Telecasters and Stratocasters Aging Process: Pickguards

Pickguards age in numerous ways. White Fender Strat and Tele pickguards can turn into a yellowish-amber color or a nice light brown creme kind of color as shown here on these Strats and Teles

The brownish creme color on the pickguard of this 1965 Fender Strat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The slight discoloration of the white pickguard on this 1957 Fender Telecaster

 Black Tele pickguards age in a different way. The pickguard shows its age with pick scratches, a little ware, and a little discoloration of a dark grey from the ware.

1952 Fender Telecaster black pickguard aged

What you're probably wondering is how do i age a brand new pickguard on my Tele or Strat. Here are your options, play that mother everyday of your life in gigs and everything till it looks like that, or wait years with playing it a lot. Well you can do that, but you don't have the patience or the time to do that. Believe me Neither would I. The steps that I'm going to give to you have been used plenty of times by numerous people. Some other methods i will give are what not to do to age your Fender Tele or Strat pickguard. These methods are for aging white pickguards. There are many methods to age white pickguards. I've heard of people using brown shoe polish, rubbing coffee grounds on the pickguard, soaking the pickguard in old cold coffee for a few days. Some people also use tea. I personally like the old coffee method. I will teach you the method by following these steps:

• Take off your white pickguard or use a newly purchased pickguard (optional, you don't need to buy a new pickguard)
• Get a plastic tub or bin, just big enough to fit the pickguard
• Make a pot of coffee and wait till it gets cold.
• Pour the cold coffee into the pin and then place the pickgaurd desired to age
• Wait 2 days (if you want to seal the bin you can just so its a little cleaner and nothing spills if the bin is tipped over)
• Lastly you wanna take out the pickguard dry it off and inspect it. Then put it back on your guitar.

The coffee method gives it a nice light brown color found on a lot of 50's and 60's Strats and Teles. The reason why the plastic turns brown is because of the pores in the plastic. Yes, plastic has pores, these pores allow coffee to soak in the plastic over time, thus giving it the light brown look. The shoe polish and tea method involves the same science principles of having it be soaked in the plastic. The plastic can come out to be brown or yellow depending on the color of polish you use.

Aging a black pickgaurd is very different. There is no soaking of anything in everything. Since it's black there is no way to make it yellow-amber or light brown.  People use scuffing pads and razors to age black pickguards. These steps are completely different than aging a white pickguard:

• Take off your black pickguard or use a newly purchased pickguard (optional, you don't need to buy a new pickguard)
• Get really fine sand paper, scuffing pads, or steel wool.
• Scuff off the shine of the plastic.
• For added effect use the razor blade and and light and thin lines around the area where you would have your pick. (this gives the effect of pick scratches
• For added effect use the razor blade again to scratch the pickgaurd screw holes to make a fine hair thin crack 
• dust off your pickguard and place it back in your guitar.

**Note: this black pickguard aging process is found in Telecasters, not Strats**

These are the best methods for aging your Strat or Tele pickguards.

Good luck.