Pickguard affect tone?

[RonChase]

Going on the basis that electric guitar and electric bass are similar in the way they work, I have to say yes the guard does effect the sound I am still trying to figure out to what degree though.I built a guitar out of parts allover the place it consists of 7 guitars worth of odd parts working in harmony,well its a Ibanez RG body with a Les Paul humbucker,I had a good friend construct a pickguard for this musical oddity and he came back with a bronze pickguard,The strings echo much louder than say a strat which to my mind would be a fair comparison,I am still trying to determine how much difference with the amp factored in,I guess I will have to get a Phat strat to continue this test but yeh the guard can change the sound from my experience

 

[Rockmusician]

is this a serious question?

Similar questions

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Obviously, I am kidding but these questions make as much sense as the original post.

 

[Stumbo]

Anybody else sense a difference in their tone regarding whether or not they have a pickguard?

The tone of my voice, AFAIK, doesn't change much when I change the pickguard on my bass.

Yes, the pickguard affects the tone, by how much, depends on the guitar. Otherwise we wouldn't have these guitars. Whether it's noticeable at gig, for the most part, probably not so much on solid body guitars, maybe some for acoustic guitars.

 

[bassbenj]

The tone of my voice, AFAIK, doesn't change much when I change the pickguard on my bass.

Yes, the pickguard affects the tone, by how much, depends on the guitar. Otherwise we wouldn't have these guitars. Whether it's noticeable at gig, for the most part, probably not so much on solid body guitars, maybe some for acoustic guitars.

I just changed a whole host of pickguards. I didn't notice any change in tone. I didn't notice any when I played those instrument with no guards on them. Most of my basses don't have pickguards and I didn't notice any particular "pickguard" effect. Still I suppose one MUST admit theoretically that changing anything on an instrument has to change the tone however small that change might be.

I do think that comparing a pickguard to the cone of a resonator guitar is a bit extreme. First of all the bridge doesn't connect with the pickguard. And they (usually) aren't thin metal. But yeah, there is probably SOME effect in there. I've just never heard it.