Main Description

What is an Assembly?

This is something I’ve been a little lax with over the years, because the photos were a little self explanatory, but because we’re putting out more and more information on the products nowadays, it’s a nice opportunity to actually explain what an Assembly is.

In short, its all of the electronics, all wired up and working, mounted onto a pickguard, and ready to drop into a guitar. It’s a VERY easy way to completely overhaul your guitar, without having to do an awful lot of soldering, or, frankly, really understanding what’s going on.

And that’s about it really – the pickups are complete pickups, they’re wired to the switch, which is then wired into the volume and tone pots, all the had works been done, and its just a case of dropping it into a guitar, getting some strings over it, and getting back to playing!

Now, with our assemblies, we cut no corners. Its CTS pots throughout, Cornell Dubilier caps, Oak Grigsby Switch, 22 AWG cloth covered wire and a Switchcraft mono socket.

We don’t connect the mono socket to the assemblies, but this is because on 99% of guitars, you’d only have to remove it to thread the wires through a hole into the sockets cavity, and, we obviously cant connect the ground wire to your bridge/trem claw to earth the strings.

so, whilst no completely solder free, what soldering you do need to do, is pretty minimal (and we’ll even throw in a little solder and heat shrink to do the job – purely to save you any extra expense)

You will need a soldering iron I’m afraid, that’s unavoidable, because of the way most guitars are designed, but beyond that? It’s a dream job installing assemblies frankly. Very little to go wrong, very little to actually learn, and it opens the door to making a huge modification to your instrument.

The Pickups

A Closer Look — And What to Look Out For

A few years back, we changed how we approached pickguards. For a while, we ran a full “custom pickguard” service — and to be honest, it was a headache from start to finish. Interestingly, the most common requests weren’t for wild custom shapes — just standard plates with slightly different control layouts.

So, when the full custom work wound down, we took a more practical approach: we started stocking “half-finished” pickguards — fully cut and finished, but without the control pot holes drilled. This allows us to offer a wide range of pickup and control options, drilling the holes in-house to your spec. It’s quick, simple, and keeps costs down — no need for a full custom build.

What’s Custom, and What Isn’t?

Let’s be clear — this isn’t a full-blown custom shop service. We’re not cutting new shapes, routing entirely new cavities, or making major structural changes.

Instead, we’re simply drilling different control layouts using jigs and a pillar drill. While that technically makes these pickguards “custom” (since they’re made to order), the scope is intentionally limited.

You’re choosing a pre-made plate — often something like a covered or uncovered HH layout — and we’re customising the pot holes, and occasionally routing a pickup if needed.

Any Extra Costs?

• Pot hole drilling: Free of charge. It’s quick work, done in-house.

• Routing a pickup or Switch Slot: This may carry an additional charge, depending on the pickup combination and complexity. It involves extra handling and setup, so pricing is determined on a case-by-case basis.

You Can Have Three Hole Sizes Drilled

We offer three sizes of holes, depending on your needs: (although, with an assembly, this is a little redundant, because we actually dont - but this is a copy and paste from pickguards - we only offer 10mm holes to accept the CTS pots used in the wiring)

• 10 mm – for standard pots

• ½" – for full-size toggle switches
• ¼" – for mini toggle switches

The positions stay the same; only the diameters change depending on what you’re adding.

So — with all that in mind — let’s walk through how to understand where the holes go and how to get the layout you want.

This is, probably, easier with a diagram, but, be warned, whilst it makes sense - its pretty cluttered.

• 10 mm Pot Holes: White

• ¼" Mini Switch Holes: Pink
• ½" Toggle Switch Holes: Grey

• UFO Knobs (~1" diameter) and Switch Tips (9 mm over the slot): Green

The system is smart enough to prevent most overlap issues, but some combinations sneak through. For example, fitting a 10 mm pot in the "TD" position alongside any switch will get really tight once the knob is installed.

Pickups

Choose from a range of pickup styles to suit your build.

