A friend asked me about this...

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

... and I didn't know what to tell him, so I want to ask you friendly TalkBassers since I promised him a reply:

This guy has a Fender Urge I bass and after showing him a picture of Melissa Auf Der Maur playing a Fender bass with a mirror pickguard, he fell in love with the idea of putting a similar pickguard on his instrument. We were browsing the net and found some places like pickguards.com or pickguards.us, but as far as we seen, they don't accept foreign credit cards and he doesn't want to go into the hassle of sending money abroad, so he asked me: "Do you think is it possible to put an ACTUAL MIRROR on my bass?" He says that he has a friend who works with mirrors and glass in general and also says that he's very good working with that stuff. He's pretty sure that if he gaves his Fender pickguard to this guy, he can cut a piece of mirror exactly like it, so he can put it on. This Urge pickguard doesn't work as an electronics' cover or something like that. Just decorative. Of course, I didn't know what to tell him and promised him to ask in TalkBass about that. So that's the question. Thank you in advance for your replies!

[nashvillebill]

Glass is so fragile and chips so easily, I'd be reluctant to put it on the face of something that's going to take a lot of abuse--like a bass. And you'd have to glue it on, I don't think you'd be able to screw it on like a regular pickguard (the screw heads would most likely chip the glass as you tighten them).

All the mirror pickguards I've seen are metal. I made a pickguard out of stainless steel and put it on an electric guitar.

Real glass just isn't practical on the face of a bass or guitar, IMHO. One chip or crack and it could even be dangerous.

[Cúl-Báire]

It's doable- I work with glass a fair bit and I reckon it's doable... But it would be extremely hard to get it the right shape- machine holes in it small enough for the controls... You need to be masterful at making glass sculptures, structres... shapes etc..

Then if you do up a screw, or put uneven pressure on it... crack.

Certainly not worth the effort-surely you can find someone who makes pickgaurds in your area- or even buy material blanks and cut it yourself. www.warmoth.com offers blanks, but I'm not sure if they have mirrored material- email em and ask.

[Peter Squire]

Also try:

www.gsrguitars.co.uk

Their business motto is -The Sky's The Limit. They make custom just about anything.

Hope this helps/

[Chunk-O-Funk]

Instead of using actual glass mirror try something like Plexiglas mirror. it also must be easier to work with because it is somewhat flexible.

Plexiglas mirrors are used in a lot of children's products where using glass would be dangerous and wherever you see those dome or round shaped convex mirrors to help you see around corners, those are also made of Plexiglas.

I'm sure that any glass supply outlet will be able to get it for you. You would just have to check to see if is a special order. Sometimes on a special orders like this it may come is a much lager sized piece than you need. Worth checking out just the same.