Is there a "best way" to restore a white pickguard that has yellowed with age? It's not a vintage guard, it's from an Ibanez Jet King that can't be more than a few years old. The clown I bought it from left the plastic coating on the lower pickguard, complete with the round "inspected by" sticker... I peeled the coating off, and the guard has yellowed everywhere the plastic was, except for under the knobs, the switch, and the inspection sticker. So now, I have a big white circle in the middle of an off-white pickguard.

I really don't want to paint it... is there any tried-and-true method to restore the original color of the plastic? I have it soaking in bleach right now, but I don't know if that's going to do the job or not. Any other suggestions?

Yellowing caused by UV light will not bleach out. Removing a Stain can be a hit or miss proposition. I wish you good luck. You may have to just find another one.

Jet King! sweet! I've always had a little crush on those. post a pic?
hope the bleach works!

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~Dan

I'm not sure if it will work for you, but here in Oklahoma some of the Dollar stores (and I believe Wal-Mart as well) carry a product called Awesome. It's a concentrate in a clear bottle and yellow in color. I know people who have used it on plastic parts on RV's and they say it restores them to their original white color. I haven't tried it myself, so if you do decide to try it use caution. It's an inexpensive product so it might not hurt to try.

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2012 American Standard Precision V - Candy Cola Red
2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazz V - Surf Green
2011 FCS Custom Classic Special Jazz Bass V - Violin Burst
1996 MIM Stratocaster HSS - Black
1975 Precision Bass - 3 Tone Sunburst

Sure, no problem... I actually took some pics to post it for sale, I bought it originally with the intent to flip it for a profit. I'm thinking of keeping it now though, or at least I was until I hit this snag, LOL!

I'm actually wanting to cover the pickguards in a chrome vinyl I got from work, but the vinyl is translucent, so I'm worried the circle will show through. (That's why I didn't want to paint it, as the vinyl probably won't stick as well to paint.)

Anyway, here's the pics:

Pretty sure I remember having that stuff at the WalMart I used to work at, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the tip!

The bleach did pretty much squat, like I figured it would. Oh well... It's the Awesome stuff, or just cover it and hope for the best.

This idea is going to sound really odd..but it works on plastic plates and coffee cups etc that yellow...soak in denture cleaning tablets and water..

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Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

That's it! I knew I had heard of something like that, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. I used to collect Transformers toys (until the movies sucked all the "cool" out of collecting the toys, LOL) and someone on a Transformers message board once suggested the same thing for yellowed parts on the really old toys from the 80s. I'll give that a try, it's the most likely method to actually work.

Thanks Mona, I will try that.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Hi MacGyvercaster: it's probably more effort than you want to run to, but in case you find the pickguard doesn't come white the way you want then there is always the possibility of having a new one custom cut to match (by lasers and CNC no less). WD Music offer an excellent service for this which I can vouch for from experience. If you're interested, the paragraphs at the top of this page will explain how to go about it:

http://www.wdmusic.com/pickguards.html

Good luck - C

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This stuff worked on a set of old clear Ford plastic headlights that had yellowed quite badly. It brought them right back with a couple of applications. I haven't found any need yet to try it on other things but it sure worked well that time. Might be worth a try.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

so, ummm..... i know we're not allowed to sell things on the forum, but hypothetically, if i were to be interested, and you decided to sell, what would your price be? hmmm.....

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~Dan

Thats a really cool guitar