Chrome humbucker covers

[kayakerca]

My morning rant and request. . .

Winding humbuckers is a really a pretty small part of my winding business (which is small itself) and covered humbuckers even smaller yet. Most opt for Nickel and the rare few chrome. So I don't buy a lot of covers. But Mojo smoked me again, not big, but still. I've bought cover from Mojo over the past few years. I remember the careful sorting out of the covers into bins by size and finish based on what came in the box from Mojo because they seem to be hard to tell apart from the chrome. I know when you get north of 60 your eyes aren't what they used to be, but. . .

So my favourite luthier orders a chrome covered humbucker for one of his clients guitars, a 40 year old LP clone. The original neck had previously been replaced with a Gibson with a chrome cover. I drop by his shop with the pickup, we put it beside the Gibson chrome neck humbucker and mine has this yellowish/brownish hue vs the blueish hue of the Gibson. The luthier says, "that's not a chrome cover, its nickel". I can absolutely see the difference and it absolutely would not have been acceptable if it were mine. I went back and forth with the luther about "how" I got the wrong cover on it. I was sure it came from the chrome 50mm bin. I tell him no problem, I'll come back tomorrow with a chrome cover and we'll just swap them out.

I get back to my shop and pull out all my chrome and nickel 50mm covers. I start going through them and I can't see ANY difference in the half dozen or so I compare from both bins. I attribute it to my eyes. The next day I take all of my 50mm chrome and nickel covers with me to the luthiers. He goes through them , one at a time, from both bins and says they are all nickel except two! And yes, when you lay them out on the work bench, the two chrome stand out like a sore thumb. That distinctive blue hue. All but two of the Mojo 50mm humbuckers sold to me as chrome where nickel. I was pissed as I don't need any help looking bad! We did the swap and all was good and then the luthier tells me I might want to consider a new source for covers.

In probably in 99% of places I would use or have chrome requested, you probably wouldn't have that comparison to a 'real' chrome finish otherwise. Like in an HHS set or a set where you sell a full set vs just a replacement. But it would still not be the cover(s) the customer ordered. Not happy.

So, my question. Is there a source of reliable quality HB (chrome) covers that are priced in the same zone as Mojo? I was thinking Allparts, but they probably use the same source as Mojo. so not sure if that will fit the bill.

[eschertron]

How many different shipments does this mix-up represent? It's entirely possible that whoever picked stock for a given order may have reached into the wrong bin. You admitted that the covers were close in appearance without proper comparison (don't forget lighting has a lot to do with apparent coloration!). Will Mojo accept responsibility for a mix-up? How many chromed covers should you have that are not right?

[David King]

You could email the Philadelphialuthiersupply guy and see what his price would be on a quantity order. Wolftone gets his from someone in the US that's making them i.e. is probably the source for AP, MJ, WD, SM, PLS etc.

[kayakerca]

Thanks David. I'll drop them a note.