Single Coils

“The Normal Stratocaster® Pickup”

It’s a bit of an oversimplification to call these just “single coils.” Strictly speaking, Telecaster®, Jazzmaster®, Jaguar®, and even P90 pickups are all single coils as well. But for whatever reason, when someone says “single coil,” most of us immediately picture a Strat® pickup.

Strat-style pickups are very much “Fender®” in how they’re built — and unmistakably Fender® in how they sound. I think most of us know what a Strat-style single coil does, so I’ll spare you a full-length deep dive.

That said, there are a few quirks unique to the Stratocaster® layout that are worth touching on, along with some interesting alternative options we offer.

Colours

Ok, even I’ll concede this isn’t the most thrilling topic at this stage — but there’s a surprising amount of confusion around the various “off-white” pickguard colours. And seeing as we’re already ticking off pearls and tortoise shell variants, we might as well tackle the parchments, mints and creams too.

So, let’s get stuck in.

Mint Green Notes

Before we dive any deeper into colours, a few things are worth flagging about Mint Green — it’s a tricky shade and often comes across completely differently in photos.

First, if you’ve looked at the “real” photos of Mint A and Mint B, you’ve probably noticed they look almost identical. That’s not a mistake — cameras genuinely struggle to capture the subtle differences. They tend to auto-correct everything toward a washed-out Mint A, regardless of the actual plate.

So, why bother showing photos at all? Well, the unedited images highlight how misleading camera shots can be. From here, you have to trust the edited examples above, or the colour swatch in the pickguard customiser — that’s a very accurate representation of what the plates look like in real life.

The takeaway? Don’t rely on photos when judging Mint Green. If I’ve had this problem, so has everyone else. A quick search online will show you at least ten subtly different mint shades on Fender guitars — but in reality, Fender almost always used Mint B (with the exception of Fender Japan). Over the last 20 years, I’ve come across just four actual Mint Green shades: B, A, a very bright “snot” green, and a slightly lighter version of B that’s still pretty close.

Pearloids Explained

Pearloid pickguards are often lumped in with tortoiseshells, but they occupy their own, slightly shinier niche. They’re not as subtle as tortoiseshells — the swirls and patterns are more pronounced, with a pearlescent effect that catches the light beautifully. Historically, they’ve been a relatively straightforward affair: virtually all pearloid pickguards are made from PVC, and there isn’t a deep, mysterious backstory like some of the vintage materials.

What makes them interesting is less about origin and more about aesthetics. The colour and pattern variations are deliberate but consistent, making it fairly easy to anticipate how they’ll look on a finished guitar. Unlike tortoiseshell, which can shift dramatically from manufacturer to manufacturer, pearloid maintains a stable palette. That said, the swirl direction, density, and shine can give each plate a little personality — no two are ever perfectly identical.

In short, if you’re after a classic, eye-catching pickguard with a bit of sparkle, pearloid is a solid, no-fuss choice that’s stood the test of time.

Pearloid Quirks

Pearloid plates do have a few quirks of their own. While the material is relatively consistent, the way the “pearl” swirls are distributed can vary a lot from sheet to sheet. You might find sections with tight, dense pearling or areas that are more open and sparse. This isn’t a defect—just the nature of how the pattern is formed.

Additionally, colors can shift slightly depending on lighting and viewing angle, so a plate that looks crisp under one light may appear softer or more muted under another. It’s worth keeping this in mind when matching to existing finishes or other pickguards.

Tortoise Shells

You’ve probably noticed that we do a huge variety of tortoise shell pickguards – and even then, we barely scratch the surface of the available styles.

Originally, tortoise shell pickguards were made from actual tortoise shell – pieces carefully shaped, joined, and polished until semi-transparent. Some of the earliest acoustic pickguards were made this way. Of course, nobody wants to go back to that practice, but people loved the look. When plastics came along in the early 20th century, they offered a much cheaper and more practical alternative. (Trade in hawksbill turtle shells didn’t become illegal until the 1970s.)

