Potted or Unpotted?

Most manufacturers “pot” their pickups. They’re sealed in a protective coating of wax. Why? Because potting may eliminate unpleasing microphonics. It can also protect a pickup from damage during installation and throughout the rest of its life.

So potting conveniently gets rid of a potential headache for manufacturers. They don’t want to deal with ongoing repairs.

As tone connoisseurs, we think potting isn’t such a good idea. Unpotted pickups yield the best sound — period. The vintage guitars of the 1950s—the same guitars every collector wants to own—were all equipped with unpotted pickups. The tone of these vintage unpotted pickups blows away today’s drenched-in-wax pickups.

As far as damage goes, just tell the people installing your pickups that they’re unpotted. And install them as soon after delivery as you can. Good communication and awareness can avoid most problems.

If you still want your Fervor pickups potted, we can do it. But we firmly believe unpotted pickups give the best results.