Thumb-pickguard
 

What do you think of this?

I removed the ugly black pickguard from my Docherty and replaced it with a clear pickguard, I made the guard from a blank so I had a bit left over and I thought I would make a mini pickguard on the bass side... A Thumbpick-guard

http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/...ps916e846c.jpg

Works for me, although I don't think I've ever seen one before. I take it you hit that part of the guitar a lot?

I don't really understand the need for one but I guess it all depends on how you play.

I do hit it occasionally, I was a bit on the bench about it, I just made it for the heck of it, I might end up removing it.

If it protects the guitar top and you do, as you say, hit that area occasionally, I think you should just leave it in place.

And Dru, you may not have seen any pickguards over on the bass side of the strings, but I've seen a few. In fact, the used Guild jumbo I bought a couple of years ago had two full-sized clear pickguards, one on each side of the soundhole.

I've also seen an array of home-made tortoiseshell plastic pickguards of various shapes and sizes on that side, some of which have looked truly awful, but some of which looked surprisingly cool.

So it really just depends on the player's needs. I didn't need a bass side pickguard on my Guild, and am not fond of clear pickguards to begin with, so I removed both of them (and two full sheets of the material that had been stuck on the back, presumably to prevent belt buckle rash,) and put a solitary firestripe pickguard in the normal position.

That works just fine for me, but people's needs vary. So my vote is that Alex just leave his cool little custom bass side pickguard in place. It'll probably come in handy soon if not sooner....


Wade Hampton Miller