# Place to buy pickguard material?



## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

I'd been thinking about making my own strat-type pick guard, but I haven't been able to find the material anywhere in small quantities.

I can buy a 3' x 3' sheet, but I really don't need that much.

Does anyone know of a source that would be enough to do just a single strat pickguard?

I'm even considering something smaller, just to cover the control cavity and allow me to open that up without having to take all the strings off and lift the pickups out etc.

Does anyone know a source?

And what am I trying to buy? Is it plexiglass? How thick?

Thanks


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

Have you tried Stew Mac's ? believe he has smaller sheets available in different types. Warmoth also sells it in smaller sizes. I haven't really found any place in Canada yet where you can buy it.


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## Eric Pykala (Jul 1, 2006)

Hey guys, we (The Arts Music Store, 905-898-7164)carry sheets big enough to do a Strat 'guard and a backplate, or if that's too big I'll cut one in half or whatever. Only have white/black/white instock at the moment, but I'm ordering more for a personal project on Monday, so I'll have some black/white/black. The fancy plastics have gotten really hard to source (like for white pearloid I'd have to buy enough for 12 Strat 'guards...for $400), and a 12" x 18" piece of tortoiseshell is well over a hundred bucks. Ouch.
Hope this helps!-Eric


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

Eric Pykala said:


> Hey guys, we (The Arts Music Store, 905-898-7164)carry sheets big enough to do a Strat 'guard and a backplate, or if that's too big I'll cut one in half or whatever. Only have white/black/white instock at the moment, but I'm ordering more for a personal project on Monday, so I'll have some black/white/black. The fancy plastics have gotten really hard to source (like for white pearloid I'd have to buy enough for 12 Strat 'guards...for $400), and a 12" x 18" piece of tortoiseshell is well over a hundred bucks. Ouch.
> Hope this helps!-Eric


9"by 15" tortise laminated guard material is only $33 US from STewart Macdonald. 

9" by 24" peraloid (Mother of toilet seat) is just $38 US.

regular three ply (wbw or bwb) stuff is like $14 US for a 12" by 20" piece.

The pickguard material is not acrylic, its PVC plastic. Failry soft and easy to machine and file/scrape. It seems to me it is the exact same thing as the stuff they make little name and ID tags from - you know, the same stuff that you see name plates on doors and on desks in offices, etc. If you dont want to order it, try and check out a sign company that does those types of ID tags and such.


AJC


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

i've seen it at stewie mac but no ware in canada .they charge more for a piece than i can buy a pickguard already made there pretty cheap at guitarfetish. unless you were creating your own design or something


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Yeah, the Guitarfetish prices are very low. I was looking to do my own though. 

I could hack away at a pre-built pickguard, I guess, but I don't like where the volume pot lands on a standard strat layout, so I'll end up with an empty hole there (I have one now on my existing pickguard). I don't like the style and position of the pickup selector much either.










Mostly I'm just annoyed by the fact that I have to take the whole guitar apart to work on the electronics.

I've been spoiled by the rear-access convenience of the Gibson-style design, I guess. 

I'm thinking of maybe cutting the pickguard in half, so I can re-wire without that grief, or else getting rid of the pickguard entirely where the pickups are mounted (sort of EVH style, I guess), so I don't need to take those off every time I want to try an alternate capacitor or something like that.

I figured I would keep my existing pickguard intact and experiment with some raw material instead, so I can go back to original if it all turns out to be a bad idea.


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## Canman (Oct 21, 2007)

Greg-I find it interesting that you dont like the standard strat control layout- I am curious How would you prefer to have it?


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Canman said:


> Greg-I find it interesting that you dont like the standard strat control layout- I am curious How would you prefer to have it?


I find I'm always crashing into the volume control on the standard strat layout, it throws off my playing and I end up changing the volume level inadvertently in the process. 

Anything that moves that volume pot away from that spot is a good thing for me. In the pic above, I've snipped out one of the tone pots and moved the volume down into it's place.

On my old Kramer, I moved it even further, to the other side of the tone pot - see pic. The knob closest to the bridge is actually the tone control, the volume is the one beside it, toward the butt of the guitar. That particular placement keeps it clear of the swinging trem bar (I sort of reach around *behind* the bridge to adjust the volume).










Also, see how the Kramer's pickup selector is quite small, and works in an up-down fashion, rather than the top-left-to-bottom-right style of a typical strat? That feels a lot better to me - it's easier to hit quickly and the positions feel much more intuitive somehow. To me, anyway.

It's probably got something to do with my earliest guitars (many many moons ago) - first was an acoustic, then I had a tele copy, and then a wierd El Degas thingie with Les Paul-style controls, except the pickup selector was down near the rest, instead of up high like a real LP.

In all cases, there was no obstruction anywhere near the strings.


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## Canman (Oct 21, 2007)

Thanks-Yes I can see what you mean- strats in the past when I used to use a pick, the vol pot did sometimes get changed unwantedly--I suppose some prefer it so the can pinky volume roll to get the swell/reverse attack effect...

AMF When I used SG's years ago I always hated the control layout.


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## Greg Ellis (Oct 1, 2007)

Yeah - I find that swelling stuff is a lot easier to do with a volume pedal, rather than trying to coordinate my fingers. 

And I tend to bypass my volume control with a treble bleed cap, so it acts more like a gain control than a regular volume anyway.


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