Pickguard Colors

[Twang Gang]

I know I'm old and maybe old fashioned too, but does it seem like Gibson has been putting some rather strange color pickguards on some of the guitars lately? Two examples come to mind from this forum recently. EllenGtrGrl recently bought an ES137 that is a striking blue burst, she posted a photo of it and it has a black pickguard. Honestly I don't know what color I would match with the blue, but black just doesn't seem to go with it. Then Tman got a beautiful ES335 in a natural finish - fantastic looking guitar. They put a sort of blueish grey pickguard on it? It seems to me that one just cries out for something brown like a tourtise shell. Don't get me wrong - I love both of those guitars and their finishes are just fantastic but not so sure about the guards. Easily changed I suppose, but when you shell out top dollar for a Gibson, just seem like a little more thought should go into that detail.

 

Or is it just me?

[bobouz]

Re the bluish grey pickguard you're referring to on the 335,

I'm guessing that's just a protective cover.

If you go to Sweetwater & look at a closeup photo,

many of their new 335s have this, and it's clearly removable.

Every one of them will have the standard black pickguard.

 

As for the blue ES-135 w/black pickguard,

it's all a matter of personal preference.

I have a Beale St Blue ES-330L, & visually

can't imagine it with anything but a black guard.

 

On the other hand, I also have a '90 Tennessean

with a silver pickguard & TRC, and love the look.

Gibson changed it to black, I believe the following year.

[Kaiser Bill]

For a while I was making my own pickguards out of floor tiles from Lowe's. For a dollar each I couldn't go wrong. I'd change them about every 6 weeks. Then it got old, and I went back to the originals. I still have quite a few in a drawer in case the urge strikes again.