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
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? 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!
Fender®,
Squier®, Strat® and Stratocaster® are registered trademarks of Fender
Musical Instruments Corporation and Axesrus® has no affiliation
with FMIC