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Pick Guard Removal

B

bassplayer7768521

Jun 30, 2009
138
1
#1
Hello, Bassists!

I did a search on this... but failed to find anything that answered my questions, so here I go! :ninja:

I love Fenders, especially those with a Sunburst finish, absolutely beautiful. The one thing I could do without, however, would be the pick guard. I can definitely live with having a pick guard when I can finally get a Fender of my own, but I was wondering if there were any easy solutions to removing a pick guard and hiding those pesky little screw holes that it would leave behind. Would you have to have the holes filled and the finish redone, or is there a much more simple solution that I'm not seeing?

Thanks in advance!
 
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#8
My Squier Jazz doesnt have the "Route of Death" under the pickguard, however it also doesnt have all three colors under the pickguard either. I had mine with out a PG for a while and liked it. I just put the screws back in the holes so I could keep track of them. It's got a PG on it now, but here's what it looked like when it didnt.

BnB
 
#9
bound'n'blocked said:
I just put the screws back in the holes so I could keep track of them.

BnB
Click to expand...
IF you don't have big voids under the PG, this is what I recommend.
Add some nice washers or conchos.

But seriously, if you want a Fender without a pickguard buy one that comes that way so it'll look nice.
There is a certain "cheesy" factor when an appearance mod doesn't quite work.
 
#14
Just my opinion, but I think a pickguard on a Fender provides part of it's overall beauty. I'd rather switch guards occasionally than remove it altogether. But that's just me. I'm a pro-pickguard kind of guy, especially on Fenders... ;)
 
#15
I had thought about puttting a pickup cover over the neck pup because the hole was larger, but never did. If you wanted to cover the hole, I think a Peavy Fury pickup surround might look good.

Call me crazy, but I think that the bass sounded a little different without the pickguard on. I remember a thread on the Carvin board a few years back when I was building a guitar about how a plastic pickguard was what make a Strat sound like it does (the term they used was "quacky"). Although a Strat has alot more rout underneath it.
 
#16
Thank you everyone for your insight so far, I really appreciate it. I know Sadowsky makes some beautiful basses that often don't have pickguards as well, but that can get a bit expensive. I do live very close to 'Bass Central', though... one day.... :ninja:
 
#17
Jeff K said:
Just my opinion, but I think a pickguard on a Fender provides part of it's overall beauty. I'd rather switch guards occasionally than remove it altogether. But that's just me. I'm a pro-pickguard kind of guy, especially on Fenders... ;)
Click to expand...

Some of the pickguards look great for sure, but I'm not to keen on white pickguards on sunburst finishes (which the new jazzes basses I've seen lately do not have :cool:). Perhaps that's just my taste, though!
 
#20
The American Standards DO have the route, so you can't really do a no-pickguard thing. But the Japanese Fenders don't have them. Like Bobster said, the Geddy Lee doesn't have it and looks awesome without the guard.

Here's a pic of a sunburst Geddy I had with no pickguard.

GeddyBare2.jpg
 

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