The Guitar Refinishing and Restoration Forum

[greysun]

Hey all! Hope all is well... question about aging/dying pickup covers...

I ordered 2 parchment jazzmaster pickup covers from Warmoth, and they look great.

I ordered a parchment strat pickup cover and parchment pickguard to match them, and while those 2 things match... The jazzmaster pickup covers are darker (not quite cream dark, but significantly darker than the strat/pg).

I actually think it's kinda cool with the jazzy covers being darker than the guard, but the strat cover not being the same as the jazzy's is messing me up.

I checked around and the parchment jazzy's just don't match the parchment strat. Dunno why (maybe a seasoned board member knows?)

Can I somehow darken my strat cover and/or lighten my jazzy covers? Coffee or tea maybe?

Lemme know and thanks in advance!
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[Johnny Halo]

I have had success with the coffee method for pup covers and knobs.

It does depend, however, on the type of plastic used for the covers/knobs. A few that I have tried were not affected at all by the coffee - as white as when I started.

[fliski guitars]

I wish there was a universal colour for parchment/cream etc, it seems everyone's are different and it's super obvious on a scratchplate

Would a week in the sun help darken them up at all?

I've tried coffee and had no luck, I think it needs to be scuffed a bit first which isnt always practical.

If you smoke then its no problem, just huff on the plastic to get condensation on it then slowly breathe smoke on it, takes a while but looks great (the smell fades after a bit)
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[Strat-Head 51]

I hear ya ! I ordered three cream colored pickup covers to match my cream colored pickguard and they are somewhat darker than the guard.
I really didnt like it at first, but its starting to grow on me ! Looks kinda Kool actually................................
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[greysun]

hmmm...

They're only $2.50, so I think I'll buy a couple extra and experiment. My pickup winds were wide for the strat pup, so I'd like to only place this pickup into its cover once after wax potting is completed.

Maybe a 1000-1200 grit sand/scuff and a few days in some coffee, followed by a buffing would get me where I needed to be. I wonder how hot these can get before deforming?

I'm definitely not a smoker, so that's not an option.

Again - I thought I would care about the covers not matching the guard, but I kinda like it - now I don't like that one cover matches the guard and the rest don't. #guitarbuilderproblems #hashtagsaredumboutsideoftwitter #dontcare

I think I'm over caffienated this morning...
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[greysun]

Hey everyone - I wanted to get your thoughts here. I ordered some parts from Warmoth (surprisingly, they have some pretty good prices on some of their hardware AND are the only place I could find smaller knobs that fit my stacked pots)... I got 1 cream pickup cover, and a few parchment covers.

My original problem was that my jazzmaster pickup covers were darker than the parchment pickguard and strat pickup cover.

I put an old knob in some coffee and it did dye it, but it was DARK, and it wouldn't come lighter, so I don't think that's a viable option.

I thought it would be an issue, but I like the darker pup covers with this build. It might be cause it's a strat-jazzmaster hybrid in a custom color, and the pieced together look kinda makes sense - I dunno.

You can kinda see where I'm going in these pictures. The first is the original pup cover, which matches the guard, but not the jazzy's



I asked warmoth to send me their darkest parchment strat pup covers, which almost match the jazzy's, but are a different hue (the pics may not show this well, but it's JUST slightly off).



I also asked warmoth to send me their lightest cream strat pup cover, which is definitely darker than the jazzy's, but not ugly.



I go back and forth between the cream strat covers, cause it kinda goes with the pieced together look a little more, and the parchment strat covers cause they match a little more.

What do you guys think I should do here? Curious to see what the board thinks...
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[dvlsadvc8t]

Are the Jazzmaster pups Fender? If so why not just buy Fender single coil covers and they should match exactly: http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/covers_genuinefenderstrat.htm

[ElJay]

Wow..Really crammin' 'em in there aren't ya?

Why not buy white ones and dye them yourself, that way you'll be guaranteed that all three will be the same color.
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[greysun]

[gregjf]

I actually like leaving the single coil in the middle white for contrast.............. it doesn't look so fussy and highlights the Jazzmaster pickups which make this guitar so cool.

[gregjf]

I found an interesting article about Jazzmaster pickups:

http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=jazzmaster-pickups-guitars

[greysun]

The whole thing is actually parchment - pickguard, all the covers - there's just such a HUGE variance in what everyone deems "parchment". It's like anything that's lighter than cream, but darker than white, falls to parchment. Kind of annoying now that I think about it.

I thought about keeping the strat one lighter, but then I feel like I'm deliberately trying to hide it and that bugged me for some reason.

Yea, the JM pups were interesting to wind - the neck is hotter than the bridge, and it's harder to wind them being so thin. The strat pickup wasn't too hard, but the coil is fat on it, so I'm worried about getting the cover on it after I wax pot it. Might have to get it in there before the wax fully dries and hope I never have to take it out.
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[gregjf]

I went through the same thing finding the right pickup covers that weren't too creme colored.... that was some time ago and I can't remember where I found them.