Is there anyone here that had or has experience with fading a mint green guard? I got one on ebay and I think it's a little too green and would like to fade it out to give it a more subtle tone of green. I realize now that I should have went with a genuine Fender guard but decided to get a cheaper one. I have read that I could put it in the sun but it never said for how long I would need to leave it out. Here are a couple of pictures of it to show you how green it is.

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Squier Classic Vibe thinline telecaster
Squier JM Black1 partscaster
Line 6 Pod XT Live
Peavey VT Classic 212
Vox AC30 Amplug

Parts is parts, and cheap is cheap.

You can take it off and try putting it in the sun for a couple weeks.
It will either fade or curl.....most likely both.

Best just to get a proper Fender unit.

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Thanks guys. Yeah I may as well and get an authentic Fender and see if I can get rid of this one. How do you think parchment would look? Does it have an aged look to it?

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Squier Classic Vibe thinline telecaster
Squier JM Black1 partscaster
Line 6 Pod XT Live
Peavey VT Classic 212
Vox AC30 Amplug

Parchment has a slight ivory/bone tint to it -- not very dramatic until you see it next to a true white pickguard. They go well with aged white parts, which themselves have a cream-colored tint to them. They look great with a 3TSB, CAR, or LPB finish.

It's been my experience with Fender's mint pickguards that the most authentic-looking of them are take-offs from production MIM guitars that have been parted out by various Ebay chop shops. They're much more subdued in color than the MIA Fender accessory pickguards which generally look horrid to my eye.

HTH

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

maybe be easier to just relic the original.
http://www.relicdeluxe.com/plastic_pickguard_knobs.asp

The current mint ones aren't really going to fade much; they are made of mint green vinyl. I once had an AV '62 in the so-called "Sherwood Green" (what Fender used was really more of an emerald green than the true 60's Sherwood green) and the factory pickguard was very much green.

They just really aren't going to fade out like the ones the CS creates; you might try to find one from a late 90s/early 200s CS '60 Relic that had been parted out or replaced by the owner; those are the most "authenitic" looking green guards.

The Custom Shop makes their own pickguards?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

IIRC this guard is celluoid. Will those age?

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Squier Classic Vibe thinline telecaster
Squier JM Black1 partscaster
Line 6 Pod XT Live
Peavey VT Classic 212
Vox AC30 Amplug

I think the CS starts with the white/black/white vinyl pickguard used on the '60 NOS models and then they chemically age it to give it the dirty greenish color. The ones from the production line are made of the green-colored vinyl.

Sunlight will bleach pretty much anything.

But if you're going to leave it out in the sun for a few days, screw the pickguard to a board or something, so it doesnt distort or curl..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

I'm trying this now. I will let you know how it turns out.

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Squier Classic Vibe thinline telecaster
Squier JM Black1 partscaster
Line 6 Pod XT Live
Peavey VT Classic 212
Vox AC30 Amplug