prospect wrote:I vote for returning to your initial idea; black!
I'm excited to see the finished product either way.
I like your ideas.
I'm just nervous about the black pickups... black guard... black knobs... ehhh black body? Just might be too much black. I really wanted to do a bloody red/black color. And with nitrocellulose lacquer your color spectrum is really limited. Unless you buy some pigment and mix your own colors. I've got some time before I get around to this project. I'm working on a few other Mustang/Jazzmaster body build at the moment.
How does the EMG compare to the original humbucker?
Alot more power! I tried several high out put passive pickups but was never happy with them. So active pickups were the next step. I like the pickups with my amp lead channel. I've got the 81 & 85... 81 great for metal riffs, sterile/weak for clean stuff. The 85 is good for clean stuff, not as good for metal riffs, but I still use it alot.
I wouldn't of put in EMG's if I owned just one guitar. If I wanna rock out, I grab this guitar. If I wanna chill, I grab different guitar. I like to have guitars that do one thing really great, rather then "ok all around". You can check out these pickups at Guitar Center, EMG are stock in alot of "heavy metal" guitars now a days.