Figured i'd show you the sure fire way to get a cover (or change the cover!) on a Neck pickup on a Telecaster.

Right then - theres two parts to this - the practical and the theory - so lets get stuck into the fun bit first! The practical!

1. Get your neck pickup - if its brand new, fresh off the winder, get it magnetised! (North top, because its clockwise wind, assuming you've stuck to standard!) - always worth changing the magnets before the cover goes on (and the same for the bridge re: the base) just incase the extra metal plays havoc with the charging magnets (more on that later )

If you've got an "existing" pickup that needs a new cover - you've going to have to get the old one off. A slightly risky job, so go steady first of all.

The covers got little tabs on there, get those unsoldered from any joints on the coil (should, in most cases, be connected to the negative side of the coil/the ground wire) and get the tabs bent back up straight.

Now, fill a shallow bowl with a bit of boiling water from kettle, and lay the pickup "top down" into it - give it a minute or two to melt the wax thats in there (holding the cover in place) - give it a gentle wiggle, and it'll pop right off. The water wont hurt anything in there - coppers all insulated, and rated up to about 300-400c before it'll fail - just dont snag anything, and dont force anything

2. The new cover - get a grinding tool (I like a dremel with the little angle grinder disc myself, but anything - rough sand paper, file, whatever your comfy with - as long as its capable of taking off the plating and exposing the base material) and remove the plating from the inside face of the "back" legs (makes them easier to bend into place) and the outside face of the front leg (you need to solder onto that bit!)

3.If your pickups not got a layer of tape around the coil - honestly? Probably worth fitting on - 90% of the "It worked before i put the cover on!!" faults i see, are covers going onto unprotected coil. Get it wrapped up, get it completely safe from snagging.

4. Give the cover a bit of a squeeze to close up the opening and get it on! right down as far as it'll go - dont force it further then it wants to be. If you never get the legs bent over, dont sweat on it - the wax will hold it all together anyway - but you should have enough to be able to get a bit of a bend on there. Back legs sit at the back, front leg goes in the"wire hole"

5. Grab something that'll give you a bit of leverage, and get the legs bent over - i like the flat face on the end of a pair of pliers, but honestly? Anything that'll save your fingers. Bit of wood, screwdriver, bit of stale bread - whatever you fancy - by grinding the faces of the cover, you've saves yourself having to exert a huge amount of force on the thing, so its not too tricky at this point. Remember too, brass bends easier then Nickel Silver (... more on THAT later!)

6. Once the covers on, just the simple job of soldering it up - tin that front leg and aim to make your connection there. If your going for 3 way wiring, you can connect the cover to the negative side of the coil (the start) because they both need to head off to ground - if your doing 4 way or phase reversing - solder a dedicated ground wire to the front tab (thats what i'm doing here - yellow wire)

Once thats done - you've cracked it! Get it off to the wax bath, and Roberts your mams live in lover!

Now - the Theory!

Neck pickups on Telecasters almost always have a metal cover over them - it was initially designed (we think!) to help combat "the aerial effect" - essentially, a faraday cage around the coil to stop it picking up random external interference - it works, but considering most other single coils dont actually need it, its become something thats a little more form then function nowadays - so yeah, Telecasters have neck pickup covers because Telecasters have neck pickup covers.

BUT - this actually does effect the tone - weirdly, traditionally, a Tele neck pickup is one of the few pickups were people really "want" brass covers (brass has a habit of sucking out top end) - but its what was used originally, so its still very much in demand.

However, we know now that brass is "bad" and Nickel silver is "better" (as in, its more transparent - the pickup sounds closer to the "uncovered" version with Nickel then it does in brass (the fact we very rarely atually hear uncovered Tele necks is something that alot of people dont realise when making this choice, but hey - dont shoot the messenger )

So yeah - you can fit brass covers, Nickel silver covers or no cover at all if you want.

Now, heres where things get a little bit weird!

Theres an arguement with humbuckers that unplated nickel silver covers sound different to plated ones because of the copper underplate (i did a post on it a while back) - doesn't make a lick of difference on a humbucker.

BUT - on a Telecaster? It actually does! the magnets being right up against the cover, and the cover being entirely closed between string and pole, cause all sorts of weird and wonderful things to happen.

so - if your in for "tonal purity" from a Tele neck? (something you've likely never actually heard ) - it runs like this, "most pure" to "most effected"

1. Uncovered - as "true" as it comes

2. Unplated Nickel Silver

3. Plated without copper Nickel Silver (but they dont actually exist!)

4. Plated WITH copper Nickel Silver (they DO exist!)

5. Unplated Brass.

6. Plated without copper brass (again... dont exist! Might as well be unicorn spit at this point )

7. Plated with copper brass (Do exist!)

Now, the perverse thing in all this, is that 90% of the pickups we've heard over our lifetimes, have all been fitted with Plated with a copper underplate, on brass - literally the "worst" combination for "treble suck" - BUUUUT - its the norm, so thats what we actually "like" from a Telecaster

So aye, if your a Tele player? Hate the neck? Think its a bit muddy and murky? The cover is most likely the cause, and you can swap them out... but you'll have so little frame of reference to actually know if you'll like it or not, its a bit of a coin toss.

And there we go! That wasn't all that painful actually! Tele covers, the how and why! (now lets see if i can get these photos to display in a semi sensible order!)