Main Description

This is the pickguard most of us will be familiar with then it comes to working with the Fender® Stratocaster® and it represents the final stages of the plate’s evolution.

Essentially, it’s a slight improvement on the early 60s spec plate, with the only real difference being the mounting screw between the neck and middle pickup routes has been moved move towards the middle pickup, rather than being slap bang in between. Presumably this was done to combat that last trouble area on 60s models which where prone to warping.

Either way, this spec plate came into production around about 1983 and has lasted through until the modern on most USA and Mexican produced guitars (with the exception of a couple of re-issues and signature models which are mimicking guitars from before that period). One thing to watch out for though, and we field countless emails on this one – Squier® and Fender® Japan do not always work to this standard.

No idea why they never switched over to the standard hole pattern entirely (some do turn up, and modern models do seem to be much better for this), but they often turn up with all sorts of weird and wonderful spec plates on them - as always with this, if you’re in any doubt what so ever, check out the Technical Specifications, we made up some detailed diagrams showing the sizes, shapes and screw placement to make matching up plates as simple as we could.

But enough about the history and the manufacturers little niggles – how about a bit about the plate?

The plate itself is made for a 3 ply laminate of PVC, purely because it’s the best material for the job. Whilst it’s true to say that various other plastics have been used, most had their draw backs sadly – fine for historical accuracy, but a bit of a pig in day to day life. PVC is heat resistant to avoid warping, its colour fast, so will never change colour as it ages (although, as with most things, it’ll still nicotine stain, it’ll still bleach in the sun if you leave it there for a few weeks!).

So all in all, if you’re looking for a modern spec plate for your Strat® and you’re rocking a cool set of single coils, then chances are this is the one you want.

Routing

It’s exactly how you’d expect a plate for a Strat® to be really, routed out for 3 single coils, a switch (either 3 or 5 way – remember if you’re going historic, the 5 way switch didn’t come into production until the 1970s!) and 3 holes for the pots (drilled out to 10mm to take CTS pots) and the classic 11 mounting holes around the edge.

A Closer Look and what to look out for

Fender®, Squier®, Stratocaster® and Strat® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Axesrus® has no affiliation with FMIC

Moving Pot Holes?

A few years ago, we started to change the way we did pickguards – we’d run a “custom pickguard service” for a year or two before that, which, was a pain from start to finish*, but, honestly? The most common request we had, was relatively normal pickguards, but with different control lay outs.

So, as the custom pickguard stuff came to an end, we just started to stock “half finished” plates – all finished, except they don’t have the pot holes drilled in them. That means we can offer a few different options, and we’re just drilling them in house.
This has snowballed a little bit, because there’s probably a few more options than there should be, but, between the wide range of pickup options, and the customisable pot holes, you can do an awful lot without really breaking the bank with a “full” custom made pickguard.

There are limits
That said – let’s not dress this up into something its not! We’re drilling out different size holes with a pillar drill and a few jigs, for absolutely no extra cost. We aren’t making the pickguards, we aren’t routing in the pickups, we aren’t cutting in the switches.

Technically (and legally!), these pickguards are custom made, because they’re being “made to order” – once they’re drilled as requested, they’re under the remit of custom work – its just that the level of customisation is limited to the pot holes.

Why are there 3 sizes?

Here’s where I’ll admit to the whole thing snowballing a little. The pot holes aren’t just limited to pots now – we built in ½” holes for toggle switches, and ¼” holes for mini toggles. It doesn’t really change much thankfully, the holes are still in the same place, they’re just a different diameter.

So, with that in mind – lets see if we can figure out a way to explain where the holes are in relation to the plate!

And in closing - Pickguards, once drilled away from the standard hole plan, come under the remit of Custom work and as always, if you've got any questions what so ever, please feel free to get in touch with us and we can talk through all the finer details of your proposed build.

Returns and Refunds?

Because these plates are, essentially, custom built due to the pot hole positioning being variable - they come under the remit of Custom work as laid out in our terms and conditions.

The product page will have loaded up with a "standard confirguation" pre-selected, but that doesn't change the fact that the plate exists, on the shelf, with no pot holes drilled in it, and we will be modifying it to meet your specifications, so it is non returnable or refunable.

EXCEPT - when a plate is ordered without any pot holes drilled. This, obviously, means the plate is unmodified, and as such, returnable/refundable (assuming you have no tmodified it yourself)

So, its really worth using all the resources here to make sure its exactly what you want before commiting to buy the thing! Theres spec diagrams under the tech spec tab, theres photos of all the colours under the "Colours explained" tabs - your as well informed with what your getting as you can be (and again, if in doubt? Just buy the thing without the pot holes and drill it out yourself - 10mm drill bit and a cordless drill - easy job - we'll even tell you where to put the holes)

"Colours" Explained

Ok, even i'll conceed that this isn't the most thrilling of toics at this point, but there is actually plenty of confusion when it comes to the "off white" pickguard colours, so seeing as we're ticking off pearls and tortoise shell varients, we might as well address the parchments, mints and creams too.

