Main Description

This is the pickguard most of us will be familiar with then it comes to working with the Fender® Stratocaster® and it represents the final stages of the plate’s evolution.

Essentially, it’s a slight improvement on the early 60s spec plate, with the only real difference being the mounting screw between the neck and middle pickup routes has been moved move towards the middle pickup, rather than being slap bang in between. Presumably this was done to combat that last trouble area on 60s models which where prone to warping.

Either way, this spec plate came into production around about 1983 and has lasted through until the modern on most USA and Mexican produced guitars (with the exception of a couple of re-issues and signature models which are mimicking guitars from before that period). One thing to watch out for though, and we field countless emails on this one – Squier® and Fender® Japan do not always work to this standard.

No idea why they never switched over to the standard hole pattern entirely (some do turn up, and modern models do seem to be much better for this), but they often turn up with all sorts of weird and wonderful spec plates on them - as always with this, if you’re in any doubt what so ever, check out the Technical Specifications, we made up some detailed diagrams showing the sizes, shapes and screw placement to make matching up plates as simple as we could.

But enough about the history and the manufacturers little niggles – how about a bit about the plate?

The plate itself is made for a 3 ply laminate of PVC, purely because it’s the best material for the job. Whilst it’s true to say that various other plastics have been used, most had their draw backs sadly – fine for historical accuracy, but a bit of a pig in day to day life. PVC is heat resistant to avoid warping, its colour fast, so will never change colour as it ages (although, as with most things, it’ll still nicotine stain, it’ll still bleach in the sun if you leave it there for a few weeks!).

So all in all, if you’re looking for a modern spec plate for your Strat® and you’re rocking a cool set of single coils, then chances are this is the one you want.

Routing

It’s exactly how you’d expect a plate for a Strat® to be really, routed out for 3 single coils, a switch (either 3 or 5 way – remember if you’re going historic, the 5 way switch didn’t come into production until the 1970s!) and 3 holes for the pots (drilled out to 10mm to take CTS pots) and the classic 11 mounting holes around the edge.

A Closer Look and what to look out for

Why Can/Cant I move pot holes?

Right then - this has been in the offing for a while now, so probably worth explaining whats going on with the pot hole options!

We're, slowly but surely, switching all of our pickguard stock over to "No pot" versions - and that means we can drill them out to order - so if your in the mood for switching over to master tone, master volume? Just Volume? No holes? Or just moving the volume pot out of the way so you dont keep hitting the thing? You can - its an easy job, so its all done at no extra cost, and it gets you dangerously close to custom pickguards without the supidly long lead times and eye watering costs!

However - theres a few little caveats that are worth noting.

Returns

Lets get the elephant in the room out of the way first eh?

Once pickguards are drilled - theres no going back - so worth being aware that once its drilled, its yours - they are, essentially, custom made at this point.

Any deviation from "undrilled" - the pickguard is no longer returnable. Frankly, it makes selling the returns next to impossible. I wish it wasn't, but lets be honest - you can make some pretty weird setups here, so lets just be sensible about it. If its been drilled, its non-returnable.

So, its really worth using all the resources here to make sure its exactly what you want before commiting to buy the thing! Theres spec diagrams under the tech spec tab, theres photos of all the colours under the "Tortoise shell/whites/pearls explained" tabs - your as well informed with what your getting as you can be (and again, if in doubt? Just buy the thing without the pot holes and drill it out yourself - 10mm drill bit and a cordless drill - easy job - we'll even tell you where to put the holes)

Why cant i do it on all colours?

Put simply? Because some of the plates are already drilled out - we're switching the entire stock over as we get new plates in, but as you can imagine, its not exactly a quick process. Anything where you can customise, you'll be faced with the drop down menus to select what you want (and the picture updates to show what your getting) - anything you cant customise, will revert back to "standard" and show the "Please Note - The selected colour/material is currently not available for customisation" message - you can still order the plate, but you cant move the pot holes unfortunately.

