more pickguard adventures

 Although I liked the style of my walnut wood veneer pickguard in the traditional tele shape, I wasn't completely happy with the way it turned out after the lacquer coat. Some of the surface seemed to shrink cause it to ripple in places and making the veneer look too much like a vinyl covering. Not cool. 

I think the black on wood brown looks pretty cool, but I still wanted to see what else I could do. I saw online some people had made pickguards just out of cheap birch plywood, so I bought a couple of sheets. This also allowed me to depart from the traditional pickguard shape and try my own design. I wanted a bit more curvy look, so after a few tries I came up with something like this:

Because the wood is so thin, I had to use hand tools to shape things out. I started with a jigsaw and it just ripped the wood to shreds so I just used my little hand saw, some files and the dremel for sanding the edges. In the end, I got something that looked like a cross between a batman look and the map of Australia. Either way, there was potential.

The birch is pretty plain and white. I was originally thinking about staining dark like the other pickguard, getting close to black but having the grain show through. But then I saw some other crazy designs out there, and I watched a few videos on Shuo Sugi Ban, wood burning Japanese style. I didn't have the right wood or the right tools for this. I didn't have a torch, but I did have a camping stove, so I thought I would try getting a light burnt look, which would give more of an edge to the guitar and add some more woody shades to the whole thing. 

After some experimenting, I decided to go for it. Super fun. It's easy to go wrong here, but making mistakes on a badass burnt look didn't seem to add to the risk of ruining the product. I probably could have gone even further, but I liked the way the wood carmelized its colour under the blue flame of my camp stove. A couple times it caught fire, especially around the pickup hole, but I just blew it out, and that turned out to be the coolest visual effect. I charred it all around the edges as well, which worked well with the slightly sanded bevel I had achieved.I added a few coats of Arm R Seal to make it smooth and give it some gloss. 

Many adjustments back and forth, and this is what I ended up with.

I think this looks pretty cool. In the process of making this, I had the old pickguard off for a few days, and I really like the look of the body. It seems a shame to cover up so much of it with a pickguard, so this has less surface area than a regular one. I am thinking I won't screw this into the body because it's a custom shape and the holes wouldn't align with a regular pickguard should I ever decide to go back there. But I doubt it. In fact, while making this, I was considering just making a wooden pickguard ring for the pickup pocket and leaving it mostly showing the body. But I'm not sure. I'll see how I like this. At the moment, it has a cool cowboy vibe. Making a pickguard from scratch is pretty fun. It seems like something I could do to transform the look if I ever got tired of this one. 

Now just need to screw the pickup into the pickguard and reset everything to see how it feels against the hand while playing. 

The problem with doing a single build is that there are too many options, so if this one is up and running, maybe it's time for another!!