Inspired by a Premier Guitar article (
http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/2 ... eck-pickup):
Few players really love the Tele neck pickup. Why is this? I think it has to do with the remarkable sonic differences between the Tele’s two pickups. The bridge pickup has a crystal-clear, loud, and twangy tone, while the neck pickup delivers less volume and has a kind of husky, colorless sound. When you switch from the bridge directly to the neck pickup, it sometimes feels as if something’s wrong. Most players (myself included) don’t like its sound and simply don’t use it. But it’s a shame to only use one pickup in a guitar that offers two!
Most of the muffled sound is caused by the metal cover, especially when it’s not made of German silver (an alloy consisting of copper, nickel, and zinc), so it’s always a good idea to remove the cover to enhance the pickup’s tone. After removing the metal cover, if the coil wire is exposed you can protect it by wrapping it in some pickup tape. The cover is there to provide shielding, and if you don’t want to lose this benefit, install an “open-frame” replacement metal cover. Essentially, this is a ring that protects the pickup, but leaves the top open. This helps the pickup’s tone a lot, yet maintains most of the shielding.
I took my dremel to my neck pickup cover. I'll ground the cover with it's own dedicated ground since I have series switching, and all the cavities and controls will be shielded with copper tape. Anyone else do this, or know/guess what I can expect?
