Ageing pickguards

Gagaryn

Thought I'd share a technique I used to make a modern shiny plastic 3 ply guard look a better fit on a slightly fooked up guitar. I started with a standard 3 ply mint green guard from Guitars Electric because pre aged pickguards are too expensive!

• Rough up the surface to get rid of the shine - I used micro mesh (wet) but I'm sure wire wool would work,
• rub in brown furniture wax - I used Antiquax,
• Then rub it off again - I wet sanded with micro mesh again, remove more from the parts you want lighter,
• You're done! The wax actually stains the plastic so doesn't rub off. 
• I gave it a light buff with finer micro mesh to get rid of any obvious scratch marks - leaves a dull surface that looks like it has always been that way.

Behold! Clicking the link should open a larger image - I think it looks pretty good.

WezV

Yeah, that pretty much the same as my method for guards.

never had much luck with the coffee/tea soaks, and I hate oversprayed guards

CasperCaster

@Gagaryn that's very interesting and timely as I am currently trying to tint/age a pickguard. I have tried tea/coffee/cola to no effect, and also shoe polish, again no effect. Did you need to leave the furniture wax on the surface for a while to allow it to stain the plastic, or was the effect immediate? I was about to try experimenting with diluted brown wood stains, but this looks a lot easier so I'll give this a try first! 

Gagaryn

CasperCaster said:

@Gagaryn that's very interesting and timely as I am currently trying to tint/age a pickguard. I have tried tea/coffee/cola to no effect, and also shoe polish, again no effect. Did you need to leave the furniture wax on the surface for a while to allow it to stain the plastic, or was the effect immediate? I was about to try experimenting with diluted brown wood stains, but this looks a lot easier so I'll give this a try first! 

Funnily enough I had been planning on getting wood stains to use but had the wax already so gave it a try first and it worked. I didn't leave it on for any length of time - just a couple of minutes. I'd suggest you have more control and less risk of a patchy result if you don't leave it for long and repeat the process if you want it darker. I was trying to avoid an overtly "relic" look so buffed off almost all the stain.