Pickguard progress

Here's my idea of fun on a Saturday night. I go down to the...basement. And I drink a whole bunch of...ice water. And then I start to work on...the pickguard. Partay.

Here it is all shaped. I put it on the body under the strings, and figured out where the strings would be in relation to the pickguard using a square. Then I figured out where the pickups should be placed, traced their outlines, and drilled some holes.






























































Maybe there's a better way to do this. I have no idea. My thought is that it would be easier to make it out of wood, than plastic. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Anyway...

I used a fine blade and my drill press, because it has holes in and I could put the pickguard on there for support, so I wouldn't break the thin wood while cutting it.














































Nice, huh?

Ooh...















Ahh...
















That little 1/2 inch sanding drum, wow, I just knew I'd use that for something, eventually.

Pickguard shaping

Pickguard test piece

The piece of wood I plan to use for the pickguard is a thin piece of birch plywood. I did a finish test with one of the offcuts. First I used pore-o-pac filler. This is the mahogany stained variety, but it doesn't matter, since I'll be painting over it.
















I used krylon gloss black spray paint. Three coats.

One.


















Two.
















Three.

















In each of the above pics the paint was wet. The surface looks smooth and glossy after the paint is wet, but when it dries, it looks like this.

































After the coats of black spray paint had dried for for several days, I applied coats of clear gloss acrylic lacquer, again from a spray can. After about 10 coats, it looked like this.
































I let this dry for a few days, and then I sanded the piece, first with 800 grit, then 1200 grit. I then used turtle wax scratch/swirl remover, and buffed the heck out of it with my harbor freight buffer. Acrylic lacquer is tough stuff. It buffs up pretty nice and has a mirror shine to it. What do you think? Pickguard-worthy?





(The pasty smudginess at the top of the piece is from a sticker that was on the wood and is now under the paint. And that is the reflection of a light, in the middle. )

Gibsun

I reckon it's how they avoid getting sued.

Pickups and string spacing

Here's the Lawrence Tele neck pickup in its position by the neck.

















The Seymour Duncan JB pickup says that it is for the bridge position. But when I put it in the neck position, it looks like this:

































Here's what it looks like when I put the Duncan in the bridge position where it needs to be: