Change EMG color?

[Joejitsu]

So I see that EMGs only come in black and white. I have a nice SG style custom with gold pickups that I plan on putting a set of EMGs into. My plan as of now is to drop in the EMGs with gold pickup ring covers to balance out the gold in the guitar. It got me thinking though, how easy would it be to just paint the EMG cover? I mean, it's plastic right? I saw on previous threads where a few forum members grinded the cover away and put on a gold cover, but i'm not that adventurous (crazy?). What do you guys think? Anyone done this spray job before or something similar?

Here is the guitar by the way:

Joe

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Change EMG color?

You can paint them. Check out Kirk Hammett's ESP Ouija board guitar, along with many cool painted axes.

 

[jmh151]

Re: Change EMG color?

Jackson seems to prefer to use EMG's on their graphic guitar with painted pickup covers.

 

[sufferinrewind]

Re: Change EMG color?

I don't think I'd spray paint it. I'd hand paint the top and some of the sides just to make sure that the spray paint doesn't end up damaging the pickup. You could probably put masking tape on the back to make sure that the pickup doesn't end up damaged. If you do that and the paint doesn't get onto the back of the pickup, I think you'll be alright.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Change EMG color?

Jackson seems to prefer to use EMG's on their graphic guitar with painted pickup covers.

Not really, it´s more that Jacksons customers with painted PU covers often prefer EMGs, as "factory painted pickups" is a custom shop only option

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Change EMG color?

EMGs are completely sealed. So long as the prongs on the bottom don't get painted, it'll be fine.

 

[ibanezrocks]

Re: Change EMG color?

IMO if you paint them gold or cream it won't look good, no gold paint will look like an actual gold cover, besides I think the black will look awesome, especially if you get some gold pickup rings.

 

[Axl H]

Re: Change EMG color?

Check out James Hetfield '73 Les Paul Custom.

He has EMGs under neith the gold covers.

 

[rocken rossco]

Re: Change EMG color?

just make sure you dont use metalic paint

 

[Captain Tightpants]

Re: Change EMG color?

Just for fun and to see if I could, I just finished carefully peeling the plastic cover off of an old EMG 81 I had lying around and glued a nickel cover on it. I used the baseplate from a dead Epiphone pickup, and voila... an EMG that looks just like a standard humbucker. As long as only remove the plastic cover and dont get too aggressive, you should be just fine.

 

[Ez74]

Re: Change EMG color?

Just for fun and to see if I could, I just finished carefully peeling the plastic cover off of an old EMG 81 I had lying around and glued a nickel cover on it. I used the baseplate from a dead Epiphone pickup, and voila... an EMG that looks just like a standard humbucker. As long as only remove the plastic cover and dont get too aggressive, you should be just fine.

can you take any pics of this.. i would like to see how it looks

 

[Captain Tightpants]

Re: Change EMG color?

Sorry bro, I wont be able to for awhile. Plus, I already have it in my epi SG, so you can't really tell. All I used was a tool called a gate cutter, which is kind of like a pair of wire cutters with a flat side, and carefully peeled the plastic cover off. Underneath the cover is just a big block of epoxy, and underneath that is some kind of mesh, so it's actually pretty hard to really do any damage, unless you really dig in there. I cut the heads off the Epi polepieces and sanded them down until they looked right in the cover and just superglue them in place.
Look up an old thread in here, titled "EMG without covers-pics" that I got the idea from. On page 2, Monty-Jay has pics of this, only difference is he used a dremel and I used gate cutters. Came out the same, tho.