New Pickguard for my "Balckbird" Tele...

[BigSteve22]

I've been a little bored lately. My current project is on hold waiting for parts, but I gotta scratch the itch, somehow. I swapped out the stock speaker in my amp, (VHT Super 6 Ultra), for a WGS Reaper, replaced the 12ax7's pre-amps with 5751's, and got a new 6V6GT power tube, (all from TAD). I rearranged some of the pedals on my board to get a better tone out of the acoustic simulator, and changed the strings on every guitar I own. Still itch'n......

So, I turned my attention to my Blackbird Telecaster. I love the satin black finish, but the plain gloss black guard was poking at me. I still wanted black, and glossy, but with a little more interest to it. Thought about Black Pearloid, but that would be too busy. What to do, what to do......

The answer actually came to me in an email from Fender. They were having a sale on pickgaurds, and in particular, they were offering a Black Sparkle Tele guard for $15. For the price, I could afford to walk on the wild side. Glad I did!

And a close-up.

Just what she needed....

 

[bagman67]

That's fun!  Nice grab!

 

[Nando Vallart]

Looks super cool!! Congrats

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Mighty fine!

 

[rgand]

Now that's cool!

 

[vetteman]

I like it!  :headbang4:

 

[stratamania]

$15 well spent by the sounds of it.  ccasion14:

 

[ragamuffin]

Ooh, I like it! It's nice subtle sparkle

 

[BigSteve22]

Thanks for the kind words, Gents! I originally went with the plain, gloss black, guard to add an illusion of "depth". The contrast of the gloss guard, against the satin body, drew attention to the subdued reflections seen in the guard, mission accomplished. But depending on the angle of view, sometimes all I saw was fingerprints.....

I had never actually seen black sparkle, but I figured a subtle, non repeating pattern within the black gloss field, could be just the ticket. Upon receipt, I found that the sparkle had its own, inherent depth. Flake overlapping flake, laying at varying angles within the sparkled layer, making it look much deeper than it actually is. It almost looks like distant stars in a black sky. And the surface is slightly three dimensional, similar to orange peeled lacquer, which diffuses reflected images, and should help hide those pesky fingerprints!

$15 well spent, indeed....

 

[rgand]

I like that better than black pearl. Cool that it has depth to it, also.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I looked at it again after reading your poetic description and now it looks to me like a Hubble Deep Field image. Which leads me to believe that a Hubble Deep Field image would make a pretty cool pickguard...

 

[BigSteve22]

.....Which leads me to believe that a Hubble Deep Field image would make a pretty cool pickguard...

I'm sure it would! And I'm also pretty sure these guys could make it happen for you, if you ever become so inclined!  https://www.originalscratchplates.com/

 

[rgand]

Thanks for the link, Steve. I have it bookmarked, now. After all, you never know... :icon_biggrin: