pickgaurded strats,flame/quilted tops waste of wood?

[Thor Von Clemson]

I am wondering what you think of pickguarded strats that have either a flamed or quilted top. Are these common, or is it a waste of a beautiful top?

[Mr White]

I dunno cos sometimes it looks good with a pearloid pickguard but I think it would look better without...

James

[skorb]

agreed, I cannot bring myself to buy a figured top like that with a bigass strat pickguard covering 50% of the area.

[Shawn Lutz]

I think it stoooopid to cover beautiful wood with a huge-ass hunk of plastic

[MikeE]

I think it stoooopid to cover beautiful wood with a huge-ass hunk of plastic

+1

[dinkyjacksonman]

+2

[circle of the tyrants]

+3. They're a tone killer, too. There's nothing like routing pools in the body and mounting your pickups to a huge piece of plastic for sound improvement!

I have some painted gits w/pickguards and don't mind them, they're mostly mutts anyway, but anytime I have a choice, no guard. It's not like the protection they provide really helps them look that much better cosmetically anyway.

[fuel0707]

Beauty is in the eye (and the pocketbook) of the beholder. I've seen examples of guitars with nice maple tops and pickguards. Look at how many custom axes (Grosh, Suhr, etc.) have great tops and pickguards and still look great.

I have two guitars that have maple tops and solid finishes and I've always wondered what the figuring was like on them, so what do I know?

[Joe_Steeler]

It would be nice to see the whole top without a PG, but!!
It is like a nice looking girl in a bikini. The bikini covers some of the surface, you want to see the rest, you know the rest is good, but the bikini keeps the interest and the expectation.

[shreddermon]

For the most part, I think it's blasphemy. Not that I think it looks bad, per se. But if you're going to have a nice figured top, why cover most of it up? Looks so much better rear-loaded/no PG.

That said, I also really like the looks of a nicely figured swamp ash body & transparent finish with a typical strat/pickguard layout. That's damn classy in its own traditional right.

[jim777]

It usually doesn't look good, but it can; as on a flame top with a burst. On a single stained quilt a guard would look ridiculous.

[iced_earth]

Not blasphemy to me... I consider trying to fit graphics on pickguarded RRs more of a waste (some look OK, but many aren't worth it).

[speed monkey]

Depends....I loved this guitar, my one "let it go" regret.....



Steve E

[El_Kabong]

Cool! I never saw an Anderson Squier Bullet copy beore.

[speed monkey]

Cool! I never saw an Anderson Squier Bullet copy beore.

I would suggest looking harder over there in Japan, I'm sure their copying those too

Steve E