humbucker cover question

hi i just took a pair of gold paf style pickups off a ibanez artstar and am wondering if i can get the covers off...the finish has worn down and they look pretty ordinary...i would like to replace the covers with cream coloured plastic ones if possible...at least the colour wont wear off...they were pretty decent sounding p'ups and would like to reuse them

will the gold covers come off after desoldering them? can you get replacement covers?

<snip> Yes, just be very careful when you heat the solder securing the covers so that it doesn't run down inside the pup. That could prove to be disasterous.

...and be careful not to burn yourself.

The definitive answer is maybe. There are a couple of factors:

1) do the covers fit on the other pickups? At some points Ibanez used a pickup size that was not exactly the same as Gibson, and parts weren't interchangeable. So, you have to check.

2) Some pickups were potted with epoxy. While this may (or may not) help with microphonics, it definitely prevents covers from being removed or replaced. You'll know if this is the case as soon as you turn the pickups over. If you see epoxy, give up.

HTH