Tom Holmes Pickups

[Maven]

There seems to be a general consesus that these kick ass. My question is you can get them wax potted or not, right? What are the advantages/disadvantages of wax potting? The Duncan Antiquites are not wax potted, correct? Educate me.

[bluesjuke]

One benefit of potting is that it helps keeps your coils from shifting.

[AlexF]

Its really down to how much gain you use and what volume level you are playing at. Unpotted ones will squeal before potted ones, just how soon they squeal changes from pickup to pickup. Ultra picky vintage guys reckon they can hear a difference in tone and feel and prefer the unpotted for purity of sound. By the way I've owned many many high end humbuckers - Holmes's probably shaded it as the very best. Were they worth all that cost? Nope. They were perhaps a millionth of a percent better than Antiquities or .... (put your favourite boutique model here).
Hope to help.
Al

[wec]

Yes, Tom will either wax pot them or not depending on your choice. Like Alex said, there are people who will jump in here and say potting makes a huge difference... I have talked to Tom Holmes about potting pickups at length...his response was that you cannot tell the difference. He told me he had done tests with people who swore by unpotting and that they could always tell the difference but when presented with actually picking the correct pickup and hearing the difference, they could not do it. FWIW, I get mine potted...if you do happen to play at higher gains or loud volumes, they won't squeal.