Banishing Fender CS tort

[facetsquared]

I finally, finally got round to swapping out the 'corned beef' tort on my CS Precision. Knocked the gloss off a black WD Music pickguard - and I think it looks a whole lot better. I did the same on my CS Jazz. I love the basses themselves, but oof, Fender's relic tort is grim to my eyes. What do you reckon?

 

[Killing Floor]

Pics or your now modded bass is a partscaster

 

[facetsquared]

Pics or your now modded bass is a partscaster

Added... yep, I hit send early

 

[5StringBlues]

Can't make a judgment till I see the tort.

 

[Killing Floor]

Those look great!

 

[J Posega]

Imagine paying Fender CS money and the pickguard is ugly.

 

[facetsquared]

Imagine paying Fender CS money and the pickguard is ugly.

Each bought used for little more than an AVRI II would cost new - so a saving grace.

 

[facetsquared]

Can't make a judgment till I see the tort.

Here are some ‘before’ pics

 

[5StringBlues]

I am not the biggest fan of black pick guards, but you did the right thing!

Here are some ‘before’ pics View attachment 5412180

View attachment 5412191

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Yeah, for me it’s spitfire, lavaguards, or actual vintage ONLY. You can call me a snob, because I am. For a $4000 and change bass you’d think they would do better. I mean, all boutique tort is nowadays is closeups of the sun’s surface that you can easily find on google images.


See for yourself

 

[facetsquared]

Yeah, for me it’s spitfire, lavaguards, or actual vintage ONLY. You can call me a snob, because I am. For a $4000 and change bass you’d think they would do better. I mean, all boutique tort is nowadays is closeups of the sun’s surface that you can easily find on google images.


See for yourself
View attachment 5412192

View attachment 5412193

Agree. The Fender CS tort is shockingly bad. Really flat looking.

 

[Gervais Cote]

I’m about the same about the "corn beef" look of the Fender tort pickguard. It’s okay but not very nice IMO.

I always replaced them with an Allparts red tortoise and they look way better according to me !



Here is an Allparts on my sunburst p bass :




And here is the same on my natural :

 

[r_bnks]

Here are some ‘before’ pics View attachment 5412180

View attachment 5412191

The hell with tort.
They look way better with black pickguard. Or with anything but tort.

 

[facetsquared]

I’m about the same about the "corn beef" look of the Fender tort pickguard. It’s okay but not very nice IMO.

I always replaced them with an Allparts red tortoise and they look way better according to me !



Here is an Allparts on my sunburst p bass :




And here is the same on my natural :

Looks waaaay better. That Allparts tort looks similar to the tort that one sees on new Moollon basses.

 

[eniac]

Agree. The Fender CS tort is shockingly bad. Really flat looking.

Looks like pepperoni. I like pepperoni in salad. But I guess that's a little OT.

 

[facetsquared]

The hell with tort.
They look way better with black pickguard. Or with anything but tort.

Yeah. I seem to gravitate to black or mint guards.

 

[facetsquared]

Looks like pepperoni. I like pepperoni in salad. But I guess that's a little OT.

Pepperoni on the way back up after a night on the whisky. It’s so bad.

 

[Gervais Cote]

I have all the basses I need (for now !) but if I was to build a new one, the pickguard would be satin black and I would choose the color of the body to match.
Satin black always looks good IMO.

 

[Grinderman]

If it isn't vintage tort then it has to be Spitfire or Lava.

Otherwise, it has to be gold or black anodized aluminum, single-ply chamfered black vinyl (e.g. FCS Duotone '57 P), or black single-ply Bakelite, IMO.

 

[gln1955]

Here are some ‘before’ pics View attachment 5412180

View attachment 5412191

That's dreadful. No self-respecting tortoise would have ever worn that.