Telecaster Basses 1968-1971 pickguard mystery

I have no knowledge to offer here. Still, it is an interesting topic and worth a bump to see if anyone knows anything about this.

 

Surely has something to do with the % of nitro content as that stuff is essentially an acid?

 

Having owned a few Tele basses all had original pickguards. They were white w/ pearloid backs, not metal. The acetate pearloid would “gas” over time and if left without room to vent the gassing would oxidize metal parts and disintegrate.

All mine were intact but did shrink over time.

 

This was my understanding as well. Kept in a case, no where for it to gas-off so things around it got ruined.

 

As stated, the pearl and the white celluloid decomposed just as it did on so many old archtops. I've never known a Tele bass to have an aluminum shield, which wouldn't have caused the problem anyway, and they all came with white guards.

 

The single ply whites were made of the stuff and imploded like my '68 , luckily it did not take out the pickup they they often do . I was able to clean it up and bought a simple replacement off reverb

 

don't let those pics fool you it was a mess , almost as bad as that op pic . It had some nasty toxic fuzz all over it and it eats metal . It works into the higher frets and everywhere it could get . I spent a lot of time bringing it back . I don't recall it having a pearl back but I can check later . iirc only the 50's P bass "tele" slabs had the black p/g . also the case is stinky but cat loves it

 

I have 'The Fender Bass' book by Hal Leonard. It has a picture of a fragmented Telecaster bass pickguard that killed the strings, screws and upper frets on the bass. It split exactly like @fretno's bass.

The pearl-backed pickguard blank stock was used for Stratocaster pickguards as well though, oddly, I've never heard of a Strat pickguard off-gassing. It happens to some Gibson 'archtop' pickguards where they used faux tortoiseshell. The gas attacks gold plating.

Presumably the pearl-backed stuff was originally intended to be displayed pearl-side up as a compliment to the tort pickguards (tort for basses, pearl for guitars?) but this never went anywhere. Fender's parsimonious brilliance dictated, presumably, that they simply recycled the stock by flipping it over.

 

I think I read that it is the Case Queen basses that end up gassing off and doing damage.

 

That is an incredibly gorgeous bass! Good work. Set off my GAS for a Tele bass all over again..

 

It was definitely the single ply nitro pickguards that 'exploded'. My March 1968 (maple cap neck) had a single ply guard and indeed, it exploded....I replaced it with the "late-1968 style" 3 ply non-beveled guard with the pearloid backing.

 

I now have my late fathers 69 black tele bass. In most pictures of him playing the bass, it didn’t have a pick guard. He told me story that the pick guard exploded when he left it in the car for a couple 100 degree days. I never completely understood how that could happen until now.

 

That happened to mine. The pickguard just shattered into a thousand pieces after being in cased in an attic for a few years. It luckily did not damage the pickup but may have contributed to wood staining on the neck at frets by gaseous action. The luthier was puzzled by the stains.

 

Kinda cool lookin’ with the ghosted PG image. A real manufacturer relic job.

 

Here’s another.

 

Yup it's like the blob that eventually works it way down into the electronics to bring it's final death . Little known to all of us there was once a quiet killer of the electric bass guitar .