Personally I've never cared for flamed maple tops and the stand alone control plate. Need some ideas for scratch plate colors to dial back a highly flamed red maple top on a SB5000. Bass also has a matching flamed headstock. I'm assuming you can still purchase pickguards for these somewhere.
If you wanted a pick guard for that bass, I’d personally go with black. It would compliment the darker lines of the flame and flow really well to the ebony fretboard.
Fwiw it's as much the naked control plate as the flame. Don't look right to me. No guard no plate just the knobs.