If you have ever seen a guitar player having difficulties trying to stop the terrible whistling and howling of electronic feedback blasting out through the onstage amplifier, you've very possibly been witnessing an electric guitar with pickups in need of wax potting. It's worth noting that there are of course a few other reasons why an electric guitar may feedback excessively, one example is if a guitarist is facing their amp at close distance, while performing at high volume. This can create a feedback loop between the pickups and the amplifier.
So what exactly has wax got to do with the guitar's pickups and how possibly can it help out?
When wax potting a pickup it is submerged into a molten mixture of 80% paraffin wax and 20% beeswax, and the temperature for the molten wax must be close to 140 Degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature is important as if it's too low the wax is not going to circulate, and too high can damage the pickup's component parts. The explanation for mixing paraffin and beeswax is that this combination appears to saturate the coil efficiently and will become hard but not brittle.
Nearly all guitars on the market arrive wax potted as standard. For certain kinds of guitar pickups, for instance the bridge pickup on a Fender Telecaster, this process is a lot more significant than ever due to this pickup being particularly susceptible to electronic feedback. Fender pickups have always been wax potted, even back in the glory days of the 1950s.
Interestingly the mythical Patent Applied For humbucker manufactured by Gibson in the 1950s was unpotted. Some guitar players love how they sound as for some, these pickups generated an airiness to their sound that can be lost during the potting process. Consequently some aftermarket pickup suppliers produce humbucker designs which come unpotted. Numerous guitar players feel that the heavy potting procedure will dull the sound, other people believe the process is definitely important for problem-free performing. Another perspective is that for guitar players who only play at low volumes, the waxing process is not so significant.
Even top guitarists who utilise humbucker pickups are different in their opinion of this, which signifies that this is not something which is written in stone. Some guitarists even incorporate the electronic squeal as part of their sound.
So to sum up, it seems that Fender style electric guitars should be wax potted for problem-free playing while the humbucker pickups of Gibson style electric guitars is still very much a personal preference, based on the volume you'd be playing at as well as the sound you are seeking.
The author has played in various bands over the years and owns a variety of electric guitars. He loves to customise his instruments and highly recommends the excellent replacement guitar pickups from TubGuitarPickups.co.uk. including a great range of Telecaster pickups.
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