Would like an opinion on pickup color choice

[Matt_B]

Hello folks,

I'm getting a Charvel refin'd and I'm having a little bit of difficulty deciding what color the pups should be. I usually know exactly what color pups will work best with a guitar's finish but this one is not easy.

Anyway, the three options are:
1) Black/black humbucker with black single coil
2) Zebra humbucker with black single coil
3) Get both pups painted to match the finish
4) Zebra humbucker with neck pup painted to match finish.

Due to limited time, I can't mock up all of these possibilities so I only did 2 of them (1 and 2). Here the mockups and please note they are not complete nor exactly what I'm having. They're really close though.

[neilli]

I like the zebra. The graphic is too 'constant' for covered pickups to really be necessary....

[KMud]

I say red+white for the hum and red (or even yellow) for the neck. Sounds crazy I realise, but with the camo it'd have colours consistent with one of those teethy snarls painted on the front of a fighter plane (though I'm having trouble finding a reference image).

Of your options the zebra works well; the white matches up with the cards.

[KMud]

Aha:

[Matt_B]

I say red+white for the hum and red (or even yellow) for the neck. Sounds crazy I realise, but with the camo it'd have colours consistent with one of those teethy snarls painted on the front of a fighter plane (though I'm having trouble finding a reference image)

I know what you're saying (and saw the pic you posted) but that's not the look I'm going for (tank or plane). It's just camo with bullets, death cards, barbed or razor wire (not in the image) and a few things on the back. Thank you for the suggestions though.

[Bengal]

DiMarzio has a camo opition on alot of their pickups. You could go that route.

[ADR]

Like Bengal said, DiMarzio baby.Just a thought,but ever consider ebony fretboard? it would go better,w/blk HDWR and graphic.

[metalchurch79]

I like the Zebra + black single coil like picture #2.

And I am wondering where you, and everyone else are making these computer generated mock ups?

They are sweet, and would really help me out cause I do alot of guitars, and I'm short for ideas and have 'writers block' sometimes.

Your guitar is coming along awesomely!

[Matt_B]

DiMarzio has a camo opition on alot of their pickups. You could go that route.

I have looked at those but the camo pattern does not match the one I have chosen (Multicam). I can just get the pickups painted to match the camo pattern I'm using if I really want to.

[Matt_B]

Like Bengal said, DiMarzio baby.Just a thought,but ever consider ebony fretboard? it would go better,w/blk HDWR and graphic.

I will be using Dimarzio pups (Tone Zone and Chopper).

I've already got the guitar so it's going to have a rosewood board which will work well with the camo pattern IMHO. The rosewood on the neck I have is definitely more brown than the one used in the custom shop generator and the board will turn dark brown once I oil it up.

[Matt_B]

And I am wondering where you, and everyone else are making these computer generated mock ups?

I made the basic guitar with camo using the custom guitar generator on this site:

http://www.jcfonline.com/resources/csgen/JCFCustomShop.htm

Then I just added the other elements in Photoshop.

[thetroy]

I like (2) as pictured.

[daisp]

Zebra

[VEGETATHEPUPPET]

Yeah.. the Zebra looks better IMO...

[Spivonious]

Of those two, the Zebra looks better because the creme matches the cards. Would be cool if you could get the pickups to be black and the light green in the camo.