Gold pickups on a blonde - cream or black rings?

[zorrow]

Of course I will do whatever I want at the end, but still would love to hear your opinions.

Let’s say I have a guitar that looks like this:

And let’s say I would like to install a set of gold humbuckers on it, which look like this:

Would you leave the stock cream rings, or you would replace them by black ones?

Thanks in advance! 😉

PS: @velorush, I moved it here. 👊😎

[RobB]

4 minutes ago, zorrow said:

Of course I will do whatever I want at the end, but still would love to hear your opinions.

And let’s say I would like to install a set of gold humbuckers on it, which look like this:

Would you leave the stock cream rings, or you would replace them by black ones?

Thanks in advance! 😉

PS: @velorush I moved it here.

If you’re going to ignore people’s suggestions, why ask in the first place?

[zorrow]

5 minutes ago, RobB said:

If you’re going to ignore people’s suggestions, why ask in the first place?

I was kidding. Your opinions matter. That’s why I wanna hear what you have to say. 

[a.bandini]

Black rings.  You need the contrast.  

 

 

[zorrow]

OK, here are my thoughts:

I would leave the cream rings and just put gold screws on it.

However, the black tip of the toggle switch, the black knobs and the black headstock (not shown in the picture), made me wonder if black rings would look better. Please look at the following picture:

[zorrow]

12 minutes ago, a.bandini said:

Black rings.  You need the contrast.  

 

 

That’s what I also thought. But the cream rings go well with the binding, I think. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Steve Haynie]

Black and gold.  They go together. 

[Gabe]

I'd choose cream pickup rings.

And indeed gold screws.

 

Gabe 😀

[zorrow]

40 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Black and gold.  They go together. 

Blondes wearing black look AWESOME, I agree. 😉

[Feynman]

Remove all the gold parts. 

[cmatthes]

Cream rings.  Black rings will look stupid.

[princeofdarkness56]

2 hours ago, RobB said:

If you’re going to ignore people’s suggestions, why ask in the first place?

I think he just wants to show off. And if I had that guitar I would too. 

[Biz Prof]

31 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

Cream rings.  Black rings will look stupid.

Exactly. It's quilted maple, not Korina.  It needs cream rings.

[zorrow]

OK, so cream remains —with the gold screws. Now the guitar looks like this:

What do you think?

By the way, it had the quite-safe-but-generic JB/59 combination, which I don’t even think were the original pickups, so I got a pair of used Sephtone 6T8 humbuckers and went with that… and it suddenly became ALIVE. Such a rich tone now! In all honesty, I didn’t expect such an improvement.

Also, it was sold to me as featuring original golden hardware. Strangely, the toggle switch isn’t golden. I don’t think Hamer would make such a sloppy aesthetic choice, I find that strange.

So, I tried to “fix” it, as I had a spare golden switch, but it didn’t fit. I’ll be therefore hunting for a proper golden toggle switch. Any recommendations or code or anything that would orient me to find one fitting to this guitar?

Once again, thanks in advance. 🙏🙇‍♂️

To be continued! 😉

[BTMN]

Cream but you knew that.
 

😎👍🏁

[kizanski]

1 hour ago, Biz Prof said:

Exactly. It's quilted maple, not Korina.  It needs cream rings.

It also needs a zebra/double crème setup, but that’s just 45 years of Hamer fandom talking.  

Edited June 27, 2024 by kizanski
Math.

[RobB]

Gold barrel knobs or amber top hats. 

[JGale]

Dibs.

[Steve Haynie]

The switch tip does not match.  Fix it. 

[BoogieMKIIA]

12 hours ago, RobB said:

Gold barrel knobs or amber top hats. 

I would try amber top hats. Easy to change back if you don't like it.

[kizanski]

10 minutes ago, BoogieMKIIA said:

I would try amber top hats. Easy to change back if you don't like it.

Amber, definitely.

[JGale]

1 hour ago, kizanski said:

Amber, definitely.

I agree, but only if she wears a diaper.

[zorrow]

2 hours ago, kizanski said:

Amber, definitely.

One thing at a time. The black knobs don’t disturb me. The switch does though.

 

3 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

The switch tip does not match.  Fix it. 

Firstly, the switch has to be gold.

Secondly, the tip can be either cream or amber, if I get amber knobs; or black, if I keep the current black knobs.

I need to explore my options.

The toggle switch has to be the Gibson type, they call it “right angle”. The “metric” ones seem to be easier to find. If it only has to do with the threading, that shouldn’t be a problem. Any recommendations? 

[kizanski]

2 minutes ago, zorrow said:

One thing at a time. The black knobs don’t disturb me. The switch does though.

Any recommendations? 

Get rid of the gold hardware.

Problem solved.

[zorrow]

34 minutes ago, kizanski said:

Get rid of the gold hardware.

Problem solved.

Sadly, I had the golden pickups and jumped on the guitar because it had “original” gold hardware —now I question its “originality”, but won’t make a drama out of it.

At the same time, it’s entertaining playing with aesthetic options. Most of us like that kind of stuff.

So, little follow up: I ordered a set of top hat amber knobs and also asked a vendor if I can get extra amber and cream tips with their golden right angle toggle switches, as these come stock with black tips —no reply yet.