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Post subject: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:39 pm
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A few months ago, I purchased a '75 Sunburst Strat with a copper shielded white pickguard. At first glance, I believed the pickguard was a modern aftermarket replacement. My belief came from two thoughts.

1. Most Strats of this period had black pickguards with white plastic parts. There are some which came with white pickguards, but '75 was when this change over was happening.
2. On the front, the pickguard appeared far too good a condition to be old. It looked very new.

Believing this, I purchased a '70s era black pickguard and placed the white one is a dresser drawer. The other day, I got the pickguard out and took a closer look at it
Looking at the back side of the pickguard, I noticed that the pickguard material was more like the '70s era black pickguards, kind of fibrous looking, less plastic-like. The pickguard is more yellowed than I remember. Also, removing some of the copper revealed an aged, old paper sticker. Sadly, I couldn't prevent damaging this sticker.

Could someone take a look at these photos and let me know what you think. Here is a link to some photos.

Image

Image

Image

Lastly, anyone knows of a website which might be able to help, I would be grateful. I’ve been to Strat Central, but the photos weren’t much help.

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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:07 pm
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Steve Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd fame played a 1964 Fender Strat in sunburst with a white pick guard and rosewood fret board. It was in stock configuration. But it is not a 70s model.

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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:40 pm
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Probably not much help but I presume you are thinking someone added the copper.
There certainly appears to be the standard control cavity foil under the copper.
If you removed the copper there just may be further evidence e.g. an initial or similar .... Then again there may be nothing
Here is a great site but in your case will not help at all
http://www.guitarhq.com/fender.html :D


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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 5:10 am
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jimmy_james wrote:
Probably not much help but I presume you are thinking someone added the copper.
There certainly appears to be the standard control cavity foil under the copper.
If you removed the copper there just may be further evidence e.g. an initial or similar .... Then again there may be nothing
Here is a great site but in your case will not help at all
http://www.guitarhq.com/fender.html :D


I've been to this website. Pretty helpful, but doesn't convince me that I've have the original pickguard. I suspect the only way I'll know for sure is to have an expert take a look or see a 1970s pickguard for myself.

I did however just learned that the case that this guitar came with is may be from '64 or '65. It's identical to call the black Fender cases I've ever seen (to include the interior), but is lacking the Fender logo.

Thanks for the link.


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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 10:05 pm
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Fear not, white pickguards were still available in 1975...though there was a rash of black and white combinations available...some better than others.

Here's a pix of the underside of my '75. The full-size copper foil is not stock...there should only be a small silvery patch under the controls.


Image

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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:57 am
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HeyJoe42 wrote:
Fear not, white pickguards were still available in 1975...though there was a rash of black and white combinations available...some better than others.

Here's a pix of the underside of my '75. The full-size copper foil is not stock...there should only be a small silvery patch under the controls.

Thanks for the photo. I knew about the shielding and it looks correct, minus the copper the previous owner added. I will say that I have removed most of the copper and I'm not seeing the green ink I'm used to seeing on other pickguards from this era.

Later in the '70s, Fender would put a small paper sticker with a serial number on it. There would be an identical sticker on the body. This let the owner know that "this" pickguard went with "this" body.

Image


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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:16 am
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paris wrote:

Later in the '70s, Fender would put a small paper sticker with a serial number on it. There would be an identical sticker on the body. This let the owner know that "this" pickguard went with "this" body.


Do you figure this is the rectangular thing stuck to the pickguard under the copper foil? Minus the faded ink? It might be a bit later than '75, but the wear/deterioration and crud accumulation speaks to that era...

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1967 Epiphone Madrid EC-30
1975 Fender Stratocaster
1981 Rickenbacker 360
2002 BC Rich Bich
2007 Fender Standard Stratocaster
2012 Taylor GA3-12
2012 Squier Telecaster
2017 Les Paul Kit


"Make every song you sing your favorite tune."


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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:54 pm
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HeyJoe42 wrote:
paris wrote:

Later in the '70s, Fender would put a small paper sticker with a serial number on it. There would be an identical sticker on the body. This let the owner know that "this" pickguard went with "this" body.


Do you figure this is the rectangular thing stuck to the pickguard under the copper foil? Minus the
faded ink? It might be a bit later than '75, but the wear/deterioration and crud accumulation speaks to that era...


I don't think that it's the same type of sticker. The one on my guitar is not correct size. I don't believe the Fender number sticker was used in '75. I'm just going to have to do more digging.


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Post subject: Re: 1975 Stratocaster Pickguard
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:51 pm
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Yep, looks like plastic. I normally recycle ordinary plastic pickguards into fashionable space helmets.

However, they usually explode when subjected to anywhere near zero atmosphere, but most fashionable people blindly accepted this fate as normal. Because they were told the plastic pickguard is normally a material acceptable for any use.

Moral of the story: The plastic pickguard may not be the better material under certain situations.

Plastic pickguards do not retain any right to reside on my beautiful Fender guitars, or on my head in outer space!

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