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Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
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Author:  tlguitars [ Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
I do a lot of "Custom" retro fits and some times it's impossible to find the Pickguard your looking for. Say you want a 72 Thinline Pickguard and switching, but you want to have the 72 Custom Pick-Ups. I'm going to combine two of my custom builds to show how you can do just that. I cheated on the first build and preordered a black pickguard with just the neck humbucker and the 3-way slot and volume/tone holes drilled. I now have more orders for the same thing and am tooling up to make them from scratch, with hand tools here in my shop.

I start by tracing the outline of a 72 Thinline Pickguard onto a piece of 5/8 plywood. The Ply is going to serve as my routing template for shaping and beveling the edge of the guard.
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I'll cut out the rough shape at the band saw and then sand my edges with my edge sander and drum sander.
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Author:  tlguitars [ Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
After I get things final sanded on my sanders I'll go back with a file and file away all the ripples that I have left with my sander. As I'm going to use this as a routing template any ripple in the template will show in the plastic. And as I dig the 3-ply laminates any ripple will show that much more.
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Now I'll go back and double check against my original 72 Pickguard and when I'm happy with my profile I'll then transfer over all of my screw and pickup holes.
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After my visual comparisons are done I'll then tape the guard face down using double sided tape onto the plastic I'm going to be using. Make sure to double check the laminates on your pick guard material as they may be different thickness and you may want one layer to be the top over another layer. This mint green has a bottom layer of .020 green, a middle layer of .020 black, and a top layer of .040 green.
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Before I cut I'll also tape a sheet of protective plastic onto the face of my guard to protect it during the machining process.
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Author:  tlguitars [ Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
You can now go and cut away the bulk material at the band saw.
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Once you've cut the bulk you can then go and route the final shape and bevel into your guard. I've got multiple bevel angle cutters (10, 14, 20, 22, 25, 35, and 45 degree) but for this guard I went with my 45 Degree cutter as the more angle the in cut the more dramatic the reveal the laminations will show and I was looking for big impact to frame out the mint green.
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The bevel is good for the outer edges but for the neck pocket I use a flush pattern cutting bit to square out the pocket.
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Here's a pic of the body shape on the guitar.
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Author:  tlguitars [ Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
Place holder post for routing the pickup holes and drilling the screw holes.
Author:  tlguitars [ Fri Nov 05, 2010 3:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
Now we're crossing over into my "Custom 72 Thinline." Build (the first one where I cheated and ordered a mostly made guard). After I've routed out the neck pickup and the screw holes I'll then place the guard on the body and double check my neck pocket fit and my center lines. ON this blak guard the body I was fitting to had a larger pocket then my template so I screwed down the guard and flush routed to the body.
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Now knowing my pocket was correct I double checked my centerline and located it on the guard.
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After locating center I shimmed and screwed down the bridge with some pickguard scrap underneath the bridge and traced the outline of what I needed to cut and file onto the pickguard. I measured the width of bridge and double checked/ corrected my trace before I cut out the bulk. After cutting the bulk I'll fille the guard until it fits perfectly.
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And here's the finished guard.
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Hope that helps anyone who wants to make a guard of their own.

Todd
Author:  Chris Pile [ Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
They look nice.
I always favored beveling pickguards with a file, sanding a bit, and then buffing.
No special tools, just a lot of elbow grease.
Author:  Chris Paulick [ Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Making a Custom Pickguard from Scratch.
Cool
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