Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

[telepicker]

Hi, Hope this doesnt appear to be a dumb question, but I have an old tele copy guitar and I was wondering if I could actually recolor/paint the top pup flange another colour for the bridge pickup? Just a thought, thats all. Also wondering, that if you were able to do this, would there be any problems (safety problems) repotting later on.

[Fusion1]

Re: Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

Does the tele pickup have the fiber material bobbin? Not sure if the chemicals in paint would react or not. Good question none the less; consider this a bump.

[telepicker]

Re: Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

Yes. It's Forbon I think. The idea about painting came to me as I was playing around with a CD case as per Jonathon Tirone's site, where he made a bobbin out of an old CD case. I cut a cple of flanges out of an orange colored CD case which was slightly transparent just for practice and it looked good, so it got me wondering about painting bobbins. I am aware that vulcanized fibreboard may be available in different colors in US & other countries, but in Australia Forbon or similar appears to be as rare as Rocking Horse droppings.

[jerey]

Re: Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

I hope I don't apppear stupid here either, but if the item you want to paint is vinyl or plastic, you can get a spray paint at your local Sherwin Williams paint store that is made specifically for these materials. They come in many colors.
It may scratch, though, if you play hard with your pick. I would also recommend letting the paint dry well (a day) and then cure for a week to ten days before returning it to the case or playing it. Letting it cure well would be a wise thing to do.

[20thCenturyAnalogBoy]

Re: Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

Perhaps you could cut a thin wooden veneer to fit the flatwork and paint that instead (preferably before putting it on the pickup, so you don't accidentally paint the pole pieces). Of course, then the issue of reaction with paint becomes one of reaction with glue, but wood glue is pretty benign....

[HolyDirt]

Re: Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

i would think if you sanded the bobins down, then just treated it lieka guitar body it's work... but dont try it until your sure...

[beandip]

Re: Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

If it's your standard forbon, then you shouldnt have no problems paintin with a paint marker. It's just paper and some other junk. sounds like a good idea bro, go with it.

[telepicker]

Re: Can You Paint Pickup Flatwork?

Thanks for the messages. I'll experiement a bit and see what happens.