Making a wooden pickguard...?

[TalismanRich]

I have a small crack in the wooden pickguard of my H-157 (the one in the PSP video.  It's not a big issue, but I wondered how hard it would be to make another one.    I'm not a woodworker, but I've got a few tools.   

I picked up a piece of 4" x 24" x 1/8" basswood from Hobby Lobby.   It was $4.   I can get some Minwax black stain, and I think they have Minwax 15200 nitro lacquer at Lowes in a spray can.   I can use the original guard as a pattern.    All I need is the binding.  

Checking on Amazon,  MusicLilly has white plastic binding that will work.   $8 with free shipping.   It showed up today, so I'll run by Lowes and get the Mixwax.   I've also got a can of Rustoleum acrylic enamel.   The piece of basswood is about 24 inches, so I should be able to make a couple of pickguards, and have some scrap to try my hand at staining and binding.

One thing that surprised me with the binding is "how do they make any money?"   It's $8.   I looked at the Tracking and it was shipped from Guandong China to Hong Kong on Tuesday.   It arrived in Miami Fla on Wednesday and passed through Customs.   From there it went to Georgia and was handed off to USPS.   It delivered today.   The amazing part is that I shipped some cassettes to a fellow in Oregon a few weeks ago, and shipping alone was $10 via USPS.   This thing came all the way from China for $2 less.   AND they even threw in a free guitar pick. 

 

Anyway,   I'm going to give this thing a shot in the next week or two.  I'll need to learn how to do the binding, but I've got 5 ft of binding to play with.  

Oh yeah,   at PSP,  someone said that the trick to fixing the crack is to thin down some Titebond,  work it into the crack and let it harden.    I'll probably try to do that as well.

[bolero]

I wonder if it's just dry? Do you have a humidifier?

Maybe humidify & then add some glue

Although it IS summer, so humidity shouldn't be a problem in the northern hemisphere? Normally stuff like that happens in the winter.

[TalismanRich]

Nah, Bolero,  it wasn't humidity.  I've got a humidifier for the winter that drinks about 3-4 gallons of water a day in the depths of winter.  The crack right by the screw below the neck, cause when I inadvertently pressed down on the pickguard quite some time back.  The metal arm gave way slightly, but the part by the screw didn't move.   I heard it crack.   It's barely visible, doesn't compromise anything.  

I consider this an "adding to the skill set" adventure.   A lot of people have asked for wooden pickguards over the years.    I'm surprised that nobody has ever said "yeah,  I can make them".    Wasn't it Big Bob who made those 3D looking cutting boards (anybody remember those?)   Surely he could have made something this simple!

In the end,  it will probably end up looking like a 5th grader's art project.   We'll see.   Rockabilly did the plexi pickguard for his Rick and it looked great.   This should be an easier job than that.

 

Now can anybody figure how how to ship a package from China for nothing?   The binding,  envelope,  time and shipping around the world for a whopping $8. 

[Spectrum13]

1 hour ago, TalismanRich said:

.   A lot of people have asked for wooden pickguards over the years.    I'm surprised that nobody has ever said "yeah,  I can make them".    Wasn't it Big Bob who made those 3D looking cutting boards (anybody remember those?)   Surely he could have made something this simple!I

That was Steiner (Gregg)

[TalismanRich]

10 hours ago, Spectrum13 said:

That was Steiner (Gregg)

Thanks.   That's been so long that I couldn't remember. 

[Gitfiddler]

Did Jay Wolfe make maple pickguards at his shop?  Or did he have the factory make them for his custom orders?

[TalismanRich]

I'm guessing that in the past,  they would have done pretty much anything that Jay asked them to do.   I think the standard pickguards were maple.   Mars_Hall had this photo from 2009.   It was labeled "Maple Pickguards".

 

[bolero]

Oh!

In that case, I have had great results with a wood specific cyano glue called ZAP. It wicks right into fine cracks & works great on wood. Much easier than trying to dilute & get thick yellow glue in there.

 

[Genericmusic]

 Check this out on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/405120756787?_nkw=Wooden+pickguards+Heritage+guitars&itmmeta=01J59M7AK1X2WFV1Q71XCVKNXV&hash=item5e53142c33:g:UqMAAOSwEjlmXy3Y&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABAHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkzCA31%2FgjD8ogX995y3PzG8GLBLnafIOheRZjZcn7F7SL7bY78vXh4Lkgm8wNsMYH2rnhcBY%2FyGOUqO3pkfb%2FXGSmHPOVTkj2SW4CL%2BQm%2FmNrCtng%2FVpj8CXhzSG1JdlkK0PXCBmyca%2BIx7sfw4waTI0mX3qT4XquPdRvSAaYf9wu6nRKiiRdpYi3%2F6gOlSWtAvzuk8q7OGsDtWFjHVnzzpLVIuEtdxo%2F57ICifUa1rSMyt8yzUgRAI5%2B8XaHzVSnoUzKvB%2B7%2FamvxaquDDlx6XQYaZAz3JUqfzAmXWmIvjYoMW7UxzTTW%2BD%2F4ZkbcfAQ%3D|tkp%3ABFBMyqmdtKpk

 

 

Edited August 14 by Genericmusic

[TalismanRich]

Hey, I think I just found my retirement career!   $500 for a wooden pickguard is INSANE!   I won't charge more than $250.  😁

 

[dvnmjc]

I make them for real D'angelico's and other guitars that require something like that. I don't make L5 pickguards any more because they are easier and cheaper to simply by. I have probably made 20 D'angelico pickguards for New Yorkers, Ecels. and Style A and B's. Right now if someone wanted a deluxe New Yorker Pickguard with the layers of binding and proper tortoise material it would be $500 for sure otherwise it is not worth the effort. A simply 3 binding certainly less and a wooden pickguard is quite easy to make. Can do curly maple with one big white or black binding and not hard.  

[bolero]

Well there ya go!

[dvnmjc]

Well here is one I made for someone but they did not get it so really. I don't need to get $500 but for $300 you can have this