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What kind of pickguard for custom guitar?
Posted on 12/5/20 at 1:34 am
Posted on 12/5/20 at 1:34 am
So I'm having a custom guitar built and I'm trying to figure out what style/color pickguard to put on it.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
4
Posted on 12/5/20 at 4:45 am to SidewalkTiger
Great looking guitar. Do you really need a pick guard? I think the guitar looks great without one. I never even touch the pickguards on mine, they all look like brand new.
Posted on 12/5/20 at 7:46 am to SidewalkTiger
This might work. Have only bought one but the transparency looked good on that guitar.
From StewMac
etc: You can wait to see if your like Auggie; however going without is never a serious question for me.
From StewMac
etc: You can wait to see if your like Auggie; however going without is never a serious question for me.
This post was edited on 12/5/20 at 7:48 am
Posted on 12/5/20 at 9:35 am to SidewalkTiger
Who’s the builder?
Tortoise is the only answer. Or plain black for a guitar that nice looking.
Tortoise is the only answer. Or plain black for a guitar that nice looking.
Posted on 12/5/20 at 10:35 am to LSU alum wannabe
Regardless of the material, for best results, you will need to go through a custom pickguard cutter and have it made to spec.
DO NOT source a pre-cut pickguard online. One mm off, one degree of arc off and it will not work. You will have wasted your time and your money and you will inevitably spend more time and money making things right. Trust me on this.
I work with wdmusic.com in Florida and with Pickguard Heaven in California for custom guards. Both do stellar work. Both have extensive lists of available materials.
Your most important job ... you have to determine where the guard sits in relation to the soundhole, and then the diameter/arc you need to match your guitar and where you want the guard to sit precisely. Either the arc of the rosette's inner band, or the arc of the rosette's outer band is the norm. Wherever you want the guard to sit in relation to the hole is up to you.
For best results, supply the fabricator a tracing of your soundhole arc and your rosette arc. Use thin vellum paper and the side of a crayon to get a relief sketch. Here's where I used the same technique to replace an MIA pickguard on a vintage Gretsch acoustic.
I reiterate, DO NOT get a pre-cut peel and stick guard. There is a very high likelihood you will not be pleased with the results. Discovering a poor fit after the fact can result in marring your clearcoat removing the bad guard. Just avoid all that entirely. Spend the extra money and do it right.
DO NOT source a pre-cut pickguard online. One mm off, one degree of arc off and it will not work. You will have wasted your time and your money and you will inevitably spend more time and money making things right. Trust me on this.
I work with wdmusic.com in Florida and with Pickguard Heaven in California for custom guards. Both do stellar work. Both have extensive lists of available materials.
Your most important job ... you have to determine where the guard sits in relation to the soundhole, and then the diameter/arc you need to match your guitar and where you want the guard to sit precisely. Either the arc of the rosette's inner band, or the arc of the rosette's outer band is the norm. Wherever you want the guard to sit in relation to the hole is up to you.
For best results, supply the fabricator a tracing of your soundhole arc and your rosette arc. Use thin vellum paper and the side of a crayon to get a relief sketch. Here's where I used the same technique to replace an MIA pickguard on a vintage Gretsch acoustic.
I reiterate, DO NOT get a pre-cut peel and stick guard. There is a very high likelihood you will not be pleased with the results. Discovering a poor fit after the fact can result in marring your clearcoat removing the bad guard. Just avoid all that entirely. Spend the extra money and do it right.
Posted on 12/5/20 at 1:55 pm to SidewalkTiger
I didn't put a pick guard on my electric and even with heavy strumming for years there not a single scratch in the clear coat.
I'm not sure they are necessary unless you're really really heavy handed with strumming and using a very hard pick.
I'm not sure they are necessary unless you're really really heavy handed with strumming and using a very hard pick.
Posted on 12/5/20 at 3:08 pm to dbeck
A guitar without one just looks naked to me 
Posted on 12/5/20 at 8:15 pm to TheFretShack
That's why I bought the oversized version of the above one from StewMac. Which was trimmed slightly to fit and subsequently sanded. Used the sliding wax paper from underneath method that you see talked about everywhere.
It's NOT really a hard thing to do and would NEVER EVER pay someone to do it. In fact it was my luthier who suggested this one and me doing it. If he has any dexterity and can trace on paper it's very simple thing.
It's NOT really a hard thing to do and would NEVER EVER pay someone to do it. In fact it was my luthier who suggested this one and me doing it. If he has any dexterity and can trace on paper it's very simple thing.
This post was edited on 12/5/20 at 8:16 pm
Posted on 12/5/20 at 10:27 pm to SidewalkTiger
quote:
A guitar without one just looks naked to me
My Takamine never had one, I love the way it looks.
Posted on 12/6/20 at 4:50 pm to LSU alum wannabe
Tort is always the answer.
Fret shacks options for pg are good. Also can try Pickguardian. He made me a red tort Custom Pbass pg and it is outstanding.
Fret shacks options for pg are good. Also can try Pickguardian. He made me a red tort Custom Pbass pg and it is outstanding.
This post was edited on 12/6/20 at 4:53 pm
Posted on 12/6/20 at 5:59 pm to wareaglepete
Awestruck, did you have to trim the arc for the soundhole, and if so, how did you get a perfect arc? You can't hand-cut a perfect arc with most pickguard materials, they are too thick. StewMac's tortoloid film is easy to cut with sharp scissors because it's thin, but that's about all it has going for it IMHO.
I put some SM tortoloid on this '76 J-55 resto and I regretted it, it lacked the subtlety or the visual depth of thicker material. Doesn't look bad, just not as good as the original guard, which was unfortunately too warped and shrunken to salvage.
In the case of standard pickguard materials, I've reshaped pickguard arcs using an adhesive sandpaper-covered clay flowerpot stem-mounted on my drillpress to get the arc perfect on high dollar custom guitars.
For cheaper guitars, a spindle sander gets the arc close enough that most folks wouldn't see the flaws unless they really focus.
The Big Q for the OP: Why can't the custom guitar builder fabricate and/or add the custom pickguard?
I put some SM tortoloid on this '76 J-55 resto and I regretted it, it lacked the subtlety or the visual depth of thicker material. Doesn't look bad, just not as good as the original guard, which was unfortunately too warped and shrunken to salvage.
In the case of standard pickguard materials, I've reshaped pickguard arcs using an adhesive sandpaper-covered clay flowerpot stem-mounted on my drillpress to get the arc perfect on high dollar custom guitars.
For cheaper guitars, a spindle sander gets the arc close enough that most folks wouldn't see the flaws unless they really focus.
The Big Q for the OP: Why can't the custom guitar builder fabricate and/or add the custom pickguard?
Posted on 12/6/20 at 6:22 pm to TheFretShack
You got any spares lying around for a Fender American Tele?
I tried to buy one off the internet and it didn’t fit
I tried to buy one off the internet and it didn’t fit
Posted on 12/6/20 at 7:37 pm to kingbob
Anything I have will be used salvage. Lemme check the stash tomorrow.
Edited to add ... check wdmusic.com's pickguard page. They are good about saying which particular make/year Teles their Tele guards fit.
Edited to add ... check wdmusic.com's pickguard page. They are good about saying which particular make/year Teles their Tele guards fit.
This post was edited on 12/6/20 at 7:39 pm
Posted on 12/6/20 at 8:09 pm to TheFretShack
It has a serial number “Z8”, so I think it’s from 2008-2009 most likely, Corona, California plant.
This post was edited on 12/6/20 at 8:12 pm
Posted on 12/6/20 at 8:28 pm to TheFretShack
quote:
The Big Q for the OP: Why can't the custom guitar builder fabricate and/or add the custom pickguard?
He can, I was just asking more of what would look the best.
I was thinking tortoiseshell too but curious about different shapes and all.
Posted on 12/6/20 at 11:25 pm to TheFretShack
Most people never think about it, but trophy shops are really good at cutting custom materials, and they know how to do things right. They have machines that they can program a select shape, a circle is probably the easiest, they just put in the diameter that you need, they find the home x and y axis on the material and they can cut it perfectly for you. They have machines that cut with lasers, some cut with regular machine tools, and some cut with a hot wire. Then they can even etch custom reliefs in it, if you want to go that fancy. I've dealt with a couple in the past, and when I wanted to do something outside of their normal type of business, they seemed really excited to do it and final charges were a lot less than I expected.
This post was edited on 12/6/20 at 11:41 pm
Posted on 12/7/20 at 6:59 pm to TheFretShack
Yep, trimmed with a coping saw.
Wanted guard to fit adjacent to an abalone ring that had been gouged out on the down stroke side. So traced that circle onto paper and cut it out as a template. Believe it was the same size as roll of blue painters tape, but it's been a while. Then placed my now taped up pick guard where it needed to be. Overlaid the cutout circle on top and marked the area to cut.
Didn't try to make my cut exact. That would have been way scary. So it was cut proud, leaving about a sixteenth (to at most an eighth of an inch) to the good side. Then filed the extra down using a half round bastard file. Burnishing it down with fine sand paper to finish. Because of not wanting a hard drop off or edge. Did this all the way around
Imagine it took 30 minutes to cut, file, and sand once marked. From memory the paper circle cutout, positioning guard for just the right look, and tracing to proper location seemed harder than reducing it to the right size. Given that you'd think that part would be pretty easy. Will try and find before and after pic.
As for thickness I really wanted the thinnest one. For me that was a plus because of equating a thick guard with hampering the top from vibrating. And from studying how exacting (and in minute detail) the bracing is shaved down differently from the bass side to treble side. Even how a new/different finish will alter the sound.
(etc: and to flesh out)
Wanted guard to fit adjacent to an abalone ring that had been gouged out on the down stroke side. So traced that circle onto paper and cut it out as a template. Believe it was the same size as roll of blue painters tape, but it's been a while. Then placed my now taped up pick guard where it needed to be. Overlaid the cutout circle on top and marked the area to cut.
Didn't try to make my cut exact. That would have been way scary. So it was cut proud, leaving about a sixteenth (to at most an eighth of an inch) to the good side. Then filed the extra down using a half round bastard file. Burnishing it down with fine sand paper to finish. Because of not wanting a hard drop off or edge. Did this all the way around
Imagine it took 30 minutes to cut, file, and sand once marked. From memory the paper circle cutout, positioning guard for just the right look, and tracing to proper location seemed harder than reducing it to the right size. Given that you'd think that part would be pretty easy. Will try and find before and after pic.
As for thickness I really wanted the thinnest one. For me that was a plus because of equating a thick guard with hampering the top from vibrating. And from studying how exacting (and in minute detail) the bracing is shaved down differently from the bass side to treble side. Even how a new/different finish will alter the sound.
(etc: and to flesh out)
This post was edited on 12/8/20 at 4:55 am
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