Black Chrome Pickup Covers anyone?

[Jcurl02]

Has anyone ever seen or heard of Black Chrome Pickup Covers?  I'm thinking of building a Tele with black hardware and want the standard looking Tele neck pickup but I don't want it to stand out as the only bright chrome piece on the guitar.  I know I can go black plastic, but thought it would look better with a black chrome.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[kboman]

Bareknuckle offer black metal pickup covers on all humbuckers and The Creamery have a great looking black powder coat as an option for many of their pickups.

 

[Jcurl02]

Thanks for the lead but when I checked their web page is seems like they only have humbuckers and not single coil / tele neck Black Chrome Covers.

 

[xDave]

Black chrome is really cool and you may not consider this a substitute but I think it looks cool, 1 coat of trans black over brushed chrome.

 

[TroubledTreble]

Just stumbled on this. I believe you can take a standard chrome cover and treat it with Gun Blue and the result will be a black chrome. I've recently started playing with this on some other non chrome but hardened parts and the results have been good. To do it you will need the blueing for hardened or chrome parts.

I just may have to do a little experiment and see if it works on the tele covers.

 

[Jcurl02]

Please let me know if you do that experiment!  My parts haven't arrived yet.  Sitll a few more weeks of waiting.  I'm building a brown to clear busrt flamed maple topped mahogany bodied Warmoth Tele.  Rear Routed to show the wood.  ALL BLACK hardware (except the traditional Tele neck pickup).  I'd love to have that blacked out as well.  (The neck is a flamed maple with Pau Ferro)

Thanks and keep me posted!

 

[jackthehack]

I just spray paint chrome HBs with flat black Krylon Fusion out the rattle can; works great!

 

[TroubledTreble]

Well I did the experiment. I immersed a tele neck cover in bluing compound for about 1.5 hours. It didn't do a thing. This was pretty surprising considering just about everything else it comes in contact with changes almost immediately. It did manage to eat a few holes through the chrome but it did not tarnish it even a tiny bit. At least I know a builder who likes reliced parts.  :icon_thumright:

So I have heard of black chrome parts but I have never come across any pickup covers with that finish. I have asked a few of my suppliers and if any come back with a part I will let you know. I do have unplated covers which should go black with bluing compound. The un-plated parts of the cover I tested got really black. It would be possible to polish them up a bit before treating.

 

[swarfrat]

Would clear coat over blueing get close?

 

[Rickgrxbass]

You don't need to apply heat before the bluing? I thought I vaguely remember a blowtorch as required equipment from my Birchwood-Casey instructional leaflet.

 

[swarfrat]

theres hot blue and cold blue (same for black oxide).  I used to work for a machine tool manufacturer, and we were switching over to cold black for haz waste reasons  when I left.

 

[SalsaNChips]

I have been thinking about this as well -- how to get a black single coil cover for my upcoming Tele custom build. Still on the fence about the pups but I'm reading and hearing a lot of good things about the Lollars ("just get them", LOL).

Finding a source for a black or black chrome PU cover would be great. If all else fails, I know a local powder coating shop that does good work