potted and unpotted

[Thrull]

I was about to order a mule neck pick up and I came to the spot where i choose from potted and unpotted. What exactly is that? effin noob hahah

[djl]

Wax potting is basically adding wax to the pickup in order to get rid of the small air pockets that can potentially cause microphonic feedback at high gain levels. Pickups that aren't potted will have a very subtly different sound that can sound a bit more "acoustic" - they tend to be best for a clean type overall sound, eg jazz/blues. If you play high gain, you prob want potted pickups as unpotted might "squeal" at high gain levels.

[Thrull]

now that is informative! thanks a boatload!

[darkbluemurder]

Wax potting is basically adding wax to the pickup in order to get rid of the small air pockets that can potentially cause microphonic feedback at high gain levels. Pickups that aren't potted will have a very subtly different sound that can sound a bit more "acoustic" - they tend to be best for a clean type overall sound, eg jazz/blues. If you play high gain, you prob want potted pickups as unpotted might "squeal" at high gain levels.

Very good explanation. And it does not take a lot of volume at high gain levels to make unpotted and loose wound pickups squeal uncontrollably. So for high gain and/or high volume playing, potting is simply more practical. But my foremost concern for a stage guitar is functionality - that must be 100%. I can tolerate only 80% tone but not only 80% functionality so I would choose potted any day.

Cheers Stephan

[Twinfan]

^ same here, and BKP take potting into account when winding the pickup so the tone will be pretty much the same...

[FELINEGUITARS]

If it's going in a BC Rich with preamp circuits too I would vote for potted - there can be a lot of gain going on there

[Thrull]

definitely going potted