Axesrus - Pickguard for 1971-1983 Stratocaster

Main Description

This plate represents an often overlooked point in "the History of the Strat®" - superficially, it has all of the hall marks of the "modern" pickguard (which came into being around 1983) - the mounting holes are in the same place, all of the sizes and shapes are the same - theres just one very small difference. The Mounting holes for the pickups and switch bolts - on a post '83 guitar, these will be dome headed (so its just a 4mm hole in the plate) - before that, every guitar came with countersunk bolts, and the pickguards had recessed holes to accomodate.

The counter sunk bolts were actually phased out, because of a weird quirk with the way the pickups are designed - the mounting holes on single coil pickups should be slightly narrower then the holes in the pickguard believe it or not! (76.5mm vs 77.5mm - a tiny variation no one ever spots, but it causes the bolts to pull in slightly - now, on a "modern" guitar, with dome head bolts, it doesn't matter - the bolts thread is just over 3mm in diameter, and the holes are 4mm (atleast on USA made guitars) - the bolts pull in, but the holes baggy enough for them to remain roughly square.

With a recessed bolt, it doesn't quite work - even with the hole being larger, the head is still "centred" to the recess in the plate - so on older guitars, the bolts sit at an angle - its not "wrong" per se - most people never actually notice it - but thats the reason for the really minor change as near as we can tell.

So yeah - whichever way you cut it, plates designed for the guitars from the late 80s/90s fit guitars from the 60s and 70s - so, naturally, the "better" design won out, and the "true" 70s plates (with the countersunk bolt holes) have become pretty rare as after market/3rd party parts, but we figure, why not? If we're going to have a SSH plate, a HSS plate, and every other "era" of SSS plate? Why not fill that last little nice eh?

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.

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.

Fender®, Squier®, Strat® and Stratocaster® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Axesrus® has no affiliation with FMIC

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!

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.

  Volume pot

We do 4 volume pot hole versions
So, working from the back of the plate, up from the very bottom pickguard mounting hole.
Standard - the usual position, if there was a single coil there, the knob would be nearly touching the bridge pickups height adjustment bolt. 102mm centre to centre, angled at 54 degrees (approx)
Offset 1 - what i'd call the "Tom Delonge" offset - volume pot right down out of the way, nearer the switch. Personally, i dont like it with a switch - its just that bit too close - BUT - if you can live with it, it gets the volume out of the way AND you get to keep both tone pots.
97mm centre to centre, angles at 36 degrees (approx)  
Offset 2 - What I'd call the "Ibanez®" offset - volume controls about half way between standard and the neck tone pot (so you cant have the neck tone AND offset 2) - personally, a better choice for getting the volume pot of the way, because it doesn't crown out the switch like Offset 1 does.
84mm centre to centre, angled at 50 degrees (approx)

    No Volume Pot  - what it says on the tin - no hole for the volume pot will be drilled.

  "Neck" Tone

 As we get away from the volume pot, things get a bit simpler thankfully - tone pots are either there or they're not - but for completeness sake, i'll put the dimensions/angles in. (Just remember that neck tone is the one in the middle between volume and the bottom tone pot hole - controls the neck pickup!)
Standard -60mm centre to centre, angled at 44 degrees (approx)

    No "Neck" Tone -again, no hole for the neck tone.

  "Middle" Tone
The bottom tone pot (NOT the one in the middle!) - controls the middle pickup traditionally - again, not a great deal you can do with it - its either there or it aint.
Standard -19mm centre to centre, angled at 31 degrees (approx)

   No "Neck" Tone -again, no hole for the neck tone.

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+)

  
  Classic

Now this is a funny one. For the longest  time, it was the only Tortoise shell we had access to, and honestly – its OK –  turns up pretty often on mid-priced guitars, such as the Squier® Classic vibe  and vintage modified lines – personally, I think of it was a cheats Tortoise  shell, because it seems to be a screen print sandwiched between the layers of  PVC, and as such, it looks a little flat. It is, however pretty uniform, so if  you want all your tortoise shells to look the same, classics the way to go.

  3 Ply Brown

 Now we’re talking – rather then a “flat layer” brown  tortoise is the real deal – layers of semi-transparent PVC (one yellow, one  brown) over laid to give that characteristic look. For whatever reason, the 3  ply version shows a little more yellow in the mix then the 4 ply. It shows a great  depth of colour as a result, and if pressed, I’d say it was my favourite of the  shells.

