Cream Color Comparisons

[treyhaislip]

Purely cosmetic question Does anyone know if Seymour Duncan Cream matches Dimarzio or Bill Lawrence?

Got some Gibson and Fendee parts/accessories that are all “cream” but they don’t match.

I’m thinking of pairing a Cream Bill Lawrence 500XL with a neck pickup of either a Zebra Screamin Demon or a Cream Liquifire but the cream contrast between the Gibson and Fender knobs I have makes me wonder if it will match.

 

[jeremy]

matching creams is a pita. i love double cream pups, but dimarzios cream is different than duncans cream most of the time. hell, my old super distortion doesnt match my 36th anniversary paf though that is probably just aging

 

[beaubrummels]

Duncan creme doesn't match DiMarzio, but my understanding is Bill Lawrence's creme does, because blade pickups (or pickups with unusual/non-PAF type pole pieces) are excluded from the trademark.

 

[ICTGoober]

The old Bill Lawrence was creamy - no doubt, but the newer cream is almost white.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

DiMarzio cream is darker/warmer than Duncan by far.

Matching cream parts is super hard, honestly. Even all the stock plastics on Gibsons don't match most of the time.

 

[Masta' C]

Yeah, good luck. Here's a pic I took a while back comparing some of the "cream" colors:

 

[Mincer]

^Wow, those are really different than each other! So does the trademark include the particular shade of cream, or just the double cream?

 

[jeremy]

just double cream as far as i know

 

[Mincer]

I am guessing different bobbin formulation is the reason SD's modern cream is a little different than the vintage one.

 

[Masta' C]

I'm no materials expert, but the '70s JB should be butyrate, while the the later Duncans, like the Black Winter shown above, are polycarbonate. I believe DiMarzio uses some form of nylon for their bobbins, but it strikes me how inconsistent their "cream" color is between models. I'm sure it comes down to formulation differences between batches mostly, but who really knows?!

 

[treyhaislip]

Thank you all for the replies and glad to hear it’s not just me having trouble matching cream.

Ironic that even the Dimarzio creams don’t match. Would have thought that if it was justifiable as a trademark it would be consistent.

 

[Seashore]

Thank you all for the replies and glad to hear it’s not just me having trouble matching cream.

Ironic that even the Dimarzio creams don’t match. Would have thought that if it was justifiable as a trademark it would be consistent.

I wonder if they were trying to have as many different "creams" as possible out there so they could go after anyone who tried to get around it with a "double parchment" or a "double ecru" or some such.

 

[Mincer]

Well, I doubt 'cream' is a specific Pantone color formulation. It seems so broad that defining it is ridiculous.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Fender's "double cream" is actually "aged white" according to their branding. As far as I know, DiMarzio has left them alone. Fender sells their aged white humbuckers all day long. That said, Fender's aged white is a little lighter than DiMarzio's cream.

 

[jeremy]

fenders look like parchment to me

 

[nienturi]

Dimarzio has more orange hue than Duncan. BTW, Donlis has very close cream tone to Duncan;

 

[jeremy]

that is pretty close, at least on this screen

 

[Mincer]

that is pretty close, at least on this screen

On my screen, they look exact.

 

[Butch Snyder]

I have owned both DiMarzio double cream humbuckers and Fender Aged White humbuckers. They are pretty different. The DiMarzios are actually cream while the Fenders are more parchment or maybe a tad darker. Duncan Double cream humbuckers (when you can get them - Shop Floor Customs?) are in between.

 

[jeremy]

the shop floor custom double cream under an unsoldered cover days are gone i believe. id kill for a double cream 9.4k antiquity, but alas i was told no last time i asked