The first plastic tortoise shells were made from celluloid. It’s semi-transparent, with a kind of leopard-skin effect, and it looked gorgeous. Celluloid made its way onto guitars, mostly acoustics, and eventually electrics by the late ’50s and early ’60s. The problem? Celluloid is extremely flammable. Cutting it generates heat, storage is risky, and it’s generally unstable – prone to warping, shrinking, and colour changes under sunlight.

Today, tortoise shells are mostly made from Polyoxymethylene (more stable, but still flammable) or PVC (extremely durable, though it gives off toxic fumes if burned).

For modern pickguards, we typically work with five main variants (ignoring the rare, historical celluloid options). While celluloid still exists and looks incredible for historical accuracy, it’s extremely expensive, difficult to source, and high risk to work with. As a rough guide, sourcing a single celluloid plate could cost upwards of £150.

In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to write this section up, and, I really wish I didn’t have to, but, if I’m being honest and transparent about how pickups work, for better or worse, it’s probably worth being honest and open your rights as a consumer too, and maybe give a little insight into how we actually build pickups.

How we do it

Pickups, at our end of things – are “Custom made” – I cannot stress this enough. When you click the “Add To Cart” button, there is no pickup on the shelf, no bucket of pre-terminated bobbins or half complete pickups. It is made, entirely, from scratch using the parts we have available.

This means, if you order a Bourbon city, or a Hot Iron, or a Texas Blue, it is wound FOR YOU. It is being built to the specifications you have stipulated in the drop-down menus, even the most “normal” design, is still, essentially, built to order.

That entails our pickers collecting the parts from stores, delivering them to the winders, who then get the copper on there, and then the wound coils going to the techs to solder, terminate, test, polish, wax pot, clean, retest… you get the idea.

This is all done “in house” and, obviously, there is a queue, which is first in first out, so pickups will NEVER be shipped same day. Realistically, it takes about 2 weeks, but we do get busier at the beginning/end and middle of the month, so that can have a knock on effect.

And this is all being done, by hand, on a VERY small scale. At maximum, we can produce about 6 pickups a day.

It works wonderfully frankly, because we can make, pretty much, anything you can dream up, and keeping it small scale, means we have an exceptionally high attention to detail with each pickup sold.

Returns

So we have an item, when all is said and done, that didn’t exist until you purchased it, that has cost a lot of man hours to actually manufacture, and has been manufactured to your exact specifications.

As such, pickups come under the remit of “custom work” as laid out under the our terms and conditions, and as outlined in the UK governments distance selling regulations.

This means, in short, pickups are none returnable, and none refundable.
I understand, in this day and age, that may seem quite the hard-nosed approach, but, sadly, there’s no wiggle room in this. Once a pickup is wound, there’s no going back. It belongs to you. There is no “I’ll test it to see if I like it” or “I’ll return it if I don’t like the colour!”.

Warranty

All Axesrus pickups come with a “relaxed lifetime” warranty as far as I’m concerned. I’m never going to ask you to register the purchase, stop offering support 12 months after purchase or limit support to the initial customer in the case of second-hand stuff. We are incredibly proud of the pickups we produce, and I’ll help out wherever I can.

However, its worth laying out what I’d consider “realistic” expectations as to what we will cover as part of a warranty.

Repairs and replacements
Whilst we will not accept pickups as return for refund under any circumstances, we reserve the right to repair or replace any pickup that develops a manufacturing fault within a reasonable time frame.

I won’t put a scale on that time frame, but I will say, its at our discretion. If you’re lucky enough to have some of the VERY early hand wound stuff we made, and we (stupidly) thought we could do it at £20 a pickup, and the coil wires snapped after 10 years? I’m probably not in a position to repair or replace it free of charge, you know? You’ve had your fun; you’ve got your money’s worth!

On the flip side of that – if you’ve bought a £200 humbucker 2 years ago, and it’s developed a fault? You’d better believe Axes is bending over backwards to get it repaired and get you up and running again.

