Pickguard for a guitar without one

carlos

I want to put a pickguard on one of those vintage charvel lookalikes (vintage v6m24). Just for aesthetic reasons. I don't fancy my dyi skills. How much would a tech charge for that? The pickguard itself would be nothing fancy, let's say black. 

ICBM

Do you mean a Strat-shape pickguard? That's not going to be easy, even if you make the guard very thin. Either the guard will have to be drilled for the controls - and there will need to be enough thread length to allow the nuts to be mounted above the pickguard - or larger holes made so they will fit around the nuts. That might look odd with the switch, and the knobs may foul the surface of the guard... unless you make the holes so large that the knobs don't cover them at all which may then also look odd.

Unless a ready-made template exists you're probably looking at at least a couple of hour's work plus the material, so in the £100 region for most techs.

Funkfingers

All of the components visible on the front of that guitar's body are fastened to or through the wood. Hence, the only possible practical advantage of a scratchplate is the prevention of scratching of the paint. 

I agree with ICBM. Anything that does the job is going to look awkward, odd and out of keeping with the style of the guitar.

I vaguely recall Ibanez JEM or RG variants that came with a clear 'guard. (Probably, the ones with a fabric or wallpaper finish.) From a distance, clear plastic avoids some of the clumsiness of opaque materials but, up close, it looks daft.

Does Facelift make anything that would fit?

ICBM said:
... in the £100 region ...

If this were my guitar and my one hundred Pounds, I would invest it in locking machineheads with either adjustable or "staggered height" posts.

carlos

Funkfingers said:

If this were my guitar and my one hundred Pounds, I would invest it in locking machineheads with either adjustable or "staggered height" posts.

It already comes w/ locking machineheads.

carlos

ICBM said:

Do you mean a Strat-shape pickguard? That's not going to be easy, even if you make the guard very thin. Either the guard will have to be drilled for the controls - and there will need to be enough thread length to allow the nuts to be mounted above the pickguard - or larger holes made so they will fit around the nuts. That might look odd with the switch, and the knobs may foul the surface of the guard... unless you make the holes so large that the knobs don't cover them at all which may then also look odd.

Sorry but what do you mean by nuts in this case? I guess I have to replace the pots with taller ones so they clear the pickguard, but what else would need replacing?
This is the guitar in question btw:

ICBM

I mean the nuts on the pots and the switch. Yes, you could replace them with new ones with longer threads if the stock ones don’t have enough. A longer-thread switch may be more difficult to find. This will also add cost, obviously - although is an opportunity to increase the quality as well.

You’re going to need to strip out the electrics to make a template anyway though, so it won’t increase the amount of work that much.

andy_k

I have done similar things to my own things, paper and masking tape are your friends, and it helps to own a dremel, paper and tape to make a template, dremel to cut up an existing guard, or make a template and send it away to be made. A ton probably sounds right to ask somebody else to do it.
YMMV

bloodandtears

contact Tim @ scratch.it  .. if you can get him a template he'll make it <£50

CasperCaster

That's going to have to be an absolutely 100% accurate template - if the switch and pots don't line-up perfectly, not just relative to each other but also within the general outline of the pickguard relative to the perimeter of the body and location of the pickups etc then it will be a compete fail. If I were in the business of making that pickguard (I'm not) I'd want the body to hand whilst doing so, and wouldn't rout for the pots or switch until after I'd test fitted the guard to confirm their absolute final locations. I'd want more than £100.

carlos

Thanks for all the input. Seems more trouble than it's worth to be honest!

Gizmo

I was considering doing this a while ago and modding one to HS layout with custom SP but a charvel spectrum came up so didn't bother in the end 

Here's the design i ended up with,every much like the p51 

carlos

Very nice, Gizmo!

I was thinking a version of this, bearing in mind the Vintage is HH, not HSH.

Already found the pyramid decals, just pondering if I want to swap the humbuckers or just put little pink covers on them.

carlos

Alright, picked one up for £130 off eBay. Let's see what I'll mod. Apparently the pickups are pretty decent already .

Funkfingers

carlos said:

Alright, picked one up for £130 off eBay. 

Bargain.

carlos said:

Apparently, the pickups are pretty decent already .

High output, ceramic magnet jobbies. i.e. Exactly what would be expected on a guitar of that type.

carlos said:

Let's see what I'll mod.

Give the thing a fair trial in stock trim. 

carlos said:

just pondering if I want to swap the humbuckers or just put little pink covers on them.

Pink bobbin toppers on one half of each humbucker would make a bold visual statement. Neon colour control knobs would reinforce it. The sicker the colour combination, the better.

carlos

Funkfingers said:
Pink bobbin toppers on one half of each humbucker would make a bold visual statement. Neon colour control knobs would reinforce it. The sicker the colour combination, the better.

What's your favourite place to get these toppers? I ordered the disappearing pyramid inlays from jockomo.com but from previous experience their toppers are a bit thick and don't glue too well.