Looking for subtle aged white covers/knobs

Fender mint green and Fender Aged White pickup covers/knobs/tip.....the perfect look.....

 

I ordered these mint green covers. They are not as green as they look in the picture . This site is in Canada, not sure who would sell them in the US.
https://www.solomusicgear.com/product/solo-pro-single-coil-pickup-covers/

 

Historically though, the pickup covers and knobs didn't turn mint green - that's a modern 'vintage' invention for people who feel the need to color match......so this to me looks wrong.....

 

Drop them in a cup of coffee. Pull them out and look every 30 minutes until you get the shade you want.

The sunburst on the left originally had white or parchment knobs and pick up covers I believe. This is what I did.

The guitar on the right has Fenders "standard aged covers" that came on the American Professional.

I don't recall how long I let them set in the coffee, may have been over night.

 

The closest I got to the in-between color you are describing was to do the coffee treatment on a set of pure white plastics - the current aged white was too yellow and the parchment was a little light (I was going for the look on Jeff Beck's strat that he used at Ronnie Scott's,) - the white +coffee landed right in the middle, with sufficient contrast to the parchment pickguard:

 

Fender also has "Vintage White" plastics from the last generation of American Standards. To my eye, it is exactly what you are looking for.

The AV59 on the left has pure white (aluminum pg with white enamel) and the Am Std on the right is the Vintage white, which has more character than the parchment I have on another guitar:

Sonics-faded by knh555 posted Nov 18, 2020 at 11:17 AM

 

I found that the Aged White plastic-ware that came on my Classic Player 50's Strat was too yellow-looking against the white single ply pickguard. I looked at many images of 57 and 62 Strats new or in very good vintage condition more often than not had parchment colored vs. what fender calls aged white colored plastic-ware, and so I went with parchment and it looks great since the guitar is like new and not a relic or beat up instrument.

 

For my '66 tribute Affinity I went the tea treatment route. Only difference this time was I didn't wipe them when they came out after I was happy with the colour. I let them sit face up so they dried 'blotchy' for a more aged and used vibe. I've found tea is best if you use loads of bags and immerse the plastics whilst still pretty hot (but not sufficient to warp or melt). You can add that touch of green required for the '69 look with green tea too!

If you don't want to try staining the parchment set (which is what I'd try first ... I've had three successes and one failure previously) personally I think once the standard Fender Aged White are actually fitted you'll find they look much better in situ.

With regard to the guard you can take some of the green grey out and add more cream by the old Kiwi treatment. Gentle rub with steel wool, soft even application of shoe polish, remove with separate cloth. Repeat till effect achieved. Really easy to add that oft seen colour difference on vintage instruments where the strings have cast their shadows...




PS. If it's a '62 why doesn't it have the hole for the top guard screw that isn't yet fitted?

 

I don't understand your PS about "the hole for the top guard screw". Can you be more specific ?

 

Yes of course but the question was really to the OP.

In the pic in the original post there doesn't seem to be a hole in the body for the screw that is missing .... the screw in the 'odd' position midway between the pups that defines it as a '59 - '62. On the assumption that's the OP's guitar I expected one on a '62 thin skin from Fender.

 

For what it is worth, I think the pure vintage 60s accessory set is what you are looking for

 

Give Overdrive Custom Guitar works a look. They’ll have what you’re looking for

http://stratcat.biz/

 

If your knobs and covers are standard Fender, black tea or instant coffee should do the trick. I once aged plastics in a cup of very strong tea (like 4-5 tea bags) in about 24h which yielded exactly the results you seem to be looking for. They were "parchment" parts from a 2011 Special. I simultaneously dropped in that same cup some aftermarket plastics from DiMarzio and Wilkinson and didn't age at all. So different plastics react differently. But more recently I managed to coffee-age some bright white DiMarzio knobs (it took more than a week though!), while the white Fender 1-ply back plate remained white.

The cool thing about staining them yourself is that they don't end up looking quite so brand new and uniform as new parts in "aged" colours. For example, the knobs tend to get a little darker within the little grooves.

Try it, keep checking them from time to time. Worst case scenario, you'll waste some tea or coffee with zero effect.

 

I agree with the aftermarket observation - Fender parts respond to the coffee or tea approach, but most other brands do not seem to absorb the color.

One observation that I made with different stains is that tea and coffee do not yield the same color - I found the tea to have more of a rose tint, while coffee was more straight brown - neither gives the yellowish color of the current aged white parts.

Another thing I noticed is that aged white has changed over the years - I have a couple strats that I installed aged parts back in the late 90's/early 2000's and they look closer to the current 60's True Vintage color - a lot less yellow.
Both guitars below have "aged white" parts - the left was purchased around 2002, the right an EJ strat from 2009 - color differences are pretty striking: