Minimal-Coverage Pickguards

[Jet-Jaguar]

This is easier to explain with pictures, so I'm going to cut-and-paste from a conversation in the "work in progress" forum:

+1 on the solid color pickguard. There's too much going on with tortoise or anaconda on that top.

How were you planning to cut down the short horn side? There are some interesting examples in the gallery.

http://www.warmoth.com/gallery/images/strat/JOES%20FRIST%20GOODTAR-04_full.jpg

(the last pic's too big to embed)

A lot of beautifully-finished guitars are made top-routed. It would be cool to have standard-order pickguards that would not cover, say, the lower horn. Personally, I prefer that last one the best.

 

[m4rk0]

It's all or nothing for me

 

[JaySwear]

It's all or nothing for me

same. it's a cool idea, but i'd never use one. even on highly figured tops. just not for me :dontknow: must be the tele deluxe lover in me, but big pickguards don't bother me too much.

looks really cool on all those examples though!

 

[m4rk0]

But I do want to know what kind of bridge that is on the blue strat....

 

[line6man]

I burst out laughing when I saw those ridiculous pickguards. Why would you put something like that on your guitar? It's just ridiculous! :dontknow:
Some of those are defeating the entire purpose of having a pickguard in the first place.  :doh:

 

[Kaoskadosk]

I burst out laughing when I saw those ridiculous pickguards. Why would you put something like that on your guitar? It's just ridiculous! :dontknow:
Some of those are defeating the entire purpose of having a pickguard in the first place.  :doh:

Well, if you're not the kind of player who hits the body with the pick and you want the guitar, but don't want the pickguard to cover the whole thing, it's a great idea tbh. The only need for a pickguard that I see is because the thing is top-routed, you have no choice. Personally I'd never put a pickguard on a backrouted guitar just because I think they look kinda crap. I do like them sometimes for that classical Strat look, but I'd never have one myself.

I'd say pickguards defeat the puropse of a nice figured top, why get something beautiful just to cover it up?  :doh:

 

[line6man]

I'd say pickguards defeat the puropse of a nice figured top, why get something beautiful just to cover it up?  :doh:

Yes, that's exactly the point.

If you want a nice top, skip the pickguard.
If you see a showcase body with a nice top that was unfortunately top routed, you would be compromising your preferences by buying it. Wait and buy something else instead.

Plenty of pickguards are put on guitars for purely aesthetic reasons, with minimal pick protection,but these pickguards plain out look like crap, so not only are they useless, but also ugly. :tard:
(Well, actually, that third picture looks ok.)

Aside from the fact that I usually can't get past the idea of having pickguards that do not perform their intended function of protecting the body from pickwear, (Which actually is not an issue for me, personally, as I don't even use a pick. :blob7 I've got nothing against changing the shape of the pickguard to reveal more of the top, it's just that you have to find a more tasteful way of doing it.

 

[smjenkins]

For me, the pickguard is more form than function.  As I've said in a build thread, a strat doesn't look like a strat without the traditional pickguard.  There are some incredibly beautiful rear-routed strat bodies, and I'd like to build one at some point, but it's not really a strat.  All that being said, I really like this guitar and it's pickguard:

 

[OzziePete]

For me, the pickguard is more form than function.  As I've said in a build thread, a strat doesn't look like a strat without the traditional pickguard.  There are some incredibly beautiful rear-routed strat bodies, and I'd like to build one at some point, but it's not really a strat.  All that being said, I really like this guitar and it's pickguard:

Of the non-standard Strat pickguards highlighted in this Thread, this would be the one  I'd be most happy with. It just looks better formed and more fluent in it's curves,in comparison the others look like they have been cut out from an original.

I'd also go a step further, though I don't have any photoshopping tools to do this justice, and suggest that you take this one I am happy with and try and get the top part of it in a semi circular (like a Tele) pattern going, instead of the usual wavy Strat pattern you have there. And try and have a complementary radius of arc on the lower part where the switching and pots are. Kinda make the pickguard look like a teardrop, or comma shaped?

 

[stubhead]

That's, ahem, called a "Music Man", huh?

http://www.music-man.com/instruments/

Spermy the Imprecision Bass on the left there has about as minimal a PG as I could make, which even defined it's eponymous name:

Binky the #1 has a minimal PG, even though it's not a gaudy flame top. It started out rear-routed, but I just had too much rocket-science wiring to fit in there for it to remain so:

Making pickguards is really easy, in fact the main problem is it's too easy, the material is really soft so you have to figure out how to not cut it too much. You could make a pickguard with a buck knife and a nail file.

 

[line6man]

That's, ahem, called a "Music Man", huh?

Like I said, that third picture does look ok, but I think the Steve Morse style pickguard would look a lot better. Round off the area at the bass side of the neck pocket and you're in business. :icon_thumright:

That teardrop pickguard is not going to work on a Strat. You need to extend an area on the lower treble side for the controls.

 

[stubhead]

 

[line6man]

Oh God!
Not that hideous guitar again!

What was the name of the website that was selling those hideous Strat parts again?

 

[m4rk0]

is that a grateful dead guitar?
is it a homebrew pg or does he have one of those prototypes

 

[stubhead]

That's actually the real "Alligator", for which no insults may be brooked. Say what you will about numbdut songs like "Casey Jones" and "Sugar Magnolia", there were a few glorious years during which that guitar was used by Garcia to repeatedly tear holes in the walls of the universe, just to see what might come streaming, blasting or slithering in. Between 1972 and 1974, the acid had worn off, the heroin hadn't started kicking and the cocaine just kept 'em peppy... so I have a soft spot in my head for that guitar. That and SRV's #1 "Wife" are kinda proof that museum pieces belong on walls.  :laughing7:

Poke on old #23 "Dark Star" in the black spot on the right side here, and hold onto your fuckin' hat:

http://www.archive.org/details/gd72-05-11.sbd.samaritano.9357.sbeok.shnf

if you dial up that same concert on www.sugarmegs.org you can poke it ahead to the really weird part, but you'll have to figure that out yourself.  :sign13:

 

[Mor Paul]

is that a grateful dead guitar?
is it a homebrew pg or does he have one of those prototypes

Is that seriously a strat prototype? Becuase I'm digging that.

 

[m4rk0]

It is a scan from the Stratocaster book.. It may not be an actual prototype but just an early experiment.. here's another scan from that book:

 

[bigguspickus]

is that a grateful dead guitar?
is it a homebrew pg or does he have one of those prototypes

Is that seriously a strat prototype? Becuase I'm digging that.

The 'Control Plate Stratocaster' was a recent (<10 years ago) Custom Shop creation, where they envisioned what a prototype Strat might have looked like if it had a Tele style metal plate.

I really like it. The shape looks like it could have actually been original Leo, and the controls are laid out differently, which is cool.

I've seen the plate on the Custom Shop's art guitars (Crash, etc.) but with a more standard control layout.

 

[m4rk0]

The 'Control Plate Stratocaster' was a recent (<10 years ago) Custom Shop creation, where they envisioned what a prototype Strat might have looked like if it had a Tele style metal plate.

No, it's an old picture.. '54 or '55 I think

 

[OzziePete]

That's, ahem, called a "Music Man", huh?
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Making pickguards is really easy, in fact the main problem is it's too easy, the material is really soft so you have to figure out how to not cut it too much. You could make a pickguard with a buck knife and a nail file.

EX-actly! Musicman guitars look like they are complete with that design. Maybe something like that, maybe a little smaller in footprint over the body tho, thinner in the tail end than the Steve Morse Pickup-caster.  :icon_thumright: