s actually quite a lot to consider when it comes to single coil covers!

We’ve got at least, 15 different colours, in potentially, 5 pole spacing's, and 2 heights, and 2 different versions of pole diameter – it becomes, very quickly, a bit of a mine field!

So, to close off this thrill ride, remember, these covers are 52mm pole spacing. Chances are, your pickups are too, but, please, just measure them if your in any doubt. Centre to centre, E to e pole (our, more accurately, outside to outside, then subtract the diameter of one of the poles – and remember, you’ve got about 0.4mm of “wiggle room”)

Colours – in depth!

Remember when I said all the factories don’t have access to all the colours (See "Pole Spacing" ? There's actually a little more to it then that, and it can cause a few niggles – and they come from a few different angles, so its worth while me spelling them out too.

The Knobs/tips/pickguards also come from different factories, AND, humbucker bobbins are the same, different factory (and different material!) – so there is some potential for “colour mismatch” on that front.

Now, rather then lambast the entire industry for not communicating within itself, I’ll list everything here where you’ll get a good match with Axesrus® parts/where you won’t.

Black – Knobs/plates/tips/Humbucker bobbins – perfect match.

I don’t exactly relish the idea of describing colours like this, so I’ll keep them as brief as possible. Black! Its black. Gloss Black. Don’t know what black looks like? Close your eyes…. Its that. Pairs well with most other colours frankly – tread carefully trying to pair it with white, or you risk looking like Robert Palmers backing band.

White - Knobs/plates/tips/Humbucker bobbins – perfect match.

Its white! Clean, crisp, white! We use a high opacity white, so it looks very clean, and doesn’t change colour when fitted onto a pickup. Again, like black – it’ll pair well with most other colours, but if can look a little “new”, especially if you go white on white.

Parchment - Knobs/plates/tips/Humbucker bobbins –perfect match.
I’d best describe parchment as looking like old newspaper – white with a slight yellow tint to it. Pairs well with everything EXCEPT white plates (although, theres some argument that it does mimic what happened with the original Stratocaster®, where the pickup covers yellowed faster then the pickguard) – gets around that “it looks too new” thing.

Neon Green - Knobs/tips/bobbins –perfect match. (No plates in Neon green)
Bonkers colours! Its bright, bright, green – it does what it says on the tin. I’d probably not suggest mounting it onto any of the Tortoise shell plates, but anything else is going to be fair game as far as I’m concerned!

Purple - Humbucker bobbins –perfect match. (No plates, knobs or tips in Purple)
Same as Neon Green – big and bright and vivid, a really nice purple. Looks like something out of a kids toy box. Again, don’t try to shoe horn it onto a historic build and expect it to look great, but, keep the plate simple? It’ll look great!

Bright Red – Humbucker Bobbins/plates – perfect match. Our “Red” Knobs and tips DO NOT MATCH

Bright red – not that claret red you sometimes see on guitar plastics – its RED! A lovely, vibrant, in your face red. It’ll look great on black plates, white plates, pearloid plates, it’ll look decent on a 4 ply red Tortoise!...maybe.

Ivory – Knobs/tips/bobbins – perfect match, Ivory pickguards DO NOT MATCH

Ivory is a pig, it’s a slightly orangey creamy buttery colour – we’re really strict with it, and we make sure that our knobs, tips and humbucker bobbins all match… but we’ve only got so much control over all the factories, so Ivory plates? (And Humbucker mounting rings!) – don’t expect them to even get close to the same shade as the single coil covers and UFO knobs.

And, if theres one thing I’ve learnt in this game, its that “similar but different” plastics look weird when they’re next to each other – so, if you love the idea of a pseudo-nicotine yellowed single coil? Don’t try and do the same with the pickguard – go different – Tortoise Shells, Black, Mint A and B all look fantastic. (or go parchment, and move the guitar stand into the sun for a few months)

And that covers all the humbucker bobbins we carry – so If you’re modding a Fat Strat®, all fairly self-explanatory. You can have full Black, Neon Green, White or Parchment – bright Red and Purple you can match up to humbucker bobbins, but you can’t the knobs and tips, so it might be worth exploring different knob styles (a good rule of thumb? If you can’t match knobs to pickups, match to hardware! Metal knobs!)

Thankfully, once you take humbucker bobbins out of the mix, it gets a bit simpler!

