Ceramic pickguard

[Charlie H 72]

Ok ok more pointless musings.. just thinking that the pickguard is one of few electric guitar parts that is, by general definition, plastic. And I think  we can do better! Leather is cool but very country, (nothing wrong with country!) and recycled materials and Masonite work great for some instruments, but not all. I tried making one from shellac but it was a failure.  is there more out there? Anybody ever seen a ceramic pickguard? I know there’s a chance of chipping, etc, but if it is well supported on the wood, could it work? 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Charlie H 72

[Drak]

I've made my own custom pickguards before.

The material is completely up to you. I'm making a custom wooden one right now AAMOF.

The one I'm doing now is a one-off, and I'll bevel the edges myself.

But when I did this one, I made a router template for it which performs a very important double-duty function:

1. The shape for a pattern cutting bit on the router when sat on top of the material

2. The necessary depth to use a 45 degree edge bevel router bit to give the pickguard a beveled edge when the template is sat underneath the material.

[Charlie H 72]

Sure-I’m familiar with the process, just wondering about the viability of ceramic. It could be a different method as well-to shape before firing or make a flat sheet stock, how thin can it get, etc. 

[Bizman62]

There's lots of materials available as flat thin pieces. The question is, are they suitable for pickguards by their properties. The other question is, do they look good. And the third question is, do they fall into the aforementioned category of "plastic". I've seen fabric, napkins and drawings molded into clear epoxy, but isn't that plastic as well? There's nothing wrong with plastic, after metals it's the most tolerant material against pick scratches.

You mentioned Masonite which is basically cardboard. Laminate used for tabletops and floors is printed paper and some sort of epoxy flattened under high pressure which makes it very wear resistant. Any wood based material like chipboard or plywood would sooner or later wear out without a tough finish (=plastic).

Stone based boards are heavy and very brittle especially in the required thickness so plasterboard or fibre cement are out of the question. I guess ceramic would fall into that category. Glass comes in sheets and can be shaped, doesn't scratch easily but is not shock resistant. Zirconia used for knives would be hard and thin but where could you find it and how would you shape it? Same goes for carbon ceramic used in brake disks. -For what I could quickly learn it seems that ceramic would make a very cool pickguard. The biggest issue with it (outside pottery)  is that it can't be made at home.

Natural materials other than wood might be interesting. Leather was already mentioned. Turtle shell would look nice and even have some guitar related history as picks but it's not environmentally sound. But how about cow horn? It's hollow so there's lots of surface when rolled flat. And it's tough, buffs shiny etc. The only problem with that is to find instructions about preparing the horns so that they won't roll back or split. There used to be a comb maker in an outdoor museum when I was a kid but when I took my kids there they told that the skill died with the old master.

[Charlie H 72]

Cow horn-I like that idea! I’ll see what I can drum up. I’ll also call up a few friends who do pottery and see what they think. I’ll report back.

I’m not trying to be the plastic police here. It’s not an environmentally friendly material, but if that was my main concern I would find some plastic sheet to repurpose and save from a landfill. And I probably wouldn’t be building a guitar in the first place either. I just don’t like the way plastic feels, and I do love the feeling of good pottery. So maybe there’s a trail to follow there. 

[Bizman62]

I'm not against plastic either. Things like plastic bags are actually quite environmentally friendly to manufacture as very little raw material and energy is needed. The biggest issue with plastic seems to be related to waste as it takes forever and a day week until it has totally vanished from nature. Then again, many plastics are easily recyclable and the rest can be burned in district heating plants, or used as filler in construction.

And plastic can be made out of almost any material, not only oil. BTW here's a pretty condensed (pre)history of plastic: http://www.bakelitmuseum.de/home/home1024e.htm

[mistermikev]

seen lots of wood pickguards, folks using records, license plates, carbon fibre, metal - all sorts of things.  my guess is that trad ceramic would be very brittle in a thickness that would lend itself to a pickguard... but no reason it couldn't be reinforced with fiberglass webbing or other.  I'll stop short of discussions on whether plastic pickguards contribute to sound.

[Charlie H 72]

It seems like a pickguard would influence tone, in terms of reflecting xyz frequencies back at the strings, but I’m not going to get caught up in that-the main thing that needs to improve to influence how I sound..is me! 

my friend said this about ceramic pg:

It seems like more trouble than it’s worth to do ceramic. Probably years of experimenting. And I don’t have access to any ceramic equipment lmao

but I think I figured out that I really need to experiment with torch firing enamel on copper. Pretty simple process, and I could make any shape I need quite easily. The enamel is basically the same as ceramic glaze, and the metal will be a much better substrate. Maybe it could get heavy but I will use light gauge copper. That’s all down the road though.. 

[Bizman62]

3 hours ago, Charlie H 72 said:

It seems like more trouble than it’s worth to do ceramic. Probably years of experimenting. And I don’t have access to any ceramic equipment lmao

Visit your local hardware store. There's all kinds of ceramic tiles, even larger than a square foot. For a pickguard you may do with a broken one so the price should be no issue. For shaping them there's inexpensive coping saws and drill bits - mine has both in one tool! There's also diamond blades and sanding pads for both hand and power tools.

I guess the thickness is the biggest problem with tiles, they tend to be rather 1/4" than 1/8". In our house there was some very thin ~8x8" tiling from the 1950's on the wall above the herd but since both the thickness and exact dimension didn't match with what was available I changed all of them.