Yellowed Pickguard Remedy

[fhm555]

You're quite welcome. I've bought several used basses with scratched pickguards that I was able to improve with sandpaper. The bass I described earlier was actually NOS and the PG didn't have a scratch on it, but the little white oval in the middle of all that yellow looked horrible, so I figured I couldn't make it any worse.

I'm happy to report that I have yet to destroy a PG by sanding it. For me, losing a little material off the top is preferable to buying a new PG, especially since I tend to buy low to mid-priced out-of-production basses that would require having a new one specially made.

That describes this bass to a T. I'm going this afternoon to pick it up.

 

[roswell1965]

I have a pickguard that had the same issue with a sticker and the yellowing went pretty deep. I sanded it starting with 400 grit, then worked my way up to finer grit paper, polishing compound, and finally wax.

Resurrecting this 4 year old thread to confirm this is the answer.

After sending a tracing to WD for my Epi Explorer, and receiving in return a quote of $80 for a plain 3-ply guard, I decided to give this a shot. I started with 320, 400, and 600 on my orbital sander, then finished by hand with 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000, ending with a Crest/cottonball polish to remove a few errant marks and give it that "hint of mint" that even WD's $80 guard would've failed to provide. It's not absolutely 100% perfect, but as you can see I'd taken off quite a lot of material and didn't want to risk a sand-through.