Mint Green - Knobs/tips/ perfect match (no humbucker bobbins) Mint B doesn’t match (but Mint A does!)
Mint Green is one of those weird attempts by the industry to “mimic” the aging process, and that original idea has kind of been lost a little along the way. In short, the early-ish Strat® single coils were made of Nitrate plastic, which had a lovely habit of going a very light green colour as it aged (Nylon, the earlier version, aged to something similar to parchment)

As time went by, they tried to make plates with a similar idea, and whilst the covers worked, and look pretty close to that original idea, pickguards… don’t. Mint A is actually close (but its rare!) but Mint B, in all its forms is no where near mint covers/knobs, so don’t get your hopes up on an all mint affair.

Mint covers though, look fantastic on tortoise shells, parchments, ivory, pearls… there aren’t many pickguards where they don’t look fantastic… except mint (and white… I don’t like them on white)

Dark Green – Knobs/Tips – Perfect Match (No Humbucker bobbins – don’t get confused – our green bobbins are “neon green”, and no green plates)

Almost a bottle green – a little dingy for my tastes, but I suppose, not without its charms. If its possible for a colour like green to look classy, the dark greens the way to do it. Paired up with a black plate, and matching knobs and tips, and its quite pretty! (Me? I’d still go for the Neon green myself… if your going green, you don’t want anyone questioning if you meant it! Go GREEN!)

Dark Red - Knobs/Tips – Perfect Match (No Humbucker bobbins ) Red plates don’t match
A fairly dark, blood red for my money. Again, like the green, not without its charms, but I’d still pick bright red myself. Almost a “mucky” red for my tastes. Again, you won’t go far wrong mounting it to a black plate with matching knobs.

Yellow – Knobs/Tips – Perfect Match (No bobbins, no plates)

A very bright, lively yellow! Works on most plates to be honest, but as with most of these colours, avoid the Tortoise shells. We don’t actually do yellow humbucker bobbins, but based on the pickups I’ve got here, our yellow is a very close match to DiMarzios humbuckers.

Blue – Knobs/Tips – Perfect Match (No Bobbins, no Plates)

Not my favourite colour in all this, a fairly light, muted blue. Almost a Sky blue. Nice on a light plate like Parchment or white, or, the old faithful? Black plate!

Baby Pink – Knobs/Tips – Perfect Match (No Bobbins, no Plates)
Baby pink! My favourite colour on the planet (I kid you not!) quite soft and subtle, and in isolation, quite nice. I have, however, never found a way of mounting it on a guitar that didn’t look a bit “odd” – almost too much a point of interest, that they overshadow the guitar I suppose. I wager the only hope of it working as “a whole” is going to be on an all black guitar, black plate, black hardware, and literally have the pickup covers/knobs as the accent!

Hot Pink - Knobs/Tips – Perfect Match (No Bobbins, no Plates)

Very bright, very vivid pink! Almost a Fuscia. Like all the weird colours – its not going to be for everything, buts it’s a little more forgiving them baby pink (for whatever reason!) – looks really cool on white pearls, whites, and black plates.

Vintage - Knobs/Tips – Perfect Match (No Bobbins, no Plates)

Vintage is a funny colour – its almost a bit of a car crash – its part Ivory, part Mint – its origins are from the same idea as mint as far as I can tell, trying to mimic that “nitrate green” from the 60s, and it turns up quite often on Fender® guitars (they, unhelpfully, call it “Aged White”… but they also use that for Parchment… and Ivory)

For me, it’s the better version of Ivory – not as creamy/buttery, slightly more muted, slightly better behaved, and, because pickguards don’t exist in this colour? It makes the decision for you when It comes to plate colour! Looks fantastic on Black and Tortoise again. Maybe a bit heavy for clean white, but I’ve seen them on Parchment plates looking great.

And finally….

Chrome.

Now, we don’t do Chrome knobs and tips in the traditional sense, and by that, I mean, we don’t make plastic knobs and tips in chrome – but, we do make metal knobs in chrome… and they match.

And, the mirrored silver pickguards are a perfect match too.

More importantly though, is that Chrome humbucker covers match up too.

Frankly, if your going for chrome single coil covers, go for Metal knobs, the quality of finishing will be far superior if the plastic/silver knobs I’ve seen are anything to go on.

Now, Chrome covers aren’t actually metal – they’re PVC that’s been spray painted silver – but, the quality is actually really good! I can’t find any fault with them (and I was the one that put a stop to our 52.5mm spaced Chrome ones, many years ago, because they weren’t good enough!)

They’re about as wild as your going to get when it comes to a single coil cover, and I’m not sure theres a right or wrong colour combo – but go in eyes open. Mirrored finishes look cool, but they’re finger print magnets!