New P Bass pickguard- doesnt fit
 

IDK what I did wrong but I found the Mighty Mite pickguard on Ebay because it had the screw count I needed for my Squier but now that it's here I feel a J Bass pickguard would be a better fit. I have been carving and filing this thing for an hour and still no closer. What am I supposed to do here?

Im gonna have to make new screw holes anyeway so there was no reason to find the one with similar screw holes.

P and J guards are nothing alike. Many aftermarket guards are off just enough to make them a royal pain. I got one for my 2011 American Deluxe Jazz from WD. I have assembled, strung and set up basses in less time than I have in trying get the thing to fit right.

The P and J guards being nothing alike is the very source of that joke. Well at least this is par for the course. Damn thing has me cursing under my breath while I try to get this right for my daughter.

So what part of it doesn't fit? Is it the neck pocket, pickup route, or the overall shape of the guard?

When I try to put it on at first the neck pocket wasn't deep enough, so I went at it with a utility knife and files, but then the pickups are off by about 1/4 inch, too much to fudge. I need to pre drill new holes and move the pickups now, then pre drill the new holes for the guard.

You should get a pickguard that fits instead of moving the pickups and all that nonsense. What kind of bass is this going on?

It's just a 2002 Squier P Bass, 20th Ann. but we love it. Is there a perfect fitting guard for this bass?

I just googled Squier Precision Bass Pickguard and didn't come up with anything. I'll spend another $20 to get it right, I just gotta know it will be right.

OK I wrangled it on. Not a perfect job but not too bad either. Whaddya think?

Looks just fine. If it was me, I'd go with black screws. But the fit looks great. Good job!

Thanks Joe, I appreciate it. We might try the black screws but I think she likes the chrome on black look. She likes the bass a lot, I just wish I could get her to practice more.

One thing I did was strip out the screws holding the pickup in, so I'll have to find replacements for those. They sure wanted to give up the ghost it seemed.

For future reference ...

http://angela.com/search.aspx?find=bass+pickguard

Thanks Steveaux but that site has no 14 hole guards, and if it did I'm sure I'd run into the same fitting issues I did with the 14 hole guard I did find. In the end it worked out well, but my daughter and I were discussing whether or not to start making and selling 14 hole Squier-specific pick guards. There's a niche there to be filled.

Break off a toothpick in the holes for the pickup screws and drop in a little wood glue. It will be good as new

Actually none of the previous holes can be seen nor did they cause issues for the new ones, so I don't need to fill the holes. What I did have to do was re-cut the neck slot, move the pickups away from the neck about 1/8 in or so, then route out the cavity some to fit the input jack since it didn't fit with the new guard. Took a couple of hours.