Custom Anodized Gold Pickguards?

Dub56

Dub56

May 28, 2005
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#1
I’ve been looking around for a custom gold anodized pickguard for a while. I’ve done some searches but haven’t come up with much.

I am looking for true metal materials, not the simulated brushed plastic.

I recently found that Sims guitars in the UK can make custom metal guards, but I was quoted £165.00 GBP (roughly ~$230 USD) + shipping for one which seems pretty steep. Not to mention paying to ship the original guard to the UK to be used as the template.

Otherwise I’ve really only heard of Tone-Guard, but I’ve also read some mixed reviews. Including some mentioning that they were unable to get their original pickguard back after sending it in as a template. Obviously that’s much less than ideal if true, and I don’t want to get into a situation like that if I can avoid it.

It seems like there simply aren’t very many shops offering these, but I figured I’d check to see if anyone knows of any other options just in case.

I may ultimately just go through Sims if I decide to get one, but that cost is still a little tough to swallow for a pickguard at the moment.

Thanks for any input or suggestions!
 
#4
ShawnG said:
Take a look at Quick Guards, too. I’m also looking for one and he was the only one I found. Haven’t gotten a quote, yet.
Plz report back, I’ll be interested to hear what you find. Thx.
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Will do! Thanks, I don’t think I had noticed that Quick Guards had them. Looks like they do, that looks like a viable option. I checked really quickly and it looks like they have gold anodized guards for a different bass listed at $80, so that’s much more in line with what I had in mind.
 
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#5
Dub56 said:
Will do! Thanks, I don’t think I had noticed that Quick Guards had them. Looks like they do, that looks like a viable option. I checked really quickly and it looks like they have gold anodized guards for a different bass listed at $80, so that’s much more in line with what I had in mind.
Click to expand...

If you are curious, I wrote a thread a while back, documenting the process of making a custom aluminum pickguard. I make aluminum pickguards for a few of my model basses, and sometimes for other Luthiers that I work with. I don't make one-offs for retail customers any more, sorry.

Making A Brushed Aluminum Pickguard

I've got all the machines and the experience, so I can make up aluminum pickguards efficiently. A brushed aluminum pickguard like the one I showed costs about $100 in labor and materials. Having it gold anodized adds about $75. A one-off custom gold-anodized pickguard is likely to cost $175.

Now, if I were to make up a batch of, like, 25 of them, I'd use more tooling or maybe a CNC to do most of the cutting. And the cost of the anodizing would come way down per part. Those would be more like $75 each.

A one-off custom pickguard is going to be 2-3 times the price of a standard one.
 
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#6
sleddogn said:
Check out thepickguardshop.com
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I just got off their site and came here to inquire if anyone had any experience using their services?

They have a LOT of choices, including anodized gold (and several other colors)

Edit to add: cost is around $50 +10 to ship, but free shipping on orders over 75
 
#7
@Dub56 Thanks for starting this thread. I've been looking around for a custom gold anodized guard for a while.
I couldn't get Tone-Guard or Quickguards to respond. A guitar player I work with had a lot of good things to saw about Quickguards, but for whatever reason, I've texted him a few times and couldn't get a response.
 
#9
No luck yet on my part

I pulled the trigger - before researching the forums - on one from tone-guards. It’s been a week and no order confirmation and no response after sending a message to two of their email addresses.

Wrote an email to Quick Guards yesterday and no response yet and no new post on their Facebook page since november.

It’s like shopping for unicorns.
 
#11
I tried thepickguardshop.com for a custom black anodized aluminum 10-hole P bass guard earlier this year. That didn't pan out. I put a bunch of time into that but they could get it done. Fortunately, I got back what money I'd put into that.

I end ended up buying a few gold ones from Fender on sale then had them stripped and re-anodized black. Not the most cost effective way to go because of small quantity and the part cost.

It could be much better if I geared up for larger production runs, starting from fabrication or cutting aluminum plate to shape. Making cutting path files with CAD would be easy.

I've toyed with idea of doing this offering various models, types, colors, etc, especially considering Tone-Guard (who were local coincidentally) folded a few years ago, apparently in messy fashion.

I know it's easily within my capabilities but I'm busy with other things and I don't have a satisfactory sense of what demand there could be, business viability, etc.

+ I considered selling the additional stock black anodized P guards I have but I think I'd rather hold onto them for now. I doubt it would be worth for me to try to sell them now.
 
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#12
IMG-5255.jpg


IMG-4669.jpg
 
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#13
Grinderman said:
I tried thepickguardshop.com for a custom black anodized aluminum 10-hole P bass guard earlier this year. That didn't pan out. I put a bunch of time into that but they could get it done. Fortunately, I got back what money I'd put into that.

I end ended up buying a few gold ones from Fender on sale then had them stripped and re-anodized black. Not the most cost effective way to go because of small quantity and the part cost.

It could be much better if I geared up for larger production runs, starting from fabrication or cutting aluminum plate to shape. Making cutting path files with CAD would be easy.

I've toyed with idea of doing this offering various models, types, colors, etc, especially considering Tone-Guard (who were local coincidentally) folded a few years ago, apparently in messy fashion.

I know it's easily within my capabilities but I'm busy with other things and I don't have a satisfactory sense of what demand there could be, business viability, etc.

+ I considered selling the additional stock black anodized P guards I have but I think I'd rather hold onto them for now. I doubt it would be worth for me to try to sell them now.
Click to expand...

I’m looking for a gold anodized guard for a Fender American Professional ll Precision.

So tone-guard is closed? That would explain why they haven’t replied to me.
 
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