Is There a Trick to Make this Pickguard Work?

dxb

dxb

Dec 25, 2016
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#1
I ordered a tort pickguard from Guitarfetish for my 2015 Squier Affinity J and it fits nicely (once I filed the corners of the neck cutout a little). The problem is most of the screw holes don't line up. Three of them are perfect, two others are close, but the other four are off by almost the width of the hole (maybe 2 mm).

Any tricks or suggestions on how to make this thing work? It wasn't very expensive so its not worth the cost of sending it back.
 
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#3
Gilmourisgod said:
No tricks, if you have to drill new holes that are covered by the pickguard, does it really matter? As long as the new holes don’t actually overlap the old ones, should hold fine.
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You mean drill new holes in the bass? I don't think that would work. The mismatched holes in the pickguard slightly overlap the holes in the body.
 
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#6
pcake said:
if the pickguard is supposed to be made for your bass, contact guitar fetish and let them know the holes aren't in the right places and see if they'll exchange it for you.
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They only sell one Jazz bass pickguard, and the description says, "Nearly a perfect fit on our MIM and Squier Jazz Basses and also a very good fit on our USA basses. As with any pickguard replacement, you may have to "massage" a few hole locations." Not sure what they mean by 'massage', but this is the link...

Jazz Bass Pickguard 3-Ply Tortoise Shell
 
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#7
"nearly" a perfect fit means it doesn't fit right. massaging a few hole locations means drilling holes in your bass, but if the original holes are so poorly located compared to the pickguard holes, i wouldn't mess with it.

can you cut out your own pickguard or order one that will fit perfectly?
 
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#8
The hole patterns are pretty standard for Fender MIA and MIM, but it gets a little shaky on Affinity or even VM Series Squire. Too many similar models, too many pickguard vendors. The safest way is to trace your existing original guard carefully and have a place like Pickguardian make a new one for you off that pattern. it will be perfect, but not cheap, at least $35 if I remember correctly. If it was a full blown MIA Fender, I'd cringe a little drilling new holes but, no offense, an Affinity is not going to have much resale value anyway. Its a great upgrade platform, a lot of people mod the snot out of them. If nobody can see the extra holes drilled, who cares they are there?
 
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#9
pcake said:
"nearly" a perfect fit means it doesn't fit right. massaging a few hole locations means drilling holes in your bass, but if the original holes are so poorly located compared to the pickguard holes, i wouldn't mess with it.

can you cut out your own pickguard or order one that will fit perfectly?
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You may be right. Oh well, it was cheap so no biggie. Its a pretty nice pickguard though. Real tort! (mmm tort). I actually thought about just using the 3 screws that line up and holding the rest down with double stick tape. I'd have to think of something resembling screwheads to fill the other holes though. But it fits tight enough that tape would probably hold it on.
 
#11
dxb said:
You may be right. Oh well, it was cheap so no biggie. Its a pretty nice pickguard though. Real tort! (mmm tort). I actually thought about just using the 3 screws that line up and holding the rest down with double stick tape. I'd have to think of something resembling screwheads to fill the other holes though. But it fits tight enough that tape would probably hold it on.
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you could cut the heads off some screws and glue them in the holes.
 
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#13
pcake said:
you could cut the heads off some screws and glue them in the holes.
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Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I would just leave the holes empty but that would bug me.

Gilmourisgod said:
The hole patterns are pretty standard for Fender MIA and MIM, but it gets a little shaky on Affinity or even VM Series Squire. Too many similar models, too many pickguard vendors. The safest way is to trace your existing original guard carefully and have a place like Pickguardian make a new one for you off that pattern. it will be perfect, but not cheap, at least $35 if I remember correctly. If it was a full blown MIA Fender, I'd cringe a little drilling new holes but, no offense, an Affinity is not going to have much resale value anyway. Its a great upgrade platform, a lot of people mod the snot out of them. If nobody can see the extra holes drilled, who cares they are there?
Click to expand...

I definitely don't want to drill new holes in the bass. I'd like to be able to switch and forth between tort, the original white pickguard it came with and having no pickguard at all.

If a custom one is only $35, that might be an option. I thought they'd be a lot more. I did look around but couldn't find any place online that had pickguards specifically for my model of bass.
 
#14
The cut off screw heads and double stick tape might be your winner then, that avoids any new holes. Here's a link to the Pickguardian website if you decide to go that route, there are a couple other similar vendors, don't know the names off hand.
Fender | Pickguardian
The guy's name is Tony, he has patterns for hundreds of basses and guitars, might be worth asking if he already has a template for an Affinity guard. I had him make a pearloid Rickenbacker bass guard for me for my 4001 clone build, came out pretty nice, and everything lined up perfectly.
NiSopfp.jpg
 
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#19
dxb said:
They only sell one Jazz bass pickguard, and the description says, "Nearly a perfect fit on our MIM and Squier Jazz Basses and also a very good fit on our USA basses. As with any pickguard replacement, you may have to "massage" a few hole locations." Not sure what they mean by 'massage', but this is the link...

Jazz Bass Pickguard 3-Ply Tortoise Shell
Click to expand...


"Near fit" scares me and "a very good fit" makes me wonder.

They either fit or don't, sort of a binary thing.....go/no go, 1 or 0

Can you buy it undrilled and do it yourself or send them a tracing from yours with proper hole placement?
 
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#20
Ross W. Lovell said:
"Near fit" scares me and "a very good fit" makes me wonder.

They either fit or don't, sort of a binary thing.....go/no go, 1 or 0

Can you buy it undrilled and do it yourself or send them a tracing from yours with proper hole placement?
Click to expand...

I haven't seen undrilled ones, but yeah that would be a good alternative to having a custom one made. I wonder if anyone sells them like that.
 
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