Don't care for either but respect your right to do whatever you want to your bass.
Tom
Tom
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Which pickguard to spice up plain old sunburst?
- Thread starter TimBosby
- Start date
Not much point in asking this. Here, there are only two pickguards, tort and everything else. They could change the name of this forum to TortTown and it wouldn't be inappropriate.
BUT . . .
Speaking personally, if the bass body has something interesting going for it - some respectable natural wood grain, a well-executed sunburst, a garish metallic or metal-flake paint job - I lean toward something which doesn't divert attention from that. In other words, black. But if the body is not particularly exciting, then I like to liven things up with novelty pickguards - shell, black pearl, fake abalone, blah blah. Currently I'm dicking around with printed atomic-age patterns (boomerangs 'n stuff, very '50s Fender-body-shape style) under a clear PG, though have achieved no great success so far. But on top of interesting wood or paint, it's black all the way.
BUT . . .
Speaking personally, if the bass body has something interesting going for it - some respectable natural wood grain, a well-executed sunburst, a garish metallic or metal-flake paint job - I lean toward something which doesn't divert attention from that. In other words, black. But if the body is not particularly exciting, then I like to liven things up with novelty pickguards - shell, black pearl, fake abalone, blah blah. Currently I'm dicking around with printed atomic-age patterns (boomerangs 'n stuff, very '50s Fender-body-shape style) under a clear PG, though have achieved no great success so far. But on top of interesting wood or paint, it's black all the way.
Both are ugly ime but " tan conch" (whatever that is) looks less ugly. I would leave it without pickguard in fact
The OP's bass is about as plain-Jane as is possible for a sunburst to get. I think he's on the right track with snazzing it up.
And I say that as a big fan of black.
Not likely. There's barely any discernable wood grain at all on it.How about none? Your bass may look much better without a pickguard.
Besides, it still has the pickguard screw holes.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Thanks for your responses, everyone! Whether you like it or hate it, I appreciate the input. Being a fan of the underdog, it's wearing purple candy crush right now but I will change it to the tan conch later. Maybe I'll alternate per gig. I have 6 other basses so this one won't see a ton of gigs - it was more of a "just for fun build / backup Jazz" kinda thing.
Also wait until ya'll see my other basses' pickugards, LOL, someday I'll do a family photo.
Also wait until ya'll see my other basses' pickugards, LOL, someday I'll do a family photo.
I should have asked about screw holes. In that case I vote for a darker shade of Tort.
So for you tort enthuisasts, I love me some tort too - but I'm trying to not repeat pickguards. I have a gorgeous red tort guard on one of my Drake customs - pictured below (those red strings were purchased by mistake and are no longer on this bass, lol!) One of these days I'll get a Spitfire tort guard (darker one) made and put it on something, but they're kinda spendy.
