Pickguard Design

[Scott Freeman]

Hello... my dad and I are building our first guitar and have decided to use a pickguard. I have attached a picture of a very preliminary draft. I realize that pickguard design is probably quite subjective, but any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For example, is it too close to the edge of the guitar in some places? Thank you in advance!

[Jim Bonnell]

I think it looks fine Scott. My only suggestion would be to follow the body outline a little more even on the left side.

[Scott Freeman]

Thanks! I drew out your suggestion and it definitely looks better.

[Mark Swanson]

My opinion is that the upper bout looks too squared off. I think it would look better a bit more rounded, but that's just me. Rounded looks more graceful, squared off looks blocky.

[Scott Freeman]

Agreed Mark... I also drew out your suggestion and it looks better. Thanks for your input!

[David King]

I liked it because it's distinctive (for precisely the reasons folks here might want to change it). If it were an acoustic then the fairer curves would help when bending the sides but in a solid body you can have a different vision and get away with it (sometimes). Please your self first. You can take in all the advice when you need to sell a thousand of them to that 90% of the guitar playing public who thinks a guitar must be one of three 60 year-old designs.

[Jamie Unden]

My 2 cents - It's a pain to cut pickguard material so I would not have the cutout area around the bridge. I would move that line towards the neck and have it go straight past the bridge. Just me...

[Mark Swanson]

Hi Jamie, nice to see you stopping by!

[Jamie Unden]

Hey, Mark! I'm sitting in the airport in Dubai with a 12 hour layover so I thought I'd catch-up!

[John Kingma]

Personally I like it just they way it is. It looks a bit quirky and slightly retro and that appeals to me.