Some customers are curious about if our pickup is waxed. The short answer is yes and we do that using vacuum wax potting. Let's clear up a few things in this article.
What is wax potting & vacuum potting?
Wax Potting
As an essential step in manufacturing, wax Potting is the process of immersing guitar and bass pickups in wax to give pickup longer life and clearer signal conversion.
Vacuum Wax Potting
Before being immersed in wax, pickup is put into a vacuum chamber first to remove the air. The vacuum process minimizes the chances of air bubbles.
Why pickup needs potting?
Guitar pickups are a crucial component of an electric guitar, responsible for picking up string vibrations and converting them into an electrical signal. To ensure that they last long and make the best sound, a process of potting is therefore employed. The method solves two main problems microphonics and corrosion.
Small Noise
Guitar pickups tend to produce small irrelevant noise called microphonics, especially under high gain. Any physical vibration from its metal elements can cause microphonics. Wax Potting remedies this problem by coating the metal parts in wax, when dampens, the wax prevents any vibration coming from the coil or pickup parts.
Corrosion
Corrosion from moisture is the main threat to the health of a guitar or bass pickup. Moisture most likely enters the coil around the magnets and damages the pickup. By potting the pickup effectively in wax, we protect the pickup from moisture that comes to its coil and other metal elements.
How to do pickup potting?
Wax Potting
The pickup is put in a mixture of melted wax, typically 80% paraffin and 20% beeswax. Once saturated, the pickup is removed and allowed to cool.
Vacuum Potting
The pickup is placed in a vacuum chamber, and the air is removed. And then put the pickup in the melted wax. Once saturated, the pickup is removed and allowed to cool.