So lets get stuck in

Now, to before we get further into colours, i've got a few bones to pick over when it comes to Mint Green, so, if you'll indulge me, i'll try and explain why Mint green is so "hit and miss"

First things first, you've probably spotted that the Mint A and Mint B "real" photos look a bit... false, right? Thats because they are I'm afraid - Cameras really struggle to capture the difference between the colours. Essentially, the camera just corrects the image to something that looks like a fairly washed out Mint A, regardless of the actual colour.

So, before i get lost in this, heres the unedited images of Mint A and Mint B, and i think we can agree that the camera has made a meal of things. They both look identical.

Now, this is useless from my point of view, because it doesn't show the difference, so, you'll have to trust the edited photos above, and, honestly? The swatch image tied to the colour select drop down, gives a very accurate match to what the plates look like in the flesh.

But, i'm showing you this because you must consider, that if I'm having this problem, you can bet everyone else is too, so, a word to the wise? Dont trust photos of guitars with mint pickguards! I can search online now, and i can see 10 subtly different shades of mint pickups fitted to Fender guitars - but i know that Fender always use Mint B (Except Fender Japan) . Its a trick of the camera, and there aren't that many variations of Mint Green - I think, in the 20 years i've worked here, i've seen 4. (B, A, a very bright "snot" green, and a "not unpleasant" green that was close to Mint B, but a shade brighter)

Pearloids Explained

Pearloid plates are similar to the tortoise shells, but theres a little less subtly between them, and they dont really have anything overly interesting in their history - as far as i can tell, they're always been PVC, and the variations in colour and pattern are pretty easy to follow.

Pearloid plates do have a few of their own little quirks, so, i'll do a little more detail here too.

Tortoise Shells

You’ve probably noticed with the pickguards, we do A LOT of different variations in tortoise shells – and even then, we barely scratch the surface when it comes to completing the line-up.

Basically, Tortoise shell, originally, way back when, when it first started (long before the electric guitar was a thing) was just that – pieces of a tortoises shell, fixed together into a shape, and polished until semi-transparent (some of the early acoustic pickguards were actually made this way)

Now, obviously, none of us want to see a return to those practises, but seemingly, everyone liked “the look” – so with the advent of plastic in the early part of the 20th century, science found a cheaper way (it wasn’t until the seventies when trade in hawksbill turtle (the main source of Tortoise shell) shells became illegal!)

The first “plastic” Tortoise Shells were made from Nitrate plastics, usually Celluloid – and, frankly, it’s pretty gorgeous! Its semi-transparent, it’s got a sort of leopard skin look to it, and it soon worked its way onto guitars (again, most acoustics)

The problem is – Celluloid plastics are astonishingly flammable – they have a low point of combustion, and once they’re burning, they don’t go out until the fuels gone, or they flame is deprived of oxygen. As you can imagine, no one really liked working with Celluloid. It was risky to use (cutting = friction = heat) it was dangerous to store, and it wasn’t really suitable for the job at hand ( it changed colour when exposed to sunlight, it warped, it shrank, it was generally, pretty badly behaved!)
Never the less, it did eventually find its way onto electric guitars by the late 50s and early 60s, but was soon replaced for something more suitable and much safer.

Nowadays, you see Tortoise shells in either Polyoxymethylene (more stable as a material, but still very flammable) or PVC (which is fairly bomb proof, but does give off toxic fumes if burnt)

Now, getting to the modern day – Tortoise shell comes in 5 “variants” for us (ignoring the Celluloid offerings, they’re still out there, and great for historical accuracy, but just be VERY careful with them – not only in buying them/storing your guitar once its fitted, but also in actually sourcing the stuff, we’ve yet to find a factory who will even consider making a plate with it (too big a fire risk) and even when we do, its very cost prohibitive (more expensive to buy the things then we could ever dream of selling them for!) – there are guys out there making them though – but as a rough guide, expect to pay upwards of £150+)

FAQ

These "tabbed" pages are great, because they mean we can go into a bit more depth on some of the more "niche" topics of guitar parts, but, at a certain point, it does make sense to just lump some of the "really niche" stuff into an FAQ and be done with it - so here it is!

Will this pickguard fit <INSERT GUITAR MODEL HERE> ?
Right then, I’ve typed this out in emails (tens of) thousands of times, and, honestly, it’s as cowardly an answer now, as when it first wrote it.

"I DONT KNOW"

No one does, not really, not with total, 100%, unwavering certainty.

This is a bit of a two fold "problem" sadly – but bear with me, if anything, it’s a window into the insanity of guitar parts!
Firstly, in the grand scheme of things, I (and every other guitar tech/tech support/musical instrument shop employee) see a frighteningly small cross section of guitars manufactured every year.

