Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm just curious, we're the original white pickguards back painted like the truss rod covers or were they opaque like the current pickguards? If they were painted, when were they changed to opaque?

No, the white pickguards have always been opaque solid material (sign plastic/acrylic) since they were first introduced in 1962.

That's a good thing, IMO because otherwise there would be patches of the finish missing where it fused to the body paint. The factory used to use spacers on the gold pickguards to elevate them from the body slightly, to avoid that issue.

The TRC are backpainted white because that's the only way to do it and include the screenprinted Rickenbacker logo.

There is a period in the mid 00's where the white plastic is a different material but I can't remember the details other than I don't like them. I think I had a 2004 360/12 TUR with those different white guards. I put an Accent on it. It worked!

I vividly remember thinking that the pickguard on my old '77 4001 looked like "milky glass" when I first received it. Even though it had a beautiful semi-opaque quality to it, you still couldn't perceive the routed cavity beneath the controls.
By the time I inspected another new Rick bass in a store in the late 80's, the look of the pickguard wasn't as glassy.

Awesome, I appreciate it guys. I haven't found alot of solid information, but I have found a few good threads in this forum as far as how opaque it was in certain eras. I've seen the occasional back painted white pickguard but I know Pickguardian offers those so it was probably one of them.

That's a good thing, IMO because otherwise there would be patches of the finish missing where it fused to the body paint. The factory used to use spacers on the gold pickguards to elevate them from the body slightly, to avoid that issue.

The "vintage" way to prevent this problem for back-painted guards (according to Mark Arnquist) is simply to put small pieces of masking tape on the back of the guards where the screws will pass through, keeping the paint itself off of the finish in those spots. Out of curiosity, I pulled the guards off of my 370/12WB today, which have not been touched since 2006 when Mark reinstalled them after doing some other work on the guitar. No problems and no paint transfer or anything else. The paint I used on them when I originally made them was nothing fancy, just white appliance spray enamel from the hardware store.

teb wrote:

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That's a good thing, IMO because otherwise there would be patches of the finish missing where it fused to the body paint. The factory used to use spacers on the gold pickguards to elevate them from the body slightly, to avoid that issue.

The "vintage" way to prevent this problem for back-painted guards (according to Mark Arnquist) is simply to put small pieces of masking tape on the back of the guards where the screws will pass through, keeping the paint itself off of the finish in those spots. Out of curiosity, I pulled the guards off of my 370/12WB today, which have not been touched since 2006 when Mark reinstalled them after doing some other work on the guitar. No problems and no paint transfer or anything else. The paint I used on them when I originally made them was nothing fancy, just white appliance spray enamel from the hardware store.

That makes alot of sense, ive seen it on older pickguards and never out it together before.

collin wrote:No, the white pickguards have always been opaque solid material (sign plastic/acrylic) since they were first introduced in 1962.

That's a good thing, IMO because otherwise there would be patches of the finish missing where it fused to the body paint. The factory used to use spacers on the gold pickguards to elevate them from the body slightly, to avoid that issue.

The TRC are backpainted white because that's the only way to do it and include the screenprinted Rickenbacker logo.

The acrylic used for the white guards except for the brief period in the early 2000s, (I believe) is called "sign white", #7328. It's called that because it's specifically formulated for backlit signs, where the fluorescent bulb illuminates the sign from behind, causing the acrylic to produce a soft white glow.

The "other stuff" that RIC used, then stopped using, was 100% opaque white acrylic, which has several numbers that nobody here cares about. Hold a piece up to light and nothing passes through.

Any chance someone could post photos of the two types of white pickguard material (the normal "Sign White" stuff, and the 2000s opaque stuff)? I know, a deep dive into minute details! Thanks.

I could swear this one looks like the upper is standard and the lower is opaque!
http://www.rickresource.com/register/vi ... lebrity%3D

I don't know whether this is of any relevance, but my 2004 4003 definitely has the "sign white" stuff. Looks like I dodged a bullet there!

Thanks for pointing to that photo. They do look different, and the larger bottom pickguard looks almost "cheap" or fake in comparison.