P Bass Pickguard help

Hardie775 · #1 12-24-2010, 09:41 AM

I've got a pearloid pickguard that was mounted on a 62 P Bass, now I know that Fender didn't use these in the 60's, so obviously it was added at some point, maybe 74 or 75. Did Fender ever use Pearloid direct from the factory or is it a RI?
Appreciate the help

JTE · #2 12-24-2010, 12:22 PM

In my experience, Fender never used a pearloid pickguard until well into the '90s. They didn't even offer them as after-market accesories until I'd been out of retail for a long time, and I left in '88. In the early to mid '70s, I wasn't even aware of anyone making aftermarket pearloid guards for Fenders, and I managed a guitar store then.

John

SurferJoe46 · #3 12-24-2010, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hardie775

I've got a pearloid pickguard that was mounted on a 62 P Bass, now I know that Fender didn't use these in the 60's, so obviously it was added at some point, maybe 74 or 75. Did Fender ever use Pearloid direct from the factory or is it a RI?
Appreciate the help

My uncle in New Jersey put a piece of Formica with a white pearloid pattern on a '62 P and I wonder if you've found it somehow. I think he took it from a kitchen table that was being thrown out.

He might've put his initials on it somewhere:: KMcG. Or just McG.

The Formica was White Pearloid/brown/black - as that's how it was made in those days.

Hardie775 · #4 12-24-2010, 03:23 PM

This one has the shielding on the underside. It came with the original aluminum shield as well, but this pickguard was either made by Fender or was a RI from allparts or somesuch. That's what I'm trying to figure out. If Fender issued a pearloid pickguard in the mid 70's I might have something here, but JTE is sayin, (and I have no reason to doubt him,) that it's probably a 90's re issue. That sound about right JTE?

metalmariachi · #5 12-24-2010, 05:23 PM

Fender did put white pearl guards on MusicMasters, and Strats in the early ‘70s.
I don’t remember seeing any on P’s or Js back then but it still might be an original.

MM

Hardie775 · #6 12-24-2010, 06:29 PM

Here's a couple of pics. Front and back. The aluminum shield I've sold, pretty sure it was original

SurferJoe46 · #7 12-25-2010, 12:27 AM

Yeah - that is a little more 'delicate' of a pattern than the Formica top my uncle used.

Funny that I suddenly remember that after all these years. That must've been in about 1963 when my parents and I visited them in Fairlawn, New Jersey. I faintly remember that bass as weighing more than I thought it should at the time.

Was it normal for the Kaiser Aluminum ALCLAD logo and name to exist on the Fender aluminum shields though? Maybe some old guy can tell me (I'm old too - no insult intended)