Okay, so I wanted to make a new pickguard for my old Strat. The original one was, well, boring. Just plain white, you know? I figured, “Hey, I can do this myself!” So, I started this little project.
Getting Started
First, I needed some material. I didn’t want to spend a fortune, I found a sheet of this cool, pearloid plastic stuff. It was big enough to make a couple of pickguards, in case I messed up the first one.
Tracing and Cutting
Next, I took off the old pickguard from my guitar. Easy peasy, just unscrewed it. I laid it down on top of the new pearloid sheet and carefully traced around it with a pencil. I made sure to trace all the screw holes and the pickup openings too.
Then came the scary part – cutting! I don’t have any fancy tools, I used a coping saw. It’s got a really thin blade, good for curves. I went slow, real slow, following the pencil line as best as I could. It wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough.
Filing it down
I can tell that, file and sandpaper become best friends in this part.
I used a variety of files – some flat, some round – to smooth out the edges. The coping saw left some rough spots, so I just filed and filed and filed until it felt smooth to the touch. I also used the files to make the pickup openings and screw holes just a tiny bit bigger, so everything would fit nicely.
Sanding
After filing, I used different grades of sandpaper. I started with a coarser grit to get rid of any remaining file marks, and then moved to finer and finer grits to really polish up the edges. I spent a good amount of time on this, because I wanted it to look professional, not like some hacked-up DIY job.
Drilling and Screw it.
I wanted the screw holes to be countersunk, so the screw heads would sit flush with the surface of the * I used a countersinking drill bit that I, and carefully drilled each hole. The key here is not to drill too deep – you just want a little recess for the screw head.
The last thing to do,I just screwed the new pickguard onto my guitar. And that is, the new pickguard fits perfectly, and the pearloid material looks awesome against the color of the guitar body.
So, yeah, that’s how I made my own pickguard. It wasn’t super easy, but it was definitely rewarding. And now my Strat looks way cooler than it did before!
