Vintage Fenders

[Burns-bass]

7 hours ago, Hobbayne said:

I bought this 1978 Precision on here back in the autumn. I was 13 in 1978, watching Space 1999 and listening to You're The One That I Want which was constantly on the radio then. 

I wonder if that makes me vintage? 😅

 

I really like that. 

[Alanko]

The pickguard chat in this thread was enough to make me sign up. The red tortoiseshell pickguard on the Fender Hama Okamoto Precision Bass is pretty good. A cut above the standard dark maroon modern Fender tort or the various lurid tortoiseshell pickguards on eBay. This is mine:

 

 

The tort layer is thin, but is the right mix of red, darker and lighter shades. The white sub layers are more parchment than stark white as well. 

 

I am 99.9% sure these same pickguards are sold separately under the 'Boston' brand, part number PB-415-TI. I bought one of these pickguards from a Dutch seller and put it on my AM Pro-II P Bass:

 

 

It isn't a Spitfire or Lavaguard pickguard, but a few tweaks to the colours used puts them well ahead of other cheap pickguards.

[briansbrew]

Thats a decent looking guard for the price...

[Reggaebass]

45 minutes ago, Alanko said:

The pickguard chat in this thread was enough to make me sign up. The red tortoiseshell pickguard on the Fender Hama Okamoto Precision Bass is pretty good. A cut above the standard dark maroon modern Fender tort or the various lurid tortoiseshell pickguards on eBay. This is mine:

 

 

The tort layer is thin, but is the right mix of red, darker and lighter shades. The white sub layers are more parchment than stark white as well. 

 

I am 99.9% sure these same pickguards are sold separately under the 'Boston' brand, part number PB-415-TI. I bought one of these pickguards from a Dutch seller and put it on my AM Pro-II P Bass:

 

 

It isn't a Spitfire or Lavaguard pickguard, but a few tweaks to the colours used puts them well ahead of other cheap pickguards.

Welcome Alanko, that looks good on your P bass 

[Sparky Mark]

Avantguard fitted vs Fender Custom Shop on right hand side.

[Alanko]

27 minutes ago, briansbrew said:

Thats a decent looking guard for the price...

The downside was finding one! I ended up buying two. The first seller sent me the wrong model. Both sellers were tiny guitar shops in the Netherlands. Essentially one-man operations. One needed payment via bank transfer, which made my banking app a bit jittery.

 

I couldn't find a UK seller, but contemplated noising up these guys: https://themusicalliance.co.uk/en/product/158481/pickguard-puncher-bass-standard-4-ply-tortoise-intense?view=newproducts

[briansbrew]

Thats a poor effort for a CS ...

[Sparky Mark]

3 minutes ago, briansbrew said:

Thats a poor effort for a CS ...

Whilst I agree, it doesn't look so bad in situ.

[Reggaebass]

11 minutes ago, Sparky Mark said:

Avantguard fitted vs Fender Custom Shop on right hand side.

That’s a really great looking CS mark, the guard fitted looks better I think 

[Sparky Mark]

Just now, Reggaebass said:

That’s a really great looking CS mark, the guard fitted looks better I think 

Thank you, and I agree entirely. Avantguard are as close as modern tortoishell pickguards get to early 60s IMO. All modern Fender "vintage" tort is distinctly average unfortunately.

[Sparky Mark]

37 minutes ago, briansbrew said:

Thats a poor effort for a CS ...

Indeed, although I don't think the processes used by Avantguard and Spitfire are scalable to the numbers that would be needed by Fender CS. I cannot think of another reason why Fender wouldn't fit an admittedly expensive, but infinitely more accurate pickguard to its £4-5k+ instruments.

Edited 22 hours ago by Sparky Mark

[dodgnofski]

40 minutes ago, Sparky Mark said:

Avantguard fitted vs Fender Custom Shop on right hand side.

Plus one for the Avant Guard - closest I’ve seen to an original👍👍

[Mrbigstuff]

9 hours ago, Sparky Mark said:

Indeed, although I don't think the processes used by Avantguard and Spitfire are scalable to the numbers that would be needed by Fender CS. I cannot think of another reason why Fender wouldn't fit an admittedly expensive, but infinitely more accurate pickguard to its £4-5k+ instruments.

I’d guess because people buy them anyway

[Steve Browning]

20 hours ago, Alanko said:

The pickguard chat in this thread was enough to make me sign up. The red tortoiseshell pickguard on the Fender Hama Okamoto Precision Bass is pretty good. A cut above the standard dark maroon modern Fender tort or the various lurid tortoiseshell pickguards on eBay. This is mine:

 

 

The tort layer is thin, but is the right mix of red, darker and lighter shades. The white sub layers are more parchment than stark white as well. 

 

I am 99.9% sure these same pickguards are sold separately under the 'Boston' brand, part number PB-415-TI. I bought one of these pickguards from a Dutch seller and put it on my AM Pro-II P Bass:

 

 

It isn't a Spitfire or Lavaguard pickguard, but a few tweaks to the colours used puts them well ahead of other cheap pickguards.

 

Just looked and they're distributed in the UK by Rotosound. Happy days!! I sent my newly delivered 1983 '62 Precision reissue back to Fender because the scratchplate looked so awful. I was put off Spitfire by an extraordinary tale of woe on BC a few years ago.

Edited 3 hours ago by Steve Browning

[Owen]

I have a Spitfire. It was mind bendingly expensive, but it does set the bass off nicely. 

[Alanko]

28 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

 

Just looked and they're distributed in the UK by Rotosdound. Happy days!! I sent my newly delivered 1983 '62 Precision reissue back to Fender because the scratchplate looked so awful. I was put off Spitfire by an extraordinary tale of woe on BC a few years ago.

 The Spitfire chap seems barely in control of the process of making the tort, then passes off the results as something unique and interesting. If it has a giant unmixed yellow blob in the middle then he will come up with some marketing blurb and a cute name for it. The Avantguard offerings look better with a slightly wet, suspended animation look to the tort. It also looks like they over-buff the pickguard once completed, however, melting don't of the details.

[Steve Browning]

5 hours ago, Alanko said:

 The Spitfire chap seems barely in control of the process of making the tort, then passes off the results as something unique and interesting. If it has a giant unmixed yellow blob in the middle then he will come up with some marketing blurb and a cute name for it. The Avantguard offerings look better with a slightly wet, suspended animation look to the tort. It also looks like they over-buff the pickguard once completed, however, melting don't of the details.

That was the gist of it, and going on about the customer becoming his friend. Sounded really rather weird and slightly uncomfortable. 

[Sparky Mark]

6 hours ago, Alanko said:

The Avantguard offerings look better with a slightly wet, suspended animation look to the tort. It also looks like they over-buff the pickguard once completed, however, melting don't of the details.

Yes, the chamfered edges are quite rounded off, but still look good IMO.

[Alanko]

1 hour ago, Sparky Mark said:

Yes, the chamfered edges are quite rounded off, but still look good IMO.

Some vintage pickguards end up like that, with the bevel shrinking back. I guess the old tort material looks the way it does due to tinted, volatile plastics being partially mixed together and poured out into big sheets. This makes it all inherently unstable, hence all the shrinkage and fading going on.