How do we make our unique pickguards??
Not just a random piece of a paper-backed veneer, glued to a sheet of plastic…..
But – a long process that involves handling each pickguard around a hundred times from start to finish – maybe why no-one else is making a similar product. To make a FULL timber pickguard, stable in all weather AND gigging conditions, we start with a base substrate that we build up from hardwood veneers, using marine-grade adhesives, bonded under extreme pressure.
This gives the required added acoustic qualities of our pickguards. Our blanks are bonded under extreme high pressure, so they ring when tapped – unlike plastic. Due to their multiple opposed-grain bonds, they will never split, unlike solid wood, one direction grained items.
Book-matching of the face veneer is used for our Figured and Quilted maple pickguards, while Birdseye maple and some wider Quilted maples are available in one-piece face veneer.
The veneered blank is then fine-sanded and either stained or left 'natural'. Multiple coats of sanding-sealer are applied, cured then leveled, before multiple finish coats of 2-pak-urethanes are applied.
After two to three weeks to cure, I level, cut and polish to a mirror-like surface. The reflective finish is difficult to show in the standard display photos on the product pages.
After routing, drilling etc, all ‘new’ edges are fully re-sealed. The outer shaped edges are chamfer-cut and also fully sealed, painted multiple coats.
Each pickguard is then photographed and catalogued with an individual SKU. The one you purchase is THE ONE that you recieve, a ‘one and only’ pickguard, unique to you and your guitar.
Every Gilroy Guitars pickguard is fully guaranteed against production faults by a full replacement policy for 12 months, not including general wear and tear.
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