Change colour of pickup with silver pen?

[cetera]

This is a weird one.....

I'm in Europe's #1 KISS tribute band.... and for authenticity reasons I'm interested in changing the colour of my EMG humbucker pickup on one of my 'Kiss tribute' basses from black to silver.

Could I just colour the casing with a silver pen? Or spray it with silver paint?

Would this affect the pickup? Would any metallic element in the pen/paint cause magnetic problems?

Cheers for any help....

[BOD2]

Could you cover it with tin foil ? If you can find a thicker foil it might work ok and not be as messy as paint (also much easier to remove).

It shouldn't make much (if any) difference to the sound. Guitar humbuckers used to come with a nickel metal cover on them. People removed them and it was supposed to add a little brightness to the sound but these claims have been questioned (i.e. it probably doesn't make any difference at all).

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='BOD2' post='216728' date='Jun 11 2008, 11:29 AM']Could you cover it with tin foil ? If you can find a thicker foil it might work ok and not be as messy as paint (also much easier to remove).

It shouldn't make much (if any) difference to the sound. Guitar humbuckers used to come with a nickel metal cover on them. People removed them and it was supposed to add a little brightness to the sound but these claims have been questioned (i.e. it probably doesn't make any difference at all).[/quote]

Don't do a dodgy job... take off the surround and spray it. It should last ok - but obviously if you start hitting them with a pick, flaking will be inevitable. What you should do, is sand the surround, degrease it, primer it, let it dry... then add the silver paint. For extra protection, give it a few coats of lacquer, cutting and polishing as you go. That's the best way anyway...

Foil will actually have a shielding effect on the pickup. As BOD2 indicates, when shielding around a pickup, you will lose top end on the higher EQs... as to the actual extent, I can't say. In reality, it probably won't make any audible difference... I know that if you close shield a single coil however, it is signficant (eg close shield the coil)

[cetera]

Cheers for the replies chaps..... very helpful!

Anyone else before I jump in....

[GremlinAndy]

[quote name='cetera' post='217492' date='Jun 12 2008, 11:09 AM']Cheers for the replies chaps..... very helpful!

Anyone else before I jump in....[/quote]


Well I duno how well this would work but if you go to hobby shops they sell an adhesive backed metal foil which is *very thin* compared to actual baco-foil. It's fairly cheap for a single sheet. It comes in various metalic finishes like brass, gold, bronze, silver, chrome...
Might be worth a try.

They also do a silver paint in a tube (Like toothpaste) which you apply with a cloth. This I *have* tried on black plastic, but because it's oil based it takes a long time to dry, but the result is VERY good and VERY metallic. Also the finish is very even... and wont wear like spray paint might, as it seems to put a permanent layer on the surface.

Let me know if you decide to give it a whirl, and how you get on....

P.S.
I just did a search to try to find it, and came up with this... NOT what I had in mind, but MIGHT be worth a punt.
[url="http://www.choiceful.com/choiceful-id-17676-DCFix-Deco-Metallic-Silver-Magic-SelfAdhesive-Foil-45cm-x-1-5Mtr.html"]http://www.choiceful.com/choiceful-id-1767...m-x-1-5Mtr.html[/url]