Colors…Bodies, Pickguards & Covers

[devanbumstead]

I’m coming to the community to inquire about the various shades of whites available on guitar bodies, pickguards and pickup covers. But surely this thread could evolve into all the various winning color combos that abound.

My specific question is what color pickup cover should I get on a Jazzmaster with an Olympic white body (MJT) and mint pickguard (Fender brand…so the “good” color mint).

“Aged white” seems too yellow
“White” seems too bright
Is “Parchment” the winner?

I ordered some knobs from EYGuitar that are “vintage white” and I quite enjoy the color of those. But it doesn’t seem like they have a “vintage white” pickup cover out there.

[Embenny]

I find that it comes down to the shade of white on the body.

MJT ages their finishes, so their Olympic White might not turn out the same shade as Fender's Olympic White. Doubtful it does.

I like OLY JMs to have plastics that match the shade of the body as best as possible, otherwise it's too many shades of white near each other. Parchment is usually what Fenders look best with, but you'll have to see how your MJT finish turns out (unless it's already done).

Also, it's usually best to get a whiter plastic and darken it, by steeping in some strong tea or coffee, than it is to go too yellow since you can't move backwards (unless maybe you get fancy with some retrobright or something, but I don't know if knob markings would survive that).

[einpresstiefe]

IMO, largely will depend on how much relic'ing is on the MJT body.

[devanbumstead]

I find that it comes down to the shade of white on the body.

MJT ages their finishes, so their Olympic White might not turn out the same shade as Fender's Olympic White. Doubtful it does.

I like OLY JMs to have plastics that match the shade of the body as best as possible, otherwise it's too many shades of white near each other. Parchment is usually what Fenders look best with, but you'll have to see how your MJT finish turns out (unless it's already done).

Also, it's usually best to get a whiter plastic and darken it, by steeping in some strong tea or coffee, than it is to go too yellow since you can't move backwards (unless maybe you get fancy with some retrobright or something, but I don't know if knob markings would survive that).

Great advice, thanks. I definitely want the covers to match the body. I agree—I just want the two shades of white total.

I purchased this body.

So maybe I’ll just buy the parchment and plain white covers and look at aging the white one myself if the parchment doesn’t quite match.

[ohm-men]

I kind of like the "mint/parchment that is on it now. (from the ebay pics that is)
I like real "minty" looking mint guards on Oly white, but again a personal taste.
Parchment might be too yellow, depending on the shade.

Depends on how much you want the PG to stand out on the body.

If you go with a gold guard, then black pu covers work well.
On mint not so much imho.

[alexpigment]

I've had good luck staining Fender brand parchment plastics with coffee. Knobs are usually a breeze and only take 15-30 minutes. Having said that, I've never had any luck with switch tips and tremolo arm plastics. If you haven't done so already, it's probably worth ordering a matching kit like this one so that you don't have any mismatches from the start.

As for pickup covers, I feel like in the past you could only get the parchment ones from a set of Pure Vintage pickups. Maybe it's possible to buy them separately now (again assuming you want them to be official Fender brand to match).

[devanbumstead]

After buying all the color combos I could, I found the result I wanted!

Olympic White MJT Body, Fender Mint Green guard, Parchment pickup covers.

Parchment matched this body nearly perfectly. The knobs are "Vintage White" knobs from Eyguitar but I have a set of standard parchment fender knobs that match perfectly if I want to go that route.

All in all, I'm happy! Just thought I'd share the color journey with the group.

[ryandennis]

Big fan of parchment, guitar looks amazing!

[alexpigment]

Parchment looks great! FYI, I believe all 3rd party witch hat knobs that I've seen are very white. Fender's witch hats are indeed a parchment color:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Fender+992086000&

Granted, they're expensive and I personally think standard knobs look better anyway, but I figured I'd mention it so you don't have to settle with ones that don't match.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Congrats!
I had this one on my watchlist too! Not a fan of their or any relic jobs - but happy to have learned that they will offer more „closet clean“ bodies in the near future!
Body and guard look excellent! Parchment suits it best and the Mastery setup is just the cherry on the pie! This is going to be awesome!

[devanbumstead]

Parchment looks great! FYI, I believe all 3rd party witch hat knobs that I've seen are very white. Fender's witch hats are indeed a parchment color:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Fender+992086000&

Granted, they're expensive and I personally think standard knobs look better anyway, but I figured I'd mention it so you don't have to settle with ones that don't match.

Yes, I actually forgot to throw my regular parchment knobs in with this picture but I do have them and I’ll likely go that direction. I thought the witch hat knobs looked cool at first but the more I look at them, the less I like them. A perfectly matching parchment set is the ticket!

[devanbumstead]

Congrats!
I had this one on my watchlist too! Not a fan of their or any relic jobs - but happy to have learned that they will offer more „closet clean“ bodies in the near future!
Body and guard look excellent! Parchment suits it best and the Mastery setup is just the cherry on the pie! This is going to be awesome!

Thanks!! I’m not a big fan of heavy relics, so I jumped on this body when I saw it because it was just the right amount for me, which MJT doesn’t seem to do often. I can’t stop looking at it haha. Seriously such a fun project…now for the perfect neck…

[lsp999]

Love the Olympic white with Mint!
I also recently got a MJT JM body and have been reading a lot of conflicting information on pick guard fit. In your picture you posted the pick guard as genuine fender. Was it a Japanese style, American, or American vintage? I’d love to get a fit as good as yours so any help would be awesome!
Thanks