Telecaster III - 21 - Custom Pickguard

My original concept for this guitar was to feature a rather unusual and original pick guard and a P90 pickup in the neck position.  I built another Telecaster last year with 2 P90s and the sound that impressed me most was what came out of the neck pickup.  With that in mind I made a template but I just don't think the design sits well with the relic body.

So I had a look at a stock Telecaster pickguard, I had a couple to play with and the pearlescent white one looked great, but in my opinion it doesn't scream old.

I also like the idea of a 5 hole pickguard, like fender originally installed on their earliest Telecasters.  So with this in mind I set about creating a bespoke pickguard made from an unused / un-etched copper backed PCB board.  I cut out a basic card template and then used my jigsaw to cut out the basic shape before grinding the edges to the template outline on my drum sander attachment.

Once the basic shape was achieved I marked the neck position carefully on the blank and slowly filed away the material testing the fit frequently.  I don't want large gaps anywhere, so patience and care was required as I slowly worked towards a nice snug fit.

Once the neck slot was finished I was able to position the control panel and mark it ready to cut it's slot and once again I want the fit to be perfect.  Again patience and care was needed to ensure a perfect fit.

Next I cut the P90 pickup hole, I pondered how I was going to achieve a perfect fit knowing the routing for the pickup slot is already tight and there is not much room for adjustment.  So the position of the hole in the pickguard has to be perfect.  My solution was to put 4 pieces of masking tape across the guitar, the edges of the tape ran level with 4 sides the cavity so that when I put the pick guard on top of the guitar again I was able to mark the position of the tape and where the lines intersected marked the exact position of the cavity below.

I carefully used my jigsaw to cut the cavity out leaving plenty of the line to allow me to file the rest of the material away testing the fit as I went along. After quite some time I was happy with the fit and I dropped the pickup into its cavity and fitted the pickguard and everything lined up perfectly.

Finally I filed away an section to accommodate the bridge and drilled and countersunk five holes for the screws.  I went over everything with fine wire wool, this brought back some of the shine and removed the tool marks and layout lines, it will age nicely to a dark colour over the coming weeks. I found some pretty old screws which had nicely rusted and aged in my garage and attached the pickguard.

I like it and I think it goes well with the rest of the body, defiantly not another like it in the world I think!

DLP Guitars Telecaster Pick Guard Design

There is nothing wrong with the pick guard on a standard Fender Telecaster, it's functional in so much as it stops scratches to the paintwork and covers the routing for the neck pickup cavity etc.  The Thinline and Custom versions have different pick guards but most modern originals copies feature the same design created 60 years ago.

I wanted to create something a little different and something that gives my guitars their own identity whilst keeping to the same basic design of the original Telecaster.  So I created my own cutout design on Thinline style guitars and also played with the idea of a different style of pick guard.

I put the pick guard design into practice on a Telecaster style ukulele i made for my son.  It incorporated the volume and tone controls as well as covering the routing for the pickup.  It was a good idea but the control knobs do tend to get in the way and need to be replaced with something a little less obstructive.  however I like the aesthetics.  

The problems with the control knobs wont be an issue with a full size telecaster as the I always planned to stick to the original Fender design.

So I have mocked up a couple of different designs out of card.  The first design below doesn't reach all the way the the edge of the guitar by the control panel and the second is longer but reaches all the way the the edge.

 I think the proportions are correct in the example above but not the overall size, it needs to reach the both edges I think.  The design below is better but not fat enough and does not compliment the original curves of the Telecaster design.

I will keep working until I get the design exactly how I want it, but i would love to hear your opinion on the design... Good or bad!