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Pickguard Sheet
Blanks Pickguard Sheets in Aged white, Parchment, White, Black, Mint, White Pearl, tortoise Shell and Black Pearl
 
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Main Description

A basic, 3 ply blank pickguard sheet, available in a section of colours. Large enough to make Tele ®, Jazz Bass®, Strat®, Les Paul or SG pickguards or back plates.

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

"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

White Guitar Pickguards

White

We carry all our white plates in the above "shade" - its a completely opaque pigment, and is what you expect really, a very clean, crisp, pristine white.

Parchment Guitar Pickguards

Parchment

Occasionally called "aged white" in the trade - parchment is the next shade in from white, slightly darker with a very slight creamy/yellow tint - think of it like old news paper.

Mint A Guitar Pickguards

Mint A

The Lighter of the two Mint Greens, not as common on production guitars as you'd imagine, but a very subtle shade thats alot closer to what people expect Mint Green to be.

Mint B Guitar Pickguards

Mint B

Proper Mint Green! Dark, with a slightly grey hint to it. Does NOT photograph well, and suffers from horrendous camera colour correction. Very green, very dark, and a much closer shade to the discoloured nitrate plastics of the 60s, which Mint green was intended to mimic.

Ivory Guitar Pickguards

Ivory

Ivory (sometimes called Creme, especially if we're speaking "in Gibson") - buttery and rich, boardering on orange. Not a common colour by any means, especially in Fender style pickguards, but i absolutely love it.

Black Guitar Pickguards

Black

Black is black.Not sure theres a great deal i can say about it to be honest. Very opaque, very crisp, very classy. I always like the contract on the 3 ply plates with the white middle layer.

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)

Mint B Guitar Pickguards without colour correction

Mint B

Uneditted - Mint B looks nothing like this in real life, and is a much darker green, with an almost "grey" shade to it.

Mint A pickguards without Colour correction

Mint A

Mint A, is actually quite close to this however, its not quite as "washed out" in the flesh, and is a little more vibrant.

Mint Pickguards comared to white and Parchment

Comparison

When Mint A and Mint B are photographed side by side, and with a few other colours (in this case, White and Parchment), you see a much better comparison between the colours.

Ivory PIckguards different

Ivory vs. Ivory/Black/Ivory

We actually carry two different Ivory plates - There is Ivory (available in a 3 ply Ivory/Ivory/Ivory version, and a single ply version) and we also have Ivory/Black/Ivory 3 ply, which is now obsolete, but survives in old stock.

These are not the same colour, and Ivory/Black/Ivory plates will not match Ivory single ply, or Ivory/Ivory/Ivory plates, with the I/B/I plates being closer to a nicotine yellow, where the I/I/I plates are much more orange "cream"

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.

White Pearloid Scratch Plate

White Pearl

The most common pearloid you're going to see - "white pearl" - i think its safe to say we all know the look. Interesingly, Pearl pickguards are actually made from a material intially intended to be a faux "mother of pearl" (which is the inside of an oyster shell)

Parchment Pearloid Pickguard

Aged White Pearl

More common then you'd think strangely - fairly safe to think of it as the Parchment version of white pearl. For whatever reason, the pearling is a little tighter, with fewer blank spots between the reflective sections.

Grey Pearl Stratocaster Pickguard

Grey Pearl

Grey pearl isn't my favourite. Its appeared a few years ago, being missold as "black pearl", with doctored photos and wild promises, but was no where near.

Avalon Mother of pearl pickguard for a stratocaster

Avalon

This is a fairly new pattern as far as we can well - actually a much closer representation of that "mother of pearl" look that the original pearloids were going for. Rather then being broken up into reflective "squares", its more bothches and swirls, gives it a nice crisp finish.

Faux Abalone pickguard for a Strat

Abalone

If Avalon is getting closer to mother of pearl, then its probably only right that we've got one thats getting close to its opposite number, abalone (which is the inside of the shell of a few species of marine snail) - its certainly a very "unique" pattern, and again, is more swirls then squares.

Black pearl AM standard back plate

Black Pearl

Black pearl is always a bone of contention for us - its not "really" black - its more a dark grey colour - there is a blacker version out there (not that we can find it!) called "Moto Pearl" - but yeah, they've both got their place.

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

Close Up of Pearloid Pickguards

Shade differences

Viewing plates in isolation, its quite difficult to see how they differ, so i really like this photo. It shows the difference between the black pearloid and Grey, and the Aged and White plates.

Pearloid Stratocaster Pickguards with matching Knobs

Knobs

Pearls suffer from a weird problem, not being a flat colour, its somethings confusing trying to match up knobs/tips/cover - so, heres what i think works.

Aged White pearl matches with Parchment plastics.

White and Avalone matches up with White plastics

Black pearl, doesn't really match up all that well with black knobs, and, honestly? It highlights that black pearl isn't, really, black - but, its as close as your going to get i'm afraid.

Pearloid Pickguards plys explained

3 and 4 Ply

Pearloid plates can be a little confusing when it comes to their ply count, because they dont always conform to the dark/light/dark pattern we've come to think of as normal.

Essentially, the pearloid layer on the front of the plate, is a ply, so, 3 ply pearloid plates look like 2 plys (especially on lighter pearls, where the pearloid layer is semi transparent and appears white) and 4 plys look like 3.

You can, just, see the individual plys on this photo.

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+)

Classic Tortoise Shell

Classic

Now this is a funny one. For the longest time, it was the only Tortoise shell we had access to, and honestly – its OK – turns up pretty often on mid-priced guitars, such as the Squier® Classic vibe and vintage modified lines – personally, I think of it was a cheats Tortoise shell, because it seems to be a screen print sandwiched between the layers of PVC, and as such, it looks a little flat. It is, however pretty uniform, so if you want all your tortoise shells to look the same, classics the way to go.

3 Ply Brown Tortoise Shell

3 Ply Brown

Now we’re talking – rather then a “flat layer” brown tortoise is the real deal – layers of semi-transparent PVC (one yellow, one brown) over laid to give that characteristic look. For whatever reason, the 3 ply version shows a little more yellow in the mix then the 4 ply. It shows a great depth of colour as a result, and if pressed, I’d say it was my favourite of the shells.

4 Ply Brown Tortoise Shell

4 Ply Brown

Slightly darker then the 3 ply version, less yellow bleed through in the mix (presumably because the yellow “layer” is thinner)

3 Ply Red Tortoise Shell

3 Ply Red

Similar to the brown version really – yellow and red, one on top of the other, but it’s the same principle, same results, just a little more vibrant then the brown.

4 Ply Tortoise Shell Pickguard

4 Ply Red

Where the brown 4 ply shows a little less yellow, the red version pretty much cuts it out completely. Its almost bordering on a red pearl for us, and certainly not without its charms. Ideal if you really hate the idea of the yellow peeking through.

Celluloid Tortoise Shell Jazzmaster Pickguard

Celluloid

For completeness sake, heres a photo of a celluloid plate too - i think we can all agree, it looks absolutely glorious, and theres a real depth to the "shell" effect - but if you look closely at the photo, you can probably see that the plate (in this case a Jazzaster) has badly warped, its been kept in the same conditions as the PVC plates above, for the same amount of time, but its way past being usable now.


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