Your opinion on this offset guitar shape

[tvandell]

Wow.  Impressive.  Is that a custom pickguard?  How did you make it?

[Joel Rainville]

Wow.  Impressive.  Is that a custom pickguard?  How did you make it?

This is cut and pasted from another forum, where I answered basically the same question :

The pickguard you are looking at took 16 hours to complete, from the finished drawing to the first usable pickguard. That's not counting the 4 hours spent exchanging Photoshop drawings with my brother, until we both agreed that it looked good. That drawing was also based on a previous design I had spent several hours working on...

Once I have the drawing printed to size, I cut it in 1/8" thick material (masonite or plywood usually) and work this with files and sandpaper until the edges are smooooooooth. Smooth with only 2 o's doesn't cut it. It has to be smooooooth, or any small bump will transfer to the finished pickguard and it won't look good. Then I test fit this to the body and make sure that everything lines-up perfectly. On that particular design, I had to redo my master template twice, so the the bottom edge would closely match that of the bottom edge of the guitar.

From that perfectly smooth master template, I cut a "working" template in 1/2" material (high quality 1/2" baltic birch plywood) on the router table with a template cutter. That working template gets its edges saturated with crazy glue and/or epoxy, which is then sanded up to 320 grit, so that any cracks or bumps in the plywood get smoothed out. The glue also prevents the template cutter's bearing from wearing out the template edges after just a few pickguards. At that point, the 1/8" thick master template is safely stored away, as it might be needed later for cutting a new working template.

Then I cut a first pickguard on the router table, using the same template cutter. In most cases, I need to go back to the working template and smooth out some areas that I missed earlier in the process. Then re-cut. Then go back to the template, then re-cut. And so on.

When I'm happy with it, it's bevel time, using a simple 45* bevel cutter. Most of the time, the bevel will reveal a few bumps here and there, so it's back to the working template with sandpaper, and try again.

Also, when cutting plastic laminate, the small plastic chips get statically charged and will stick to everything : the router table, the template itself, your safety glasses, your hair... During the cutting phase, I need to stop 5-6 times to clean the templates edges so that the chips don't get between the template and the cutter's bearing, or else you get bumps...

The good news is that once you have a good working template, the next pickguard is only a 1/2 hour job max. Provided the drill press is already set at the proper depth for the screws countersinks.

Pickguard cutting is very tedious work as you can see. All in all I had to cut 5 or 6 master templates, 3 working templates and scrapped about $40 of plastic material before I even got one single usable pickguard. But in the end, it's all worth it.

We're making slow but steady progress on #2 :

[StevenO]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but it sort of reminds me of a mutt which consists of the following guitars:




And then of course, as mentioned:




I like it, in a very odd way, 

[Joel Rainville]

Oh. What's that first guitar called? I like it. The pickguard is very similar to mine...

And that PRS is an EG-3 if I remember correctly?

I love that Fender Lead. I think I'll cut another pickguard for my #2 and see how it looks with 2 regular single coils. 

[StevenO]

The first one is a Travis Bean TB-500.

[Stereordinary]

Provided the drill press is already set at the proper depth for the screws countersinks.

Which IMHO is the hardest part. 

[northern_dirt]

Provided the drill press is already set at the proper depth for the screws countersinks.

Which IMHO is the hardest part. 

[Libtoem]

I like it,great job I must say.

[waynebell]

That Travis Bean looks so cool.

The pickups look like a cross between p-90's and mini humbuckers.

[northern_dirt]

That Travis Bean looks so cool.

The pickups look like a cross between p-90's and mini humbuckers.

and they sound like

+

But in a good way

[Jaded]

We're making slow but steady progress on #2 :

I actually LOVE this one! 

[tvandell]

Will this guitar be for sale?  And if so, how much?

[Orang Goreng]

Will this guitar be for sale?  And if so, how much?

OK...this is how people accidentally get trapped into posting stuff we don't want in the general forum...if Joel answers this, undoubtedly one of the mods will end up yelling at him for posting stuff outside the for sale section. So pleaspleaseprettyplease...if you want to find out stuff like this, make it a PM.

Thanks .

[Joel Rainville]

[Edit: Nothing is yet for sale  ]

#6 will be for sale in a few months (you are looking at #2 right now)... #3 is already spoken for, a lefty version of the above with Strat-sized lipsticks. #4 will be another lefty, but based on #1 (flamed maple top plate). #5 has yet to be determined. I will put #4 and #5 into the hands of friends and family and see what they think. Hopefully I'll be able to convince 1 or 2 performing guitarists to try it onstage. And if all goes well and the feedback is good, #6 will be for sale to anyone who wants it.

I'm hoping I can sell these somewhere between $1500 to $2500. I'd really like to stay under $2000, the average price for a good quality, production instrument made in North America. This is a price I'm comfortable with when I shop for guitars myself, so that's what I'm striving for.

[Edit: The above mentioned guitars are not for sale. Thank you  ]

[tvandell]

Dude, it's like jail in here.  One word to the left or right and we're getting yelled at.  First Amendment violation, I tell you.