"Pickguards ruin the tone"

[40Hz]

Remove the decal...you won't believe your ears.

ROFLMAO!!!

Thank you for that. I needed a good giggle today!

 

[BassLover668]

For 90's tone you need converse shoes too.

 

[40Hz]

Ha! Right on. To drive it home, I was doing a rehearsal at a church and they told me I could just use the bass they had there. Well, it was a crappy no-name P-bass with a broken pick guard, brush painted body and sloppy knobs. But I was feeling lazy so I said, sure, why not.

That thing sounded awesome and it was a joy to play. It really taught me something and drove the point home.

I am continually amazed by how a PB just slots in and kills it 99% of the time.

And this is coming from somebody who does not consider himself a Fender bass player and generally tries to avoid playing a PB as long as there's an alternative.

Still…like the song says: When it's right, you know it. And Leo got it 95% right the first time out. And he did it four times in a row. I won't begrudge him that.

 

[Iridescentone]

Kinda surprised that no one has brought up the infamous Rickenbacker horseshoe pickup and its effect on tone.

 

[Ellery]

So that's why all those J's, P's, and Ric's sound so awful. Guess that's why nobody uses them.

 

[jwilson67]

I think I have a marketing idea for "Sound Enhancing Pickguards". I'll come up with some pseudo-scientific reason why stock Pick Guards inhibit tone.

 

[higain617]

Has anyone removed their pickups to check isolated pickguard tone?

 

[ValeriusCrow]

I just realised, the Wal has no pickguard... if I take the tort off the P it will be the same as the Wal

One doesn't take tort from Precision - you take PRECISION off the His Majesty TORT

 

[Deleted member 165050]

I think I have a marketing idea for "Sound Enhancing Pickguards". I'll come up with some pseudo-scientific reason why stock Pick Guards inhibit tone.

Probably some kind of quantum entaglement, non?

 

[Biggbass]

This pick guard is a tone machine!

 

[tekhedd]

Well, there are plenty of people who think they come out ahead in Vegas, too, despite the clear evidence of their bank accounts...

 

[sifi76]

If they are that worried about tone loss from a bit of plastic, they probably need to get out of the house more.. what next "there's a noticeable tone difference in early 60's jazz basses, because of the tug bar"

I honestly doubt anyone is going to notice.. or much less care

 

[jwilson67]

Probably some kind of quantum entaglement, non?

Composite-metal material that helps "reflect string vibration back into the pickup. Energy that would otherwise be absorbed into the body wood".

LOL

 

[Pedullist]

Amethyst top...

No basses yet

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[Watchootognbout]

Plastic pickguards add plastic tones.
Especially pepperoni plastic.

 

[metron]

I apologize in advance for wasting bandwidth but what about a bass made entirely out of pickguard material? Let's say it's shaped like a P bass body (easy to EQ for the sound engineers) then... stay with me on this people... add a pickguard made out of wood. What might the outcome be?

 

[Deleted member 165050]

Composite-metal material that helps "reflect string vibration back into the pickup. Energy that would otherwise be absorbed into the body wood".

LOL

Now I understand, a pickguard is actually a kinetic energy recovery system

 

[gt96g]

Everyone knows tort pickguards are great for tone, but pearloid are always a hot mess.

 

[otp57]

I saw this in a facebook comment and have never even heard of such a thing. Does anyone think this?

As for
Pickguards ruin the tone the answer if it have the mass of lead it could mess with the tone.
But I can tell with it on or off( a good BASS will sound GOOOOOD).

 

[Pedullist]

My biggest problem is that my tone ruins my pickguard.