As promised, I thought today I’d write down some of my thoughts on the creative process of aging our pickguard.
First things first, we tossed aside our Baja Tele’s single-ply black pickguard and went hunting for a nice retro-style mint green one to replace it. Unfortunately, finding a mint-green guard in a 5-hole configuration wasn’t as easy as I expected, but in the end we purchased a nice one from Callaham Vintage Guitars & Parts online.
The screw holes weren’t a “dead match,” but they were damned close, and certainly good enough for our purposes.
After some rough sanding to generally rough-up our pickguard, the next step was to bust out a nice straight razor (be careful, folks!!!) and whittle down some of the edges and whatnot.
Obviously, you’re going to have to get creative here, and do your best to emulate the wear & tear of a good many years of hard playing… how you do this will really just come down to personal taste.
After banging the pickguard up real good (including many dings and scratches from various tools in our workshop––screwdrivers, pliers, etc,) we sanded everything down a bit more to soften up the razor-sharp edges, and then got to adding some grime to the whole thing.
As we discovered while dirtying-up the body of the guitar, a nice can of brown oil-based wood stain is perfect for adding some nasty layers of crud to your Relic.
Pour some onto a cotton ball or rag and you can just rub it right in. It should seep into the cracks and dings that you created in the last step, making them look age-old and doused in sweaty goodness.
If you find that you’ve used too much you can always remove it with some light sanding or some strategically placed paint thinner––both work well.
In our case we were aiming for a final pickguard that was aged yellow with time and grime, so after getting all the nicks and scratches just the way we wanted, it was time to bust out the nitrocellulose paint.
Once again we turned to our trusty can of Guitar ReRanch Fender Neck Amber, and after a few practice runs managed to get a nice, light coat in just the right shade of yellow.
After painting the whole pickguard and letting it dry for a few hours, we went back in with some sandpaper and sanded a soft-edged “corridor” down the center of our pickguard (see photo at top.) IT came out really nice.
Then it was just a matter of putting a few clear top-coats over the yellow, and we were done. Of course, the top coats were way too glossy for our purposes, so we had to sand the pickguard yet again to take the sheen off.
That’s pretty much it, but don’t be fooled.. this process actually took quite some time. We made numerous mistakes in learning how to apply the wood stain and paint, and often had to use paint thinner to take everything back down to the original mint-green and start all over again.
It was arduous for sure, but also a lot of creative fun. Here’s a nice, fat high-res photo for those who want to see the pickguard close-up. It’s a bit grainy, but probably worth a look.
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: The Poor Man’s Paint Room
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Misadventures Of A Neck Surgeon!
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: And So The Work Begins…
- EGR’s Great “Tele Relic” Experiment: Our Guinea Pig Arrives
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Aging The Body, Adding Some Grime
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: First Look At The Hardware
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: The Nitty Gritty On The Neck & Fingerboard
- Chop Shop: And So Begins EGR’s Great “Tele Relic” Experiment Of 2008
June 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
that is one helluva guitar you got there.
way to go!
bet you can’t wait to get some strings on it and SHREDDD
June 17th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hehe… you said it Dwight––if it wasn’t June I’d say it was a Christmas Miracle!!
:0)
June 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
very nice sir…im thinking more and more about trying this with one of the new Squier Classic Vibes. They have a Duo Sonic that’s just cheap enough to try this with.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
The first word that came to mind when I saw the photos was “awesome.” So I’ll go with it!
AWESOME.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I can’t believe how good this is looking Cary. Wow.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Not so sure about the dark staining around the pickup. Would that happen on a genuine aged guitar?
June 18th, 2008 at 2:46 am
That’s a mighty fine looking tele.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:45 am
very very impressive!!! sounds like you’re enjoying it too. the finished article is going to look amazing!
June 18th, 2008 at 11:21 am
That pickguard looks like it’s had plenty java and Chesterfield Kings.
Do you plan to strip out the neck pocket to bare wood for better resonance? Just another tone geek thing.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Hehe, thanks everybody… yeah, we’re having a blast over here :)
GL, I certainly hear your concern, and it’s true–I’m sure there are many, many inconsistencies on this thing, but hey, if I could afford a REAL vintage Tele then I wouldn’t be building my own ;)
It looks good, and that’s about all I’m worried about, but I’m sure it wouldn’t fool an expert up close…
Definitely beginning to look like its had one too many Guinness Stouts spilled down the front.
JP, I hadn’t even thought about the neck pocket… certainly something to consider :0)
June 18th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Yeah, where the neck makes contact with the body- in the pocket – both the pocket and the back of the neck “butt” surface should be smooth bare wood.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
smooth…bare….
Sounds good to me!! ;)
June 21st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Good stuff. I like your story.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I’m gettin’ antsy Cary! How’s that neck coming along? Don’t make us wait like this!!!
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 am
Yah, what’s the happs?
July 28th, 2008 at 11:31 am
You and your hi-res shot made it into Premier Guitar! Great stuff!
December 25th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
…is beautiful …. i need a pickguard like this but whit 8 hole for an custom shop american classic tele 1997. Someone can tell me where i can find one of this kind ? help me please. kisses from italy. freekout@hotmail.it