Does anyone know where I can get a light cream toggle switch cover/switch plate at a decent price?

[amgomez]

I recently changed the mounting rings on my Les Paul, the the three different shades of cream are starting to become a huge eye sore. Nonetheless, I play the crap out of the guitar. It would be nice to enjoy looking it at too, without noticing that eyesore. Haha.

I saw Allparts and Philadelphia Luthier Tools used to have them, along with historic style truss rod covers. Anyone know of a parts website where I can get a vintage light cream cover from? I know there are vintage replicas for $30-50, which I’m not trying to spend on something that is ultimately for aesthetics.

 

[01GT Eibach]

I was recently on a similar project. The pup rings, pickguard, and the poker chip -- all light cream -- were all purchased separately. While not the exact same shade of cream, they were definitely close enough. For the poker chip, it was cheaper for me to buy the whole toggle switch with the poker chip than to get the poker chip by itself (got off ebay for $5 or so, and that included the switch as a bonus). The poker chip was almost the exact shade as the AllParts pickguard I got, with the pup rings only being a little lighter than the other two.

 

[mudface]

I'm kinda new to this..... do you mean switch tip.....or back cover.....or ring?

 

[01GT Eibach]

To me, when I hear "poker chip", that equates to the "Treble/Rhythm" plate on the face of the guitar. that surrounds the toggle switch. For me, I found that instead of buying a new poker chip and the toggle-switch tip by themselves, it was more cost effective to buy a whole new switch off eBay that included the poker chip and the switch tip, along with the fact that those two (the tip and the poker chip) should match color exactly. It was very cheap, and -- as a bonus -- ended up being the almost exact color as the AllParts pickguard that was going to be part of this overall project. Sorry if I was not clear earlier.

 

[Side Burns]

Heres a pic of creamtone washer with Gibson Historic pup rings.

 

[redking]

Crazy idea here - if you can find "bright white" versions of the different plastics you are talking about, put all 3 in a cup of cold coffee for a few hours and then pull them out and they should have stained to the same shade of off white / cream

 

[ARandall]

If you're wanting to match colour (very hard as you have sheet and injection plastic which use different pigment types) then you'll have to do all the legwork to match precisely what you have. There are so many different hues about as plastics never have been fully matching at any stage from Gibson.

Maybe the above idea is the easiest.....but again you might find the different plastics taking up the staining effect differently.

 

[01GT Eibach]

Crazy idea here - if you can find "bright white" versions of the different plastics you are talking about, put all 3 in a cup of cold coffee for a few hours ...

Not crazy at all -- Actually, that is a good idea for even darkening a "light cream" to a "darker cream". It is probably best to keep a close eye on it to make sure you don't go too dark. Excellent suggestion, bro.

 

[redking]

Not crazy at all -- Actually, that is a good idea for even darkening a "light cream" to a "darker cream". It is probably best to keep a close eye on it to make sure you don't go too dark. Excellent suggestion, bro.

I'm not entirely sure whether you can get them bright white - might be the flaw to my theory lol.

Here is a video @Freddy G did to age the tip of a strat trem arm a few years ago.

 

[amgomez]

The thing is, I want all the plastics to be close in color, and I’d prefer the lighter cream. The poker chip is ridiculously darker than all of the other cream parts. I’ll check eBay! I was also thinking about getting the Creamtone set, but like I said, I don’t want to pay that much. Also I just ordered the taller light cream mounting rings.. the match but now everything looks extremely light compared to that damn switch cover. I removed the mounting rings for now until I find that switch cover

 

[mudface]

The only thing that looks darker is the switch tip.....what am I missing?

 

[amgomez]

I guess you’d have to see it in person. It

 

[amgomez]

Slightly better picture

 

[amgomez]

I know this difference isn’t night and day for everyone, but it is for me haha

 

[mudface]

I know this difference isn’t night and day for everyone, but it is for me haha

Okie Dokie, now I can see a difference.... it seems slight to me but I get it.