How to Make a Custom Metal Guitar Pickguard!

Some people are perfectly content with a plastic scratchplate, and that's fine.
But for the rest of us rebels, we need something different. This is for you guys.
This is my first instructable, complete with a plethora of errors and incoherent rambling!
I hope you enjoy it!

As for the making of it, not all of us can own laser cutters and other fancy gadgets that our fellow . . . instructablers? use.
Everything you see was done using these three tools (and maybe some really rough sandpaper)
~Rotary tool
~Tin snips
~Metal nibbler

Neither the nibbler nor the snips are pneumatic, they're hand operated (such a manly device, eh?)

This was my first time working with metal, so if an idiot like myself can do it, so can you!

Step 1: Picking Out Your Preferred Piece of Metal and Cleaning It.

Although you can pick many different types of metal for this, I chose steel. In retrospect, that was very stupid, considering that I wanted copper, and steel is infinitely harder to cut. So I picked up a sheet of 22 gauge galvanized steel. I then cleaned it up with alcohol, 600 grit sandpaper, steel wool, and some elbow grease! So once you've got it looking vaguely respectable, move onto the next step.

Step 2: Tracing Your Old Pickguard

This is so simple, I don't know why I made a step for it. I just took a sharpie and traced it, remembering that I want to cut to the inside edge of the marker's line. If you want to keep your old pickguard, just wipe off any sharpie with some alcohol.

Step 3: Trimming Off Excess With Tin Snips

Now for this step, I just took my snips and made some cuts here and there, taking off as much as I could so the nibbler could do it's work easier.

Step 4: Drilling Out the Pup Slots and Holes

I drilled out the pickup holes, and used the nibbler to edge my way around, finishing with the metal cutting bit, and the burr remover. I then used my plain old, black and decker drill from the stone age to drill the holes.

Step 5: Cutting With a Nibbler (hard Part)

This will take some major time and elbow grease, and you'll probably develop CTS from the nibbler, so take some breaks. The nibbler works just the way it's name says, by "nibbling" small, 2mm sized pieces of metal. Get close to the edge when you're cutting, but leave a bit to grind off.

Step 6: Using Sandpaper and a Dremel to Even the Sides

I used extremely coarse sandpaper to remove many edges, and then I used two attachments on my dremel. The burr removing one (orange and conical) and a tungsten carbide metal cutting bit. You can infer what I do with either of them.

Notice my ultra high tech mounting technique for my dremel ;)

Step 7: Cutting a Bevel

This isn't really necessary, but it makes me feel more professional. Using the metal cutting bit, with my ultra high tech mounted rotary tool (see picture;) I can make a small bevel.

Step 8: Semi-finished.

At this point, you could just stop, put it on, and say "To hell with it"
You could "brush" it, (essentially just thousands of parallel scratches from sandpaper. . . you can find tutorials on here), or opt for my method, which was to electroplate it with copper. I won't go in depth on this, as there are much more knowledgeable people on here who can help you with this.

Step 9: My Finished Guard!

I personally like the look of tarnished copper, as opposed to the nearly pink-peachy color it has after it's polished. However, if you dig that, you could hit it with some clear lacquer and be done with it.
Anyways, here she is!
I would post a clip, but since it's almost purely aesthetic, I don't really see the point.

If you stayed with me this far, thanks!
Have a good one guys.

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28 Comments

kwj23452

8 years ago on Introduction

This has given me another idea to play with in my endless upgrades! Since I see so many lefties on here, anybody got good sources for left handed switches? I keep thinking I can just reverse wire the 4pole righty, but alas... no...

any lefty sources are awesome.

Thanks and a great post!

rgale

11 years ago on Introduction

Left handed musicians FTW

wkirby

11 years ago on Introduction

I'm wanting to make one myself, but I'm looking at using copper clad printed circuit board. Should be LOTS easier to cut, & still have that copper look.

zmohar

12 years ago on Introduction

Nicely done with the copper plating!

In fact, I am trying to do the same exact thing: copper plate a galvanized steel piece. I tried a tester piece that I put into a 2parts white vinegar/1part hydrogen peroxide solution with a 9 volt current. After a few hours I got a really nice copper plating on the steel, but it quickly flaked off.

What type of solution did you use? Also, what voltage/amp current did you use? How did you clean/treat the steel before you plated it?

Any tips you can spare would be greatly appreciated!!

mattc_43

12 years ago on Introduction

Do you need to earth the scratch plate? I was just wiring up my guitar with aluminium checker plate scratch plate and I don't know wether it'll shock me when im finished! Sorry if that sounds silly!

tvi

12 years ago on Introduction

hey this is probably a dumb question: where do you track down pieces of sheet metal like that? i'm doin a similar project makin some custom mounting rings for some filtertrons. any arrows in the right direction are appreciated.

LeviMan_2001

12 years ago on Introduction

You should take the ground lead from the electronics and wire it to the pick guard (the wire that attaches to the jack's sleevey part, Not the j shaped tip part). That way you have tooons of shielding from RF (buzz).