UK Pearl White Specials

[k43rover]

...which will put the holes in some very odd places in the guards. Which would be a poor trade-off IMO.

I'd simply get a set of 330 guards made and drill the holes where they belong on a 330. Again, IMO.

...sadly this is the dilemma that those of us who purchased the guitar face Paul...we paid our money and we'll have to make our choice (neither of which is ideal)...

[jingle_jangle]

It's all good, Eddie! I'm refinishing mine in JG...

[k43rover]

It's all good, Eddie! I'm refinishing mine in JG...

...now that I would love to see I have to confess, in one of my Guinness induced moments of creativity, I was seriously considering sending this guitar off for 1 Fireglo respray + 1 body binding + 1 headstock routing for 12 string. In this case that math works out as 1 + 1 + 1 = 1993 = my perfect guitar!! . In the end, I was persuaded by other forum members that this was probably not the best idea, however it does still have a lingering appeal...

[fireglo67]

If you were to drill new holes for regular guards, would they be covered over if you decided to put the original guards back on?

[k43rover]

If you were to drill new holes for regular guards, would they be covered over if you decided to put the original guards back on?

Hi Rob, I checked that last week with a couple of standard 21 fret lower guards. On one lower guard it looked marginal whether the hole you would need to drill nearest the bottom of the guitar would be completely covered by the smaller factory gold guard if you wanted to return it to stock at some point afterwards. That, along with a natural reluctance to start drilling additional holes in a brand new guitar, led me to favour the option of making bespoke standard 330 sized guards but using the existing screw holes. If you look at the pictures of the gold and white guards I made and fitted (see posts earlier in this thread) I dont feel the screw positions look that unusual. I'd say most people wouldn't even realise they were marginally different screw positions compared to a standard 21 fret 330 pickguard. It's only something that would be readily apparant if you had the guitar side-by-side with a standard 21 fret 330.

[fireglo67]

Thanks Ed.

I'll stick with plan A........

[jdogric12]

(light bulb) oh there is a smiley for that
Did the pearlies get 325C58 guards?

[k43rover]

(light bulb) oh there is a smiley for that
Did the pearlies get 325C58 guards?

No. The 325C58 has only one guard. It's a bespoke item which replicates the size/colour/screwhole placement on Lennon's as it would have appeared when he bought it in Hamburg in 1960. The upper and lower guards on the White guitars are off-the-shelf model 660 guards (confirmed by Ben Hall in an earlier post). They did use the 325C58 truss rod cover which doesn't match the 660 guards (different shades of gold).

See attached a picture of my 325C58 for comparison.

[jdogric12]

325v59 then perhaps? Becuase what else would be smaller but still 21 fret?

[k43rover]

325v59 then perhaps? Becuase what else would be smaller but still 21 fret?

There is no mystery here. The guards they used are definitely from a 660...Ben Hall confirmed it. The truss rod cover is definitely from a 325C58...I unscrewed the trc's from my 325C58 and the white guitar and did a direct comparison one over the other - the dimensions and screw hole spacing were identical.

[sloop_john_b]

This is a 360/12C63 neck without the slots, SAME neck and body construction, apart from binding and F soundhole, that was done at the same time as Petty's guitars (which they were quite happy with btw). The headstock is not as large as it looks in that picture, I'll post some better snapshots of it.


We used what gold plastic we had, 660, as the pickup spacing did not work with any other pickguards we have.

[david/wales/u.k]

I might be a bit dense and I haven't read all of these posts ( haven't got all day and can't follow a lot of it ) but didn't everyone know what they were getting??
Or did people pay £2000 just to be surprised ( not happily in some cases )

[sloop_john_b]

I might be a bit dense and I haven't read all of these posts ( haven't got all day and can't follow a lot of it ) but didn't everyone know what they were getting??
Or did people pay £2000 just to be surprised ( not happily in some cases )

They started out as "White 330's", then there was talk of the spec changing to F-holes, and the first pic was posted on this post: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=403395&start=90#p751316

[jdogric12]

Oh yeah duh 325's wouldn't have that "lip" between the pickups.

[k43rover]

I might be a bit dense and I haven't read all of these posts ( haven't got all day and can't follow a lot of it ) but didn't everyone know what they were getting??
Or did people pay £2000 just to be surprised ( not happily in some cases )

Short answer is no, we didn't know exactly what we were getting. However, as I've made clear several times already (and I appreciate most casual observers are not going to want to go back and trawl through all the different threads on these guitars), I'm still absolutely delighted with this guitar. In fact I've just been playing it and it really is wonderful . I think most people who did buy the guitar feel the same (at least the ones I've been in touch with). However, there were some aspects of the final specification which I think some people may have struggled to come to terms with. Obviously there have also been a lot of posts here on the forum from people who did not buy the guitar but who have a view and have chosen to express it.

If the point you are making is about why those of us who bought the guitar decided to put a deposit down when we didnt know exactly how it was going to turn out, I can only speak for myself. I was very excited by the prospect of having a limited edition run of bespoke guitars for the UK (after 45 years since the last batch of original Rose Morris guitars came in) and because I love the brand and trusted that the factory would do a good job, I decided to go for it. Do I wish I had made a different decision? Absolutely not! Am I pleased with the final product? Absolutely I am. Do I have regrets? Non....je ne regrette rien!

Now having said all that, others will no doubt speak for themselves...