What is Pickguard Style/Mount?
Rather then having multiple product listings on the site to cover "minor" variations within pickguards (especially in the more specialist stuff!) - we're just building them in as options within single products - so with common plates, like an Modern Strat? You can pick between left and right handed versions - more niche stuff? Like the Locking Trem plate - thats got loads more options in there, right down to pickup options (HBSCSC, SCSCSC and HBSCHB) - just keeps the site looking tidy, even if it does hide a few of the options a little deeper. Easier to dig deeper then have to trawl through 10 pages of completely irrelivent plates though!

Hole Postitioning

This is, despite my best efforts - dull as dish water! I'm describing the space between holes here, so dont expect anything life changing - but, worth having the details, and i'll try and include a few little tit-bits to watch out for. Just remember, that the holes are drilled out to 10mm, so they'll take Alpha, CTS and Bournes pots.

And in closing - Pickguards, once drilled away from the standard hole plan, come under the remit of Custom work and as always, if you've got any questions what so ever, please feel free to get in touch with us and we can talk through all the finer details of your proposed build.

Returns and Refunds?

Because these plates are, essentially, custom built due to the pot hole positioning being variable - they come under the remit of Custom work as laid out in our terms and conditions.

Once the plates are drilled, that means they're no longer returnable or refundable - so please, check and double check EVERYTHING - there are dimension diagrams under the tech spec tab, all of the colours are detailed under the "White/Tortoise/Pearl explained" tabs - there isn't much more we can do to detail what these plates are, and what they will fit.

Tortoise Shell Explained

You’ve probably noticed with the pickguards, we do A LOT of different variations in tortoise shells – and even then, we barely scratch the surface when it comes to completing the line-up.

Basically, Tortoise shell, originally, way back when, when it first started (long before the electric guitar was a thing) was just that – pieces of a tortoises shell, fixed together into a shape, and polished until semi-transparent (some of the early acoustic pickguards were actually made this way)

Now, obviously, none of us want to see a return to those practises, but seemingly, everyone liked “the look” – so with the advent of plastic in the early part of the 20th century, science found a cheaper way (it wasn’t until the seventies when trade in hawksbill turtle (the main source of Tortoise shell) shells became illegal!)

The first “plastic” Tortoise Shells were made from Nitrate plastics, usually Celluloid – and, frankly, it’s pretty gorgeous! Its semi-transparent, it’s got a sort of leopard skin look to it, and it soon worked its way onto guitars (again, most acoustics)

The problem is – Celluloid plastics are astonishingly flammable – they have a low point of combustion, and once they’re burning, they don’t go out until the fuels gone, or they flame is deprived of oxygen. As you can imagine, no one really liked working with Celluloid. It was risky to use (cutting = friction = heat) it was dangerous to store, and it wasn’t really suitable for the job at hand ( it changed colour when exposed to sunlight, it warped, it shrank, it was generally, pretty badly behaved!)
Never the less, it did eventually find its way onto electric guitars by the late 50s and early 60s, but was soon replaced for something more suitable and much safer.

Nowadays, you see Tortoise shells in either Polyoxymethylene (more stable as a material, but still very flammable) or PVC (which is fairly bomb proof, but does give off toxic fumes if burnt)

Now, getting to the modern day – Tortoise shell comes in 5 “variants” for us (ignoring the Celluloid offerings, they’re still out there, and great for historical accuracy, but just be VERY careful with them – not only in buying them/storing your guitar once its fitted, but also in actually sourcing the stuff, we’ve yet to find a factory who will even consider making a plate with it (too big a fire risk) and even when we do, its very cost prohibitive (more expensive to buy the things then we could ever dream of selling them for!) – there are guys out there making them though – but as a rough guide, expect to pay upwards of £150+)

Pearls Explained

Pearloid plates are similar to the tortoise shells, but theres a little less subtly between them, and they dont really have anything overly interesting in their history - as far as i can tell, they're always been PVC, and the variations in colour and pattern are pretty easy to follow.

So lets take a closer look.

"Whites & Creams" Explained

Ok, even i'll conceed that this isn't the most thrilling of toics at this point, but there is actually plenty of confusion when it comes to the "off white" pickguard colours, so seeing as we're ticking off pearls and tortoise shell varients, we might as well address the parchments, mints and creams too.

So lets get stuck in