I’ll say this too, we won’t hang you out to dry – if that £20 pickup can be repaired, even if we’re not doing it as part of the warranty, we will offer to repair it at a reasonable price.

Damage vs. Fault
Pickups are delicate creatures I’m afraid. Nature of the beast I suppose, they were never designed, all those years ago, to be “presented” outside of a guitar, so go in knowing this, pickups can be damaged. Either in transit, whilst in storage, or during install.
It is VERY difficult to know how a pickup has developed a fault, so most of the time, we will go into all warranty claims with the mindset that “it’s a manufacturing fault”, frankly, because it keeps everyone happy, avoids any awkward conversations as to “who’s done what” and, normally, repairing damage done during install is the same work as repairing a manufacturing fault either way. Worst case, we might have a delicate email exchange about who’s covering the postage, but that’s about as bad as it gets.

However, we will take this approach only when a pickup, which is showing damage, is only showing minimal damage. I appreciate everyone makes mistakes.

Pickups that have been heavily damaged, have seen heavy wear and tear, or have been intentionally broken in an effort to raise a warranty claim, will see not be repaired, or replaced. Neither free of charge or “for a fee”

Lead times and cancellations
We do publish the lead times on all of our custom build work, and there is very little we can do to decrease the time it takes to actually manufacture this stuff I’m afraid, short of jumping you to the front of the queue (which is never fair, and we won’t do it)

Be aware that once an order is placed, work beings on your build, and as such, you’ve entered into the contract, and there is no backing out. Coils can often be wound within the hour or the order being placed, but they will sit in the work queue due to a back log at terminating/testing/cleaning.

Modifications
There are, occasionally, situations where someone buys a pickup or a wiring loom, installs it, plays it for a while, and then might want something a little different down the line. Maybe a different magnet, or a cover fitting, or a new hookup wire fitting.

I am happy to carry out this work, and, normally, regardless of the “time since purchase”, this will be done simply for the cost of parts and postage.

However, the “depth” of these modifications, and if we’re willing/capable of carrying them out, is at the discretion of Axesrus. We’re happy to discuss this on a case-to-case basis, but go in eyes open, that its unlikely to be part of the warranty.

“Warranty with initial purchase”
I’m not a stickler when it comes to this stuff, but I will say, we do have to draw the line somewhere, so, strictly speaking, this “relaxed warranty” is, officially, limited to the original purchaser of the product.

That said, I’m not a robot, nor am I a fool. I’m aware that sometimes, a pickup is moved on relatively quickly, or is bought by a 3rd party for someone else, so, in these cases, lets just be sensible about it. I’ll carry forward a “true” warranty on a pickup for 12 months after the initial purchase, regardless of who is contacting me in regards to any issue.

However, I will need to know who the initial customer was. Even if it’s just their name and a rough date of purchase.

This goes for technical support too – I’ve no problems offering support on Axesrus products, regardless of “time since purchase”, but I will ask for some proof that they are in fact, Axesrus products.

Modifications to second hand parts, will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis too.

Changes in specification/tolerances
Over the years, we’ve had a few “interesting” conversations regarding pickup specifications, especially when it comes to returns and warranty.

The published specs of our pickups, are published with a “within tolerance” subtext, based off of the readings from our testing equipment.

There will, always, be variation between one pickup and the next, and whilst we endeavor to keep those readings within the tolerances stated, they do occasionally wander outside of the 10% we stipulate as “acceptable” – this is usually due to temperature fluctuation, or specification changes outside of our control (wire diameter, alloy composition etc.) – any resulting change in readings based on these factors, will result in an updated technical spec on the website, but, as you can imagine, the first we know about an unforeseen spec change, is when the pickups come off the winder.

We do not consider these “out of spec” accidents to be cause for a warranty claim I’m afraid, and we endeavor to keep on top of them so the information we’re giving you at point of purchase, is as accurate as possible.

Warranty postage
Repairs or replacement postage cost, outside of an initial 14 day period, is at your cost. I appreciate, in some situations, that this is prohibitive (especially when shipping outside of the UK).

Sound Clips