Opinions Sought On Colour Scheme

Kurtis

BillDL said:

Yes @Offset, I've had that Schaller 3D-6 bridge since about 1986.  I bought it along with some Schaller M6 tuners to install on the first guitar I made from scratch.  That guitar didn't turn out great and I later changed the bridge and moved the 3D one to another guitar.  It's only ever been on 3 guitars since then and the tuners on only 1 guitar.

I'm actually surprised that anybody, even though it's only Kurtis so far, preferred the cream plastics.  In the flesh it doesn't look quite as bad as in the photos, and I agree with what Kurtis mentioned about the difference in appearance if the plastics were closer to the maple shade, however I think very much what @AK99 referred to as a sea of cream in a mix where colours are already crowded.

Tbh I wouldn't go with any of them personally 

A humbucker sized p90 would look better imo.

Black/black chrome hardware might be good with the black pickups/surrounds. 

paulmapp8306

AFTER this changed to 5 options - 1 or 4 for me.   GOT to be a P90 in the neck, and the rng on the HB should match the P90 cove colour.   after that its just down to if you prefer black or cream lol. 

Sporky

ICBM said:

BillDL said:

Exellent suggestion there, but they offer ebony, maple, sapele, purpleheart and nick nack paduak, which would then confuse my choice further 

Wooden pickup surrounds are also an abomination .

Usually. But about 0.23% of the time they work.

Sporky

Kurtis said:

A humbucker sized p90 would look better imo.

Wrong way around.

The humbucker should be P90 sized.

donbot

I’d go with black-chrome covers with no rings. 

Dave_Mc

Nerine said:

Toss up between 1 and 2. 

The cream looks ghastly. 

Yep that  I thought I was going to struggle to decide because I'm usually so indecisive, but then I saw the cream ones! 

Dave_Mc

Tannin said:

There will be howls of derision ... but I reckon it would look great with gold hardware - pickup covers, bridge, tuners, the lot. Gold can go really well with wood. 

I'd need to see a mockup, as I could be wrong, but that might be so crazy it might just work!

AK99

Tannin said:

There will be howls of derision ... but I reckon it would look great with gold hardware - pickup covers, bridge, tuners, the lot. Gold can go really well with wood. 

Yup good call, I'd agree with that - I think the gold would provide a warmer look, and go very well with both the walnut and maple. 

If you were to replace all of the chrome/nickel on there at the moment from silver to gold and it'd improve the look (imho) without adding any extra colours. Then you'd also have the option to stay with the black pups, or go for gold covered ones in any of the formats.

Pete.R

#2

BillDL

Just an update.  I finally went with chrome covered Alnico II humbucker with black mounting ring in the bridge and a chrome covered Alnico V mini humbucker in black P90 soapbar mount in the neck, and used the chrome Schaller 3D bridge I've had kicking around for decades doing nothing.  I used black nickel knobs because the chrome ones felt just a bit too stark and bright sitting out there on the walnut section, but kept chrome tuners and string trees so all the chrome is in line.  The rosewood board really darkened with oil and I think the neck colour matches the back well.  I glued flamed acacia veneer onto the black plastic control cavity cover to keep a woody look, even though it came out darker.  I love the look of this now, and it plays and sounds fantastic.  You may be distrurbed by the slightly unusual position of the button string trees.  The placement is for functionality over austhetics and it doesn't bother me.  The placement gives me a good string breakover angle on the nut to help control the slight "looseness" (actually more like "slink") due to the top-loading bridge, and I don't do "behind the nut" string bends so they aren't in the way.

Photography is not my forté, lighting was less than ideal, and it looks a bit "choclatey" on the leather couch, but hopefully gives an idea of the aesthetic theme.

mankytom

I think it looks great.. good choices!

ICBM

Yes, good choices - the black knobs actually work really well, the reflections from them make them 'match' the black-surround/chrome-cover pickups very well in fact. Looks great.







Apart from the neck of course .

Dave_Mc

Excellent, that looks really good @BillDL ;

Neilybob

I'd go with 1 but I'd change the pickup cover on the P90 to gold or silver. 

Gold P90 Soapbar Pickup Cover 50mm spacing Single Coil for Les Paul style guitars https://reverb.com/item/69809041?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=69809041

RocknRollDave

Riverboat Song was OK, I guess, but I hated that one about going on a train and wearing their favourite coats.



Oh, wait....

imalrightjack

Came to say black/chrome. 

Nice. 

BillDL

Yeah, I'm really pleased with the look.  It's a pity I missed the solid rosewood neck that came off that GSP Basses body, but I'm pretty satisfied with the neck from Partscaster.  You are absolutely correct about roasted maple though @ICBM. ;; It's pretty brittle and I had to go easy on the neck screws.  That's why I chose the 2-pin no screw flange tuning machines. I'll probably switch the nut to a black one at a later time.  The knobs that came with the body when I bought it are satin black metal flat tops with 3 x rubber grip rings.  I preferred the reflection from the dome top black nickel.

I'm really glad I chose the Wilkinson WMHR mini humbucker.  It's got a pretty high output and a nice wide spectrum of frequencies that works really well with the smooth humbucker.

One thing I should have done was oil the saddle height adjustment grub screws before trying to turn them.  It has M2.5 x 6mm black metal ones that take a really skinny 1.27 or 1.3mm Allen key.  The bridge has lain unused for many years.  I've ended up chewing up the hex head of two grub screws that stuck and had to use a tiny flat blade screwdiver to raise them.  I'll get more.  The newer updated version of the Schaller 3D-6 bridge uses screws for a flat blade screwdriver instead of hex grub screws, probably because so many get chewed up.