Chris EmCee
New member
My 78’s arrived and they are finally in my guitar. I’m SO glad to have it sounding like itself again.
In a previous post I asked how people were removing logos. What I ended up doing was using 2000 grit sandpaper (I screwed the adjustable screws in below the surface first.). I first tried it on a Distortion neck pickup that I’ll never use, and I liked the result so I did the same thing on the new 78’s. I was able to get it to a matte finish (I don’t like the glossy look of most new bobbins), and although it’s not uniform (I probably could have gotten it to be more uniform if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to), I like that because they have this old, worn look, minus the oxidation on the pole pieces.
I also painted the visible parts of the bottom plates black with automotive touch up paint since they’re direct mount and I think it looks better.
Now, before anyone points it out or asks, “You can get black bottom plates AND no logos if you ordered Shop Floor Custom, so why go through all the trouble when you could have just done that instead?”…that’s a great question.
The answer is that I got a set (neck and bridge) through their exchange program, but the red/black bridge pickup was a total impulse purchase from Reverb one evening, and now I still have a spare 78 TB in Zebra that I’ll find a use for later. That’s why.
If I was going to order Shop Floor Custom, the pole pieces would have been black, too.
The regular Zebra’s with the black kill switch were the Custom Shop 78’s and that’s how it looked since I built it 4+ years ago, and then I modified the electronics, installed that red kill switch, saw that black/red zebra 78, grabbed it, and I’m glad I did, I like the new aesthetic!
In a previous post I asked how people were removing logos. What I ended up doing was using 2000 grit sandpaper (I screwed the adjustable screws in below the surface first.). I first tried it on a Distortion neck pickup that I’ll never use, and I liked the result so I did the same thing on the new 78’s. I was able to get it to a matte finish (I don’t like the glossy look of most new bobbins), and although it’s not uniform (I probably could have gotten it to be more uniform if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to), I like that because they have this old, worn look, minus the oxidation on the pole pieces.
I also painted the visible parts of the bottom plates black with automotive touch up paint since they’re direct mount and I think it looks better.
Now, before anyone points it out or asks, “You can get black bottom plates AND no logos if you ordered Shop Floor Custom, so why go through all the trouble when you could have just done that instead?”…that’s a great question.
The answer is that I got a set (neck and bridge) through their exchange program, but the red/black bridge pickup was a total impulse purchase from Reverb one evening, and now I still have a spare 78 TB in Zebra that I’ll find a use for later. That’s why.
If I was going to order Shop Floor Custom, the pole pieces would have been black, too.
The regular Zebra’s with the black kill switch were the Custom Shop 78’s and that’s how it looked since I built it 4+ years ago, and then I modified the electronics, installed that red kill switch, saw that black/red zebra 78, grabbed it, and I’m glad I did, I like the new aesthetic!