  4 Ply Brown
Slightly darker then the 3 ply version, less yellow  bleed through in the mix (presumably because the yellow “layer” is thinner)

  
  3 Ply Red
Similar to the brown version really – yellow and red,  one on top of the other, but it’s the same principle, same results, just a  little more vibrant then the brown.

  4 Ply Red
Where the brown 4 ply shows a little less yellow, the  red version pretty much cuts it out completely. Its almost bordering on a red pearl  for us, and certainly not without its charms. Ideal if you really hate the idea  of the yellow peeking through.

  Celluloid
For completeness sake, heres a photo of a celluloid plate too - i think we can all agree, it looks absolutely glorious, and theres a real depth to the "shell" effect - but if you look closely at the photo, you can probably see that the plate (in this case a Jazzaster) has badly warped, its been kept in the same conditions as the PVC plates above, for the same amount of time, but its way past being usable now.

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.

  
  White Pearl

The most common pearloid you're going to see - "white pearl" - i think its safe to say we all know the look. Interesingly, Pearl pickguards are actually made from a material intially intended to be a faux "mother of pearl" (which is the inside of an oyster shell)

  Aged Pearl

 More common then you'd think strangely - fairly safe to think of it as the Parchment version of white pearl. For whatever reason, the pearling is a little tighter, with fewer blank spots between the reflective sections.

  Ivory Pearl
If Aged Pearl is the Parchment, then Ivory Pearl is most definately the Ivroy to the white - much more creamy in colour. Usually, you only see if in a 3 ply triple Ivory - not very common nowadays, but does occasionally turn up.

  
  Avalon
This is a fairly new pattern as far as we can well - actually a much closer representation of that "mother of pearl" look that the original pearloids were going for. Rather then being broken up into reflective "squares", its more bothches and swirls, gives it a nice crisp finish.

  Abalone
If Avalon is getting closer to mother of pearl, then its probably only right that we've got one thats getting close to its opposite number, abalone (which is the inside of the shell of a few species of marine snail) - its certainly a very "unique" pattern, and again, is more swirls then squares.

  Black Pearl
Black pearl is always a bone of contention for us - its not "really" black - its more a dark grey colour - there is a blacker version out there (not that we can find it!) called "Moto Pearl" - but yeah, they've both got their place.

  
  Purple Pearl
Hardly an all time classic, but not without its charms. Nice tight pearling, very few gaps between the squares, so nice and uniform - a love it or loathe it colour i suppose. Pair it with a black body and black plastics, and its a nice little statement piece though.

  Blue Pearl
Colour aside, its a fairly traditional pearloid - reflective squares, blue tint - looks a bit crackers on its own, but with the right body, it can work really well.

  Green Pearl
Again, a bit of a novelty colour for me - not exactly what you'd call a classic, but if thats your thing - more power to ya.

"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

  
  White 

We carry all our white plates in the above "shade" - its a completely opaque pigment, and is what you expect really, a very clean, crisp, pristine white.

  Parchement

Occasionally called "aged white" in the trade - parchment is the next shade in from white, slightly darker with a very slight creamy/yellow tint - think of it like old news paper.

  Ivory 3 ply
As called aged white (and a source of much confusion!) - Ivory  is the only plastic that differs in colour in its 3 and 1 ply forms. The 3 ply above is quite a yellow, almost buttery cream, almos shades of nicotine staining.

Avalon Mother of pearl pickguard for a stratocaster

Ivory 1 Ply

And, for completeness sake - Ivory 1 ply. Strangely, never called Aged white - differs from the 3 ply version quite drastically, its much more a cream colour.A little softer, much less nicotine yellow.

Mint

Now, Mint is where things get really fun.

Mint was originally designed to mimic the "greening" of white celluloid plates as they age, but as they've become more popular, tastes have changed a little, so you see some variations within mint, so we differentiate between these variations.

At the bottom, you've got Mint "B" - the original Mint - its quite dark, and quite green. Any guitar you see online with a mint plate, is likely to have a mint B - its the most common of the mints.

Slap bang in the middle, you've got Mint "A" 3 ply- this is a slightly ligher then B, and is a half way house between parchement and Mint B for me - a little more subtle, a little less green.

And right at the tip, we've got 1 ply Mint "A" - slightly different to the 3 ply version, a little less green again.