I decided that this guitar should be HH, courtesy of a couple of Jackson CVR2 humbuckers I've had hanging around for a couple of years.



Ever the skinflint I refuse to pay £10+ for a pickguard, so I take a trip to the local arts and crafts shop. I return with an A4 sheet of 1.5mm plastic (the 57RI uses a 1.1mm thick scratchplate as a matter of intrest )

Heres the plastic with a few rudimentary markings on it to properly align the pickup holes.

Note my favourite knife ever, the Delphin. Used by quality carpet fitters everywhere. I've spent years and years using assorted knives from lots of manufacturers. That one cost a bit more but is well worth it when you handle the things all day long.

On with the shape proper


I did consider drawing round the old scratchplate and then removing it and trying to cut round my lines accurately. Luckily a couple of braincells collided and I had the notion of just cutting round the old plate. Struggling to hold and cut I had the sense to put a few screws through the existing holes.

So with the outline scored its time to start taking away plastic. Sadly my ancient wiss snips were too blunt, so I sharpened a cheapo pair. Used to remove awkward bulk.


Outline is done and pickups are being cut. It's really difficult to get the pickup holes square and tight. So I started smaller and used the file in this picture to widen out the holes. (I'm addicted to files, no joke).


Now this being the first time I've done this, I got really engrossed. Theres no pictures of the second pickup being cut, the edges being sanded or the switch slot. However we hit a entirely different problem. How to get a humbucker in the neck of my HSS routed guitar. What a stupid pickup routing that is eh? I mean who has a HSS guitar? I decided I wasnt going to keep a wall inbetween the center and neck pickups. Here it is.

Here's the guitar done.


Not a bad way to spend a boring sunny afternoon. £15 scratchplate versus £2 sheet of plastic.

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Great job Niki! How does she sound now with the HH config? Do you love it?

Yeah its great. It's got a 25db clapton circuit on it too. It's a real screamer.

Next one is to turn my Baja tele into a Keith Richards tribute.

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Very neat and pro job Nik,looks great.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Wow! I bet thats got the potential to take your head clean off!

Get down with your bad self!

Andy

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Pending Greatness

The pickups only measured 10.2K. Probably the reason I ditched em in the first place. In truth it gets a bit muddy with the boost on 10.

However I do have a Vintage pete green model with some very trebley low powered wilkinson pickups on it. They could be perfect for the guitar.

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Nice. I'd like to do that with a couple DiMarzios.

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Fender 50th Anniversary Strat
Fender Road Worn '50s Strat
Fender Highway One (HSS) Strat (D standard tuning)
Fender '72 Tele Deluxe
Fender Hot Rod DeVille 212

Great stuff, I've been thinking about doing this to my home grown model as well.

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My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

Very Cool, Like Dave Murray from Iron Maiden. Nice job

An awful lot of trouble to go through, but I must admit you did a great job as I think it came out smoking.

Hi Ninj: good! I'd like to see you getting bored more often. Please.

Now then. Howsabout doing another pickguard, this time in sheet zinc of the right thickness. Then mail it down to me and I'll do a nice design on it in the same process as those neckplates. The zinc will polish to a gleaming shine.

Then I'll send it back to you and you can assemble the ultimate metal guitar.

Diamond plate pickguards? Pah - old hat...

Cheers - C

like the denim vest Vivian from 'The Young Ones' wore- the slogan was:

"Very Metal"

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Great job Niki. The step by step process really inspired me to do the same and my guess is... it also tweaked many others. Thanks for sharing.

Ah guys its not quite perfect, there are a few raggedy edges. Nothing major just a bit of extra hand sanding round the perimeter. As for it being more trouble than its worth, I suppose that depends on perspective. You could say the same about the whole guitar as a hobby activity.


Zinc???? What the hell do I cut it with? I imagine a softer metal would be easier to work with as per edging. What would I have put on it?

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'Zactly! That's why I've never got round to doing it myself and jumped at the possibility of handing that part of the job to someone else!

I cut out the neckplates using a hacksaw and file. It's not very hard metal - but it sure would be tedious to do a whole pickguard! Needs to be zinc because of the chemistry of the acid part of the process - but it shines up nicely, so that's OK. And anyhow, stainless steel would be seriously hard and miserable to work!


Wide open for discussion. Something pictorial, no?

I'm thinking Zemaitis; I'm thinking James Trussart...

Cheers - C