Pickup screws should be counter sunk!
This is a pic of my Shawn Lane with the middle pickup changed to have a counter sunk screw. A countersunk black screw. The counter sink hole is too small (I didnt have the right tool) but you get the idea. It would look better still if it were properly countersunk. Pickup mounting screws are NOT something special and attractive and need to stand out. In my case they even irritate some fingers on the pick hand sometimes, because they ride over them while picking.
I saw one of the latest Vigier guitars in black.. it was all black, but the screws were left chrome and stand out, but in a bad way. In a design sense, you only want things to stand out by choice, rather than just using stock parts and not thinking about it. Screws are relatively cheap and maybe even dirt cheap.. not the kind of thing you want glaring out from an otherwise all black guitar. Countersinking them is just a refinement. It keeps them below the working surface of the pickguard.
Just my opinion. Just trying to be helpful. And positive.
Moto54 wrote: I saw one of the latest Vigier guitars in black.. it was all black, but the screws were left chrome and stand out, but in a bad way. In a design sense, you only want things to stand out by choice
The pickup screws match the hardware...so if the guitar has chrome hardware, so the pickup screws will match this.
Why do you countersink the screws that hold the pickguard in place? Why bother? Why not just make them smaller versions of the giant chrome ones that anchor the middle pickup? (as on the Shawn Lane).
I am just a small voice in the wilderness over here, but you could try, at least, to see how the guitar looks with less obtrusive fasteners.. and by that I mean black and countersunk. Do you know what rhinestones are? They are inexpensive shiny things certain performers would attach all over their stage clothes to make them look fancy. Elvis used them by the hundreds late in his career. Thats what those chrome screws accomplish. They are inexpensive trinkets used to 'tart up' something.
It wouldnt cost you hardly anything to see what a guitar looks like minus all rhinestones. If you dont like it you can sell it to me.. but use a flat fingerboard model.
Exposed screws are a necessary evil at best. For sure not something to celebrate in chrome. You remember in the early days of electric they would often attach a pickup to an existing acoustic guitar. Even Gibson used what were probably simple wood screws to convert some of their archtop models into electric guitars by screwing pickups into the top. And some of those tops were very nice! And yet they used screws and techniques more suited to a park bench on their high end guitars. Vigier is a high end guitar, but you cant tell me that merely adding chrome to an exposed screw transforms it from an eyesore into a work of art.
I am just a small voice in the wilderness over here, but you could try, at least, to see how the guitar looks with less obtrusive fasteners.. and by that I mean black and countersunk. Do you know what rhinestones are? They are inexpensive shiny things certain performers would attach all over their stage clothes to make them look fancy. Elvis used them by the hundreds late in his career. Thats what those chrome screws accomplish. They are inexpensive trinkets used to 'tart up' something.
It wouldnt cost you hardly anything to see what a guitar looks like minus all rhinestones. If you dont like it you can sell it to me.. but use a flat fingerboard model.
Exposed screws are a necessary evil at best. For sure not something to celebrate in chrome. You remember in the early days of electric they would often attach a pickup to an existing acoustic guitar. Even Gibson used what were probably simple wood screws to convert some of their archtop models into electric guitars by screwing pickups into the top. And some of those tops were very nice! And yet they used screws and techniques more suited to a park bench on their high end guitars. Vigier is a high end guitar, but you cant tell me that merely adding chrome to an exposed screw transforms it from an eyesore into a work of art.