Tort guard hate?

[Hopkins]

Count me in the hate (or strong dislike) category. Mostly because people will use them on just about any color, like surf green, shell pink, fiesta red, sonic blue, ect. when the only colors they actually look decent on are white and natural. Otherwise, they look like someone vomited on your bass.

 

[Liam Wald]

In general, us old guys prefer it , younger guys want a pickguard look to be sporty or edgy.

You mean like basic white with a Batman sticker on it?

 

[toowrongfoo]

I love them. Tort shell PG's are PG's too.

 

[St_G]

I think the premise for this thread fell through a wormhole from the Berenstein Universe.

 

[spiritbass]

I like mint a lot better. But tort on a vintage Jazz Bass with seafoam green or burgandy mist is just breathtaking..

My old medium-scale p:

 

[Artman]

I disliked tort guards when I was in my teens and twenties. I was indifferent to them in my thirties and forties. Now in my fifties, I think it’s great if you want an old-school looking bass, but not so much for the modern body styles and colors/finishes.
A tortoise pickguard (or any pickguard at all) would look stupid on my Pedulla Buzz Bass, but it would nicely compliment my 3 color sunburst Jazz Bass.

 

[rogerbmiller]

No hate. Here on Talkbass, the consensus is that all good basses are made from two key materials: flats and tort.

 

[ThudThudThud]

Personally I love it! Where I get lost is the mint green stuff, or fiesta red. Yuck.

Fiesta Red with a Mint pickguard is awesome.

 

[Mr.Ace]

 

[Ellery]

Apologies if this has been covered ad naseum here, but I’m new to the fold and lazy about searching, so here goes: why all the tort guard hate? Personally, I’ve always been a huge fan of tort guards; probably my favorite guard option. Am I in the minority? Lay it on me, TalkBass, what say y’all?

Enough is enough! Tortoises are an endangered species, and the illegal tortoise trade is wiping them out! This madness must stop!

 

[Artman]

Well, I'm old and the last thing I need at my age is a bass that makes me look older! I have never liked Tort and refuse to allow a bass with tort in my collection. I do love love Pearloid though!!!!!!!
Fishheadjoe

I used to have a Candy apple red Strat that really came out of it’s shell once I installed a Pearloid guard! The hotter pups, brass trem block, and rewire didn’t hurt either.

 

[BradH]

I use to hate/dislike them, but the look has grow on me over the years!
I am still a big fan of a black pick guards on almost every color of bass.

 

[Liam Wald]

Enough is enough! Tortoises are an endangered species, and the illegal tortoise trade is wiping them out! This madness must stop!

Huh? Who said anything about tortoises? I thought that this was about tortellini pick guards.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

CAN'T! (See my Avatar)

Hey, sure I had to pay good money for that custom Tort guard to replace the original white one (yawn) on my SX-6, but clearly it was worth it!

 

[Bassique]

I like the fact there are almost 180 replies in one day, whenever tort pickguard is mentioned. But to answer the topic, I dont think any color or pattern is really hated, I just never really liked tort PG, unless its on classic sunburst jazz or precision, anywhere else it just looks "wrong".

 

[bassbenj]

View attachment 2997696

Tort on Black with butterfly on headstock for the win! All debate is irrelevant now!

 

[Son of Wobble]

I wouldn't say there is a lot of hate for tort, if anything there is an annoying amount of love for it, which then leads to a backlash.
I generally don't like it because its old and antiquated looking. I can stand it on a black bass, but mostly because there aren't a lot of red pick guards out there. Then some people pair it with colors that are hideous on their own, and call their visual abomination "sweet."
Like I said, it looks old and dated. I wish people would move on from 60 year old designs and come up with something new.

Along this same line, a young player on TB recently referred to sunburst as "grandpaburst."

 

[selowitch]

Along this same line, a young player on TB recently referred to sunburst as "grandpaburst."

It's a classic look.

 

[Korladis]

How can you improve on sunburst and a tort guard?

Mike View attachment 2997287

Easily. Guitar would look better with almost any other color pickguard (I would go for parchment, gold anodized, brass, or one of the custom Ertmermusic ones, personally), especially with those white pickups.

I said I'd never get a bass with tort till I recently found a 1960 P bass that's otherwise trashed but has its original pickguard. For $400 I couldn't say no, and it DOES look nice on that ancient beast.

So, that's my one tort pickguard, and I like it, but I'm not getting any others. Haha

I think it's because it is definitely tied to an era (one decades before I was born, even) in my mind, so new basses with tort don't jibe in my head. But old ones certainly do.

I probably would have swapped the pickguard out, but saved the original in case I wanted to re-sell it later.

My old medium-scale p:

View attachment 2997680

Very pretty finish. I think it would look nicer with a white or off-white pickguard, though.

Along this same line, a young player on TB recently referred to sunburst as "grandpaburst."

It kinda is.

 

[Herrick]

I think they're very ugly. I always ordered replacement pickguards when I ordered a bass that came stock with a tort guard.