gold plated neck pup cover ''Q''

[huckdeuceman]

Hi' all..
I am putting together a partscaster with gold hardwear, my question is I have
a set of texas sp pups going in and want to change the neck cover to gold plated cover, do I have to cut any wires or can I just pull back the tabs and pop the cover off, or should I not do it for fear of loosing the sound on the neck pup?, I know the neck pup has three wires, so is one connected to the cover?..Thanks in advance!!
PS, have heard the cover on the texas sp's are made of nickle silver and gives
it a different sound?, don't want to mess it up!

[KokoTele]

If you look at the base of the pickup, you'll see that one of those wires is soldered to a tab on the cover. It's usually the tab that goes through the slot on the bobbin, so you'll have to remove that wire and clean up the solder to take the cover off.

Also, you should know that there may be wax in there that keeps the cover stuck to the coil. It's often just a thin layer, so if you put it upside down on a warming device (like a candle warmer/coffee cup warmer) it'll melt enough that you can slip the bobbin out without force.

When you put your new cover on, you'll need to re-solder that ground wire. Not a big deal, but it does require a little finesse. You want to get some sandpaper or something to scuff the surface of that tab, and then with a good & hot soldering iron apply some solder to that tab. Just enough to give it a shiny solder surface. This is called "tinning," and it makes it much easier to solder the wire to it.

If you reuse the ground wire, it will have solder on it already so it will already be tinned.

The cover on your Texas Specials (and other pickups) don't really create a "different sound," but they do cut off the highs a little bit. It's a subtle difference, but noticeable.

[huckdeuceman]

Thanks for the info!!...I thought I might have to do a little work? and ""Thanks'' for explaining the process to me!, I could have gotten myself in a mess, haha...