There will be models of guitar I never see in the flesh, let alone have them on the bench, let alone have them on the bench for a pickguard replacement. I’m not exaggerating here – there are makes and models of guitar I won’t know about until I receive an email or phone call about them.

And there’s no Haynes manual for this stuff – no one higher up the food chain is recording pickguards. Theres no spec sheet which covers a Stratocaster® or a Tele® or a Les Paul® in this sort of detail. Even Fender® who are, pretty good at recording “what uses what”, don’t go this deep. Joe Bonamassa probably isn’t measuring and recording his guitar collection either.

So, pickguard “knowledge” is something of a hive mind thing – I generally only know if a pickguard fits (or doesn’t!) when I get an email saying “Craig? Wonderful job!” or “This pickguard for a Stratocaster® didn’t fit my Encore® Blaster” (I half kid! All feedback is good feedback when it comes to pickguards!)

So, you’d think that’d be easy right? You’re expecting an email after a few days asking for feedback aren’t you? Well, that brings us on to fold 2!

“Pickguards are standardised”

Yeah…. Not quite… its close, but not quite true!

Pickguards ARE standardised! I know more about Fender® then any other manufacturer, and I can say, with certainty, there are 3 recognised “official” specs of Stratocaster® pickguard mounting plan. This is the ultimate truth. 1954-57, 1958-62 and 1963-this morning! (other things change, but the mounting screw positions, are always the same)

And I know, that there will be pickguards I ship out today, that won’t fit guitars that I would have sworn blind, they should fit. 50s Strat® that won’t accept 50s plates, modern guitars that wont take modern plates. Brand spanking new sixties inspired Strat® that won’t take a 62 pickguard.

Things change – guitars will come off the production line with an “out of spec” pickguard. Sometimes it’ll be intentional, sometimes it won’t. Fender® might be trying something different, they might have switched factory, they might have changed… something. It might be the introduction of “the new standard”, it might have been an experiment – no one knows why we come away from the standards, but it happens.

Its not common, but it happens. A hole will move 2mm, and nothing else will change. A tremolo route will be 1.2mm smaller, a bridge humbucker will move forward 6mm – and these changes aren’t recorded, and by the next production run (or model, or re-issue) the change has vanished, and we’re back to working on the standard.

So – the best advice I can give to anyone considering a “will it fit” email?

Click on “Technical Specification” above – there’s a diagram. Measure it against your guitar.
I can’t see your guitar, I don’t have the dimensions, and even if I had the exact same model produced a week earlier and a week later, I’m in no position to say that yours, is the same!

It’s the only way to be certain – and its dead easy! Everything’s measured centre to centre (on the holes) and edge to edge, across the shortest possible length – give yourself a bit of a tolerance to account for measurement errors, and it’s a 2-minute job to figure out.

“I’ve measured, the pickguard physically fits, but the screw holes don’t line up?”

This is, honestly, the most common “my pickguards not standardised” gripe – and, really? There isn’t much I can do – I’ve got to fall on the sword of “all pickguards are standardised” – I appreciate that your guitar might be out (and, chances are, its “out” to every aftermarket/spare parts pickguard you’ve seen too)

There is so little recorded about out of spec plates, and they appear to be so isolated/random – that trying to figure out “out of spec” plates, is impossible – I appreciate that it’s a massive inconvenience, and we all want pickguard swaps to be easy, but there are some cases where it just isn’t.

So, you’ve got two options!

First, is the most logical.

Fill and redrill the mounting holes on the guitar, (change any routing if you need to!) and bring the guitar back into the standard spec! It’s a little more work, you could, potentially, devalue the guitar (although, I honestly doubt anyone would care at this point)

Epoxy fillers are very good nowadays, and will allow you do redrill holes very close to old ones, and, all in all, its very easy! All your handy work will be covered (although, I can make no promises about the routing!) – and all future pickguard swaps, are easy! Every guitar parts shop up and down the land, is working to the same standards.

Custom pickguards, they do exist! Plates made, from a big sheet of plastic, cut to size, mapped out to your individual guitar! They’re, by and large, ludicrously expensive (considering it’s a sheet of PVC cut into a pretty shape) – they’re VERY labour intensive, they have a high failure rate, they take a long time to produce… they cost a lot to buy because they cost a lot to make, and require a fair bit of skill to do well. Axesrus® doesn’t do them, what we’d need to charge, I wouldn’t want anyone to pay for a bit of plastic – but there are companies out there that will do the work. Just go in eyes open – it SHOULD be a £100-200 job – don’t be surprised when the quote hits, and be cautious of anyone offering to do it for £30.

"I've recieved my pickguard, and its VERY scratched"
Chance are, that the thing thats scratched, is actually the protective sheet on the front face of the pickguard, and it has simply done its job.

The protective sheet is intended to be removed, and even the plates, fresh from the factory, show some wear and tear on the protective sheets.