Sherwood Green - pickguard options

[swarfrat]

Ok, this is largely an aesthetics question,  but open to pickup suggestions. My old standby guitar, currently has EMG SA's. I like em. But after hearing the GFS Memphis, I've been tempted. But it's a top routed guitar with something that resembles Sherwood Green, or whatever ESP was selling back in the early early 80's.  It had a white pickguard at one point, but I don't recall if I put that on there in my youth or if I bought it that way. Aesthetics are complicated further by the fact that the Memphis is a tronish humbucker with an H-gate metal shell. Here's a few options:

I'm not crazy about white, and I think it only works for the S/S/S arrangement. I might just throw some Neovin's in there - I'm kinda wanting to yank the battery. I'm not opposed to actives per se, but this guitar is access limited. Right now the battery lives under the upside down jack plate. I'm not routing it for a battery box. It has sentimental value to me. (I've owned it for something like 20 of it's 30 years).  I don't even recall if the neck position is routed for a humbucker or not, but I'm not certain if I like the look of a single humbucker on a pickguard.

The chrome shell though is pretty hideous in any top routed setup I can think up. Wildcard option is that I have a *I think* Bill Lawrence something or other that was private labeled for Zion back in the day that I stuck in there way back. It's ugly (plastic cover pried off). I go putting singles back in any of the positions they gotta be hum free.  I'm playing an 80's Carvin X-60, and generally playing  un-modded but maxed out Marshallesque tones. Suggestions?

(The only other place I've really ever seen this color, is in my son's Alvin & the Chipmunks book. Theodore rocks a Sherwood Green maple necked p-bass with a white pickguard. My son has already made the connection and thinks it's funny.)

 

[bagman67]

I wouldn't mind seeing a photo of the actual guitar.  I just went through the builder and slapped together a Sherwood Green start with a tortoise-shell pick guard, and it didn't look half bad, to my eyes.  Can't really help you on the pups, though - I know bupkes about active pickups.

 

[swarfrat]

The actives are coming out. Whats going in is going to be passive.

It greener than it looks in this photo, but its maybe a quarter shade more bluegreen than the green in sherwood.  I'm just sort of looking to 1)mess with it 2)get rid of the battery, and flip the jack back the right way, and 3) get some of that snarly bell tone in my craunch. Not super hot, I generally prefer singles but have experimented with humbuckers on occasion (but didn'lt inhale). i'm looking for some midrange character.

Sherwood aint the prettiest color around, but those chromed covers are butt ugly in a pickguard.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Seymour Duncan STK-S6 in neck and middle, STK-S9 in bridge. Loads of midrange but still definitely a single coil. And noiseless.

 

[swarfrat]

Tortie don't look bad at all. Incidently the jbass with the covers is pretty much a dead ringer for my guitar's actual color)

White looks good, just not with a big chrome doodad in the middle

 

[swarfrat]

Not bad looking:

 

[Day-mun]

If this is any indication of what the guitar will look like, then by all means DO THIS!  :icon_tongue:

 

[Day-mun]

-I've got two small J-bass knobs I'll send ya just to complete the look!  :laughing7:

 

[swarfrat]

Dang, I might need to see if I can find a bridge cover now.. It's probably futile though, that's some ESP thingy from '83 or so, I've never seen anything QUITE exactly like it in terms of hardtail strat bridges.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I think White Pearl would look nice on that.

 

[Day-mun]

I think White Pearl would look nice on that.

Yeah, -maybe with the maple fretboard a lighter color would be better... vintage pearl could be interesting as well.

 

[swarfrat]

I like the look of the  black pearl. I'll have to stitch a neck on there to visualize the lighter materials.  But tortie is hard to beat. (And the current cat is a tortie no less.)

The j knobs could look cool, but  they need a plate, and it's got 30 years of grunge outlining the strat pickguard.  Thanks though.

 

[Day-mun]

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=23566.0;attach=31843;image

-Needs a plate? -What?  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

Back about 100 years ago I had an American Std Strat in Sherwood Green w/ a Maple neck. Had a love/hate relationship with it. It's what drove me to build my first Warmoth. Anyway, that had a white 'guard on it. I tried a black and a white pearl part, but neither looked as good. Eventually sold it to some old man who'd never seen locking tuners before. Wanted to know if I still had the old ones.

Silly human.

 

[Day-mun]

Mint green 'guard might be a tasty looking alternative in the light colors department. -Think there was a master-built sherwood strat comin' outa the Fender custom shop a ways back sportin' the minty.

 

[The Hun]

One of the future builds I need to get around to is a Sherwood green strat with a "smoke mirror" pickguard. I imagine it would look great but I've never seen a mock-up.

 

[swarfrat]

I started reconsidering white pearl vs black pearl or tortie. I also started 2nd guessing my color assessment.  I think the tortie in this case needs the green to play off, and I got to thinking my guitar is more blue than green. Since I have male pattern color recognition disorder (ie, not true color blindness, just can't distinguish fuscia from muave or chartreuse or whatever.. I can recognize salmon, because its meat.) I asked my wife and she says its green.

(The white perl might look nice with some of those perl capped chrome knobs) 

 

[swarfrat]

Ok, tortie with one more attempt to tweak my colors to match. Photobucket is down, so attaching. WP looks better than I thought it would, but tortoise looks good too. Decisions...

 

[swarfrat]

And the winner is:....

White Pearl, Single Humbucker, GFS Memphis, with chrome knobs w/ White Pearl caps.  Thanks guys I really hadn't considered this option before it was suggested. Now Theodore and I can rock out together with a matching strat and p-bass.  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

I agree. The white pearl looks best.