Which pick guard sounds the best?

[jlo95]

I have an Olympic white p bass white a black guard. It sounds pretty good but the tone isn’t “wooly” enough for me.

There’s a white pearloid guard on my 5 string and it sounds great! Really fat and articulate. I think the pearl helps to tighten up the b string too.

Do you think switching to tort will sound better on the precision bass? Which pick guard do you think sounds the best?

 

[T McClure]

Is it aged tort?

 

[lowplaces]

 

[Killing Floor]

Tort will give it a more classic tone.

 

[4SG]

1. take off black pickguard
2. write 'wooly' in blue sharpie above pickups
3. replace pickguard

That should do it. If not, try writing in black sharpie or capitalizing 'WOOLY'. If neither works, try writing 'tort'. Lower case or all caps is fine.

 

[spiritbass]

My practice amp sounded a bit dark with black knobs. I put cream chicken-head knobs on it instead. Except for the occasional cackle, the tone is much more creamy now.

 

[rogerbmiller]

Pro tip: The answer to any pickguard-related question on talkbass is always tort.

 

[DrBnz]

Annodized Aluminum is what you need to capture the resonant tones.

 

[Leigh Semmens]

Nah! Throw the pickguard in the bin. It's muffling all the sound. Let it all hang out!!!

 

[Lobster11]

It's complicated, because pickguard color interacts with tone wood. For example, a black pickguard sounds best on a swamp ash body with maple fretboard, but tort sounds best on an alder body with rosewood fretboard.

 

[urkel3000]

Grey pearl is the only one that sounds worse than stock

 

[KenD]

I have an Olympic white p bass white a black guard. It sounds pretty good but the tone isn’t “wooly” enough for me.

There’s a white pearloid guard on my 5 string and it sounds great! Really fat and articulate. I think the pearl helps to tighten up the b string too.

Do you think switching to tort will sound better on the precision bass? Which pick guard do you think sounds the best?

Bwaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha!!!

 

[6-3-2]

Idk why it isn't talked about more, but in '62 Fender actually had an anodized guard on the Ps with a wool center layer. Wooliest, but also most balanced P tone IMHO. A husband and wife duo out of Lacrosse, Wisconsin still make them called Wooly Ps.

 

[Gervais Cote]

Not wooly enough ? Have you tried this .

 

[Minimalist]

You obviously need a wool pickguard. My suggestions is aged Marino wool.

 

[N4860]

What year is the pickguard? Some of the older white ones are not as wooly as the really old white ones. The not-so-old white ones are even woolier though. New ones won't have their wool yet though. So try to get a pickguard that is between not-so-old and really old. But this only applies to white pickguards. Other pickguards get their wool and lose it at different ages.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Take a blowtorch and melt the pickguard to the body. While doing that, pour jb weld over it. You want a more solid bond between your pickguard and bass body to better transfer.

It’s funny but as a tech I’ve literally had this “pickguard tone” conversation, sometimes multiple times a day.

 

[39-Bassist]

Personally i prefer 3ply black. It always has a nice stable and solid tone that goes with just about anything.
But that's just me.

 

[brianrost]

The ones that are properly shielded sound the best to me.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

The ones that are properly shielded sound the best to me.

So gold anodized