Premium Bound Archtop Scratchplates

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I make customised pickguards for any instrument, these completely hand made bound pickguards are the real deal. Just the way they used to be made. Real layers of binding are carefully attached resulting in a pickguard that looks great from every angle

Any outline, pickup configuration, electronics mounting holes, support brackets or mitre joints can be catered for

Bound pickguards are now crafted by my sister company Tiny Tone

Bound materials available:

 Bakelite  -  Ebony  -  Translucent Tortoiseshell  -  Acrylic 

Other binding patterns and colours are available too, please ask!

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See How They're Made

Making a Reproduction Bound Scratch Plate

This old one from an old Gibson ES355TD has started to degrade. The celluloid is slowly letting off gasses and starting to crack - it leaves a mist on the guitar's finish whenever the owner opens the case!

So let's start making the new one

I have made the replacement pickguard subtracting the thickness of the binding

I have made myself a special jig to help glue on the binding. The pickguard sits on a riser and the nails, when combined with wedges, supply inward pressure to hold the layers of binding on.

Now to put the binding layers in the right order

The small wedges i have made here supply pressure to the binding and make sure it sandwiches nicely and glues to the pickguard material

Here's the new one versus the old knackered one - got a long way to go still...

I have added the straight edge to the pickguard already - now I'm cutting the Mitre Joint using a very sharp chisel

Time to remove some of that excess binding... a Stanley blade that I have altered the blade edge on to be a scraper is a handy tool for sure

Here's the pickguard now all the excess binding has been removed from each side of the new floating pickguard. That was quite alot of work...!

Now I'm going to start bringing the new scratchplate to a high shine - first off sand with various grades of wet/dry paper.

The whole plate is flat sanded with 1200 grit paper and it's ready for the buffer

On to the buffer!

This is always the "magic" stage that really brings out the high lustre shine!

This is the real deal and made just how they were back in the day. For an authentic pickguard that wont deteriorate over time get in touch today!

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