Who makes high quality replica pickguards?

[1929Pickguards]

Howdy! Thanks for the mentions up there! Thought I'd jump in and also post my shop 1929 Pickguards and share some of my work












Thanks for lookin!

[deacon Mark]

Howdy! Thanks for the mentions up there! Thought I'd jump in and also post my shop 1929 Pickguards and share some of my work












Thanks for lookin!

Nic is a friend I know and I am quite sure his pickguards are up to the best standards. He makes really great ones and I have to get his source of material, but material besides you still have to make them all come out nice.

[sgosnell]

Well, the pickguard I ordered from Pickguard Planet, aka Chandler Music, came in the mail today. It's laughable. With the masking still on both sides, it measures 1.2mm in thickness. It's too small in length, but I could probably work around that. But most of my picks are thicker than this toy. It would probably work well on a flat-top, glued to the top, but for an archtop it won't cut it. It's pitiful. I would not recommend buying anything from this place.

[wintermoon]

Assuming it's translucent the 2nd guard 29pickguards posted isn't bad for a Gibson. I'd mount a thin sheet of black material under it to reduce the light areas of the swirl and make it darker looking.

[Cavalier]

Well, the pickguard I ordered from Pickguard Planet, aka Chandler Music, came in the mail today. It's laughable. With the masking still on both sides, it measures 1.2mm in thickness. It's too small in length, but I could probably work around that. But most of my picks are thicker than this toy. It would probably work well on a flat-top, glued to the top, but for an archtop it won't cut it. It's pitiful. I would not recommend buying anything from this place.

This place isn't bad for what it is, production guitar pickguard replacement. I got a perfectly acceptable strat back plate for a 80s Japanese standard strat (remember when Fender US shut down?) It was spot on for manufacturer specs. A L5? Never was a mass produced factory guit.

[RJVB]

It would probably work well on a flat-top, glued to the top

Work well ... to mute the guitar?

My Seagull came with a large faux tortoise jumbo-fancy-shaped pickguard that added noticeable thickness to the top. Since I don't use a pick I sweated an hour or two to get it off and am pretty certain the guitar sounded better immediately. I didn't measure just how thick the thing is but probably more like 0.2 below the 1mm mark than above.

[sgosnell]

I don't claim that such pickguards enhance the acoustic's sound, just that they're on many of them. My Gibson J-45 has one, but I've never considered trying to remove it. After >50 years, it's not likely possible to remove it without severe damage. I rarely play it anyway.

[Jabberwocky]

Mark Campellone used to obtain his pickguards from David Aspray. David used to have a website that is now defunct. I don't know if David is still making pickguards but I recall being smitten with his work when his website was up and running.

Email Mark Campellone. Perhaps he can give you some leads.

[pmgetty]

I recently purchased a new solid black glossy pick guard from All Parts for my black Gibson L5 and found that it is easily scratched. I have many guitars including other L5s and have never had this problem with other Gibson pick guards.

All Parts indicated that the material is nitrocellulose and prone to easy scratching. No refund was offered and their response was "that is what pickguards are supposed to do" (Ha)

I was able to buff out most of the scatches with a plastic polish - but never needed to do this on my many other guitars.

Currently reaching out to other sources for a scratch resistent pickguard.

[RJVB]

"that is what pickguards are supposed to do"

Some people do call them "scratchplates"

[Easy2grasp]

I bought the appropriate pickguard for my 1952 Gretsch 6030 acoustic archtop from Pickguard Planet ($64 - 4 ply .095) and was very happy with its vintage correct size, shape, thickness, and coloring.

I also got a replacement pickguard for my 1974 Howard Roberts Custom from Fox Guitars. It is also very nice and aged to agree with older binding. It was a little expensive at $350, though.

[ARGewirtz]

It seems that there have been lots of good suggestions offered for a craftsman to make a quality pickguard for your guitars. In the event that you haven't yet found the right one and are still searching you might want to consider Tiny Tone in Manchester, UK. Even though I'm in New Jersey, I worked across the pond last year with Tiny Tone to make a pickguard for my 1978 Ibanez 2630. Steve from TT did really nice work and was very accommodating. The cost was NOT cheap but I wanted something very specific and was willing to pay for quality, and at the time the USD/GBP exchange rate was very much in my favor so it worked out well.

Home - TinyTone

[omphalopsychos]

I don’t know if the people responding realize this is an old thread from a year ago. My solution was to get some custom pickguards from tk smith. They are the nicest pickguards I’ve ever seen, made of 1/8” thick tortoise celluloid, which is very rare today.
New Pickguards from TK Smith

[omphalopsychos]

[ARGewirtz]

I don’t know if the people responding realize this is an old thread from a year ago. My solution was to get some custom pickguards from tk smith. They are the nicest pickguards I’ve ever seen, made of 1/8” thick tortoise celluloid, which is very rare today.
New Pickguards from TK Smith

I didn't realize it was an old thread when I posted my reply but it was worth the oversight to see the pics of your guitars with their new pickguards .

[Spook410]

Try Leroy Aiello, who did the work for Mandolin Bros. for years and has his own shop.
Welcome to AielloGuitars.com
.

Had one made for an L5. Got it in February (2023 if looking at this sometime in the future). Great work. Nice guy. Good communication. Good price. If I needed another I would start with him.