P-Bass pickguard, b/w/b, tort or red tort?

Hi all, I want to ask your opinion / insights on replacement pickguards. Last week I bought this 1975 Precision:



It's a great bass, but like on so many vintage P-basses, the original pickguard is broken in several places (by the output jack, both sides of neck pocket), with many hairline cracks. It is holding together for now, but I have to replace it pretty soon.

Option 1: install an exact replacement black/white/black pg to keep the stock 1975 look.

Option 2: install a vintage-style celluloid tortoiseshell pg, WD Music makes one with proper hole placement for 70's P-basses. I've read that celluloid pickguards can warp or shrink, your thoughts or experiences on this?

Option 3: install a vintage-style red tort pickguard from WD Music.

I'm at the moment in favor of #3, as I've done many google image searches on 1970's Fender basses and it seems that many tort pickguards from that era have much red color in them. If I do choose a tort pickguard for my bass, I want it to look as authentic and period correct as possible.

 

Thanks to all for your comments, I really appreciate it. Now I've done some more research into tort pickguards - and found, among other things, a 31-page (!) thread on tort pickguards: OffsetGuitars.com • View topic - Who makes/sells the best early 60's celluloid Fender-style '

It was a very informative read, I learned that WD has now introduced a 4-ply tort pickguard material with all layers made of celluloid; it looks really nice with a more authentic vintage look than any others I've seen. It doesn't show on the WD website yet, you have to special order it from their sales dept. (The tort pg shown on the website is the older version 4-ply with only the top layer made of celluloid, the other layers are PVC.) So, I'm going to email WD to get a price quote for an all-celluloid tort pg.

 

A matter of taste. I think this looks really good:



Tort with maple neck and mostly natural body, in fact it looks a bit like it could be what's left of a 70's walnut finish (aka mocha brown or root beer) after decades of use.

 

Thank you, I'm very happy with this bass! She's been used hard by previous owners, there are plenty of dings and scratches on the neck, body and headstock. The body has apparently been stripped down to clear primer, I was told it was originally Olympic White, but I'm not quite sure: there was some tiny traces of white paint on the body, but the finish looks like lacquer lightly sanded to a matte surface.

She needed a cleaning and a setup badly: old duct tape residue by the bottom strap holder (somebody probably had duct taped the strap to the body), intonation was off, the neck bolts weren't tightened snug etc. So, I took the bass apart, cleaned it, re-assembled it and installed fresh strings (TI Jazz flats) and did a complete setup. Now she sings!

I'll have to think about this.. as this is a left-handed bass I'll be paying an extra charge anyway to have a pickguard made (WD charges +10% of retail price). I looked at Pickguard Heaven: tort pickguard 77$ with whatever extra lefty charge they have + international shipping 38$, yikes!

I'll check out if Fender has a left-hand tortoise pickguard available, but for a '75 P-bass the Fender '62 pickguard isn't an exact fit (thumbrest holes on wrong side, no center screw hole).

 

A quick update - got an email from WD, a 4-ply all-celluloid tort pickguard for a lefty P-bass would cost 94.39$ + USPS Express Mail shipping to Finland 44.45$ = 138.84$ total. Pricey.. but today I was talking at work about this with a friend who's also a bass player and he gave me a good hint to check out: he had had a custom pickguard made by a respected local luthier for his Telecaster bass and was very happy with the result. I will visit his shop this week to see what materials he has available and ask about prices. This might be a good option as I'd be able to discuss what I want in person and have the pickguard made and fitted exactly to my bass. Stay tuned for further developments..