Uncovered, unpotted Mules. Sound awesome or issues?

[Twinfan]

I'm going to be getting some Mules for my Gibson Les Paul in the near future, and after reading some of the topics on the board recently I think I may have my Mules unpotted.  I'm after a classic Les Paul rock tone - think Free, ZZ Top, Led Zep, Kiss, Slash, Lenny Kravitz etc.  I was thinking of going for zebras too (as I like the look) but wondered if you could have unpotted, uncovered Mules?  Would they feedback like mad?  Thought they might sound awesome, open and airy?

My Les Paul looks like this one, so do you think Zebras or Chrome covers?

[5F6-A]

zebras for a 70's look.. chrome for a more vintage look... me personally I'd go with the  covered ones.

 :roll:

[Crazy_Joe]

Covered

[deg0ey]

I love my chrome - so that gets my vote, never been a zebra fan...but your guitar is so classic looking that it could prolly pull off the vintage. Hmmm good luck deciding :drink:

[CaffeineJunkie]

i'd get aged nickel pups, like the Mules in the Gallery

[Fourth Feline]

Another vote for covered from me.
Nickel if your bridge and saddles are nickel, but chrome if they are chrome. (sorry if that sounds obvious).

I got nickel covers on mine, as the Gibson site said the fittings on mine were nickel.

WRONG !

I was therefore to discover that the rest of the guitar's hardware was in fact  chrome. The slight yellow/blue clash of nickel/chrome hues looks a bit 'out' but is not the end of the world.

 I cannot comment on unpotted though, for whilst I wish I had have ordered mine un-potted, I too was unsure of the possibility of 'pickup 'squeal' at the time so went ahead with potted.  

Regards,

Derek.

[keith]

Twinfan I have zebras in my les Paul and I think they look great but each to his own so they say you can see them at the link below.
cheers
keith

[Philly Q]

Zebra in the neck, black in the bridge - would look great against the cream surrounds and the sunburst finish.

If the hardware was nickel I might go for covers, but chrome covers on a sunburst can look a bit "LP copy", I think.  Having said that, I'm going to get chrome covers when I buy pickups for my "The Paul", but it's quite a dull-looking guitar so the chrome will brighten it up a bit.

[38thBeatle]

Chrome definately.

[Tricalibur]

I think it would look cool with chrome rings and the zebras. See you can have both. Everybody wins! :D

[Tim]

Don;t worry about microphonics-if you buy unpotted humbuckers from BKP they won't squeal.I've worked long and hard at looking at the problem of microphony and have found a way of stopping squealing even under extreme gain. I use 2 x 100w Marshall stacks in stereo and I play unpotteds in quite a few of my LPS-no problem!!

[dave_mc]

^ [rhetorical question since it's presumably a closely guarded secret] good god, how the hell do you do that, tim?  :o [/rhetorical question]

that'd be awesome. so in other words, if you were after a more vintage tone, you'd go unpotted, and still get no squealing? and it'd still sound like the old un-potted ones?

Shouldn't you be advertising this a bit more? :o

:drink:

[deg0ey]

Shouldn't you be advertising this a bit more? :o

Buuut, don't all the other pickup manufacturers make their pickups unpotted anyway, purely because they're too lazy to pot them...So people wouldn't necessarily believe him over all the other people that it works without microphonics (unlike everyone else that makes stuff)

However, now I'm just rambling :P

[Twinfan]

Cheers for the info Tim, but you have unpotted covered Mules don't you?  What about unpotted AND uncovered?????

[HTH AMPS]

I've used unpotted 'buckers and they do sound great if you're playing the sort of stuff you mentioned (ZZ Top, Free, Cream).  The last unpotted 'buckers I used were SD Seth Lovers and Timbuckers (wound by a guy off the LPF).  You can get away with more gain than you'd think with unpotted pickups, it's when they go microphonic when they become unuseable with any decent amount of gain/volume.

I'd go with unpotted zebra Mules.

 :twisted: