I’ve used MGB pickups on a bunch of builds. I have been putting the metal pick up covers on them that they sell like in the picture. One thing I notice is that when you play them you can get a tinging or clicking noise as you’re jamming and hitting the metal cover. At first I thought this was a cool, novel addition but as time goes by, not so much.
Has anyone else had that experience or worked around it? The thing I really want to know is has anyone put an MGB pick up, like a mini box bucker, under the lid of the cigar box, completely out of sight/reach, thus completely eliminating the tinging problem I describe above? I’m wondering if it will get enough volume, good tone, etc. I’m planning on ttying it as an experiment But thought I’d see if anyone already has any experience doing it.

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The coils are rattling inside the cover. You could wrap the coil parts of the pickup(not the poles) with some tape to make it a snug fit between the cover and the top of the body.

I plan the build around them so that the fretboard is high enough from the box top so that there is clearance to the pickup cover when fretting the last fret. I tried mounting uner the lid and it worked but it didnt have good output,so I cut a hole in the box top that the pickup cover stuck out of. That made it higher than mounting under the lid and also had clearance to the strings when fretted.

Thanks. Post a picture of that if it’s easy. It would help me to see the second scenario you’re describing. Thanks again

How bout a side view pic of the neck & body to further gauge clearance? Are you strumming over the pickup when it makes that noise? If so, just move your strum back or you can adjust by arranging your neck so it’s situated a smidge higher than you normally build? Sounds like you only need an extra 16th to an 8th of an inch more clearance? Good luck on this :)

I use a thin piece of packing foam with boxbuckers to prevent the pickup from bouncing around inside the cover.

If it’s rattling around inside the cover, you can hot glue it down & easily remove it with a heat gun or hair dryer, I have also used 2 sided tape to secure them to the box?

Thanks. It's more an issue of the pick hitting the metal cover as the guitar is strummed. I'm still not sure I have the final answer, but At this point I'm thinking the 3 best options are using non-metal pickup covers, ghosting the pickup, or creating wore distance between the strings and the cover when I build.

How are you holding your pick?

Are you holding it close to the bottom?(Jazz players use this to make their picking quiet.) I use this method.

Holding in the middle? Or close to the top?(These 2 methods usually have issues dragging the top of the guitar and hitting pickup and have that pick clack sound when picking.) This also has problems with pickups being in the way of you strumming. A lot of people have that problem playing Strats cause of the middle pickup when the pickups are raised high.

Hi Jon, I think Brian nailed it earlier. You have three options, well if it was me anyway.

Locate the pickup where you don't strum

Strum in a different location from the pickup

Lower the pickup and forget about the suggestions above.

I'm thinking that changing the pickup cover may just give you a different sound, a deeper more mellow clicking sound, cos you are still going to hit it.

Just my thoughts. Taff

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