OT: Aging white Pickguards

[phillip]

Does anyone know of a technique for aging new white pickguards to have that yellowed look of a 20 or 30 year old pickguard?  

TIA

Phillip

[computerjones]

well used to be that was done with a lighter, but not very precise or good IMHO.

[Peter Snowberg]

If you want "authentic" yellowing, you could use a UV-B or better, a UV-C germicidal lamp to slightly decompose it. UV-A (black light) lamps won't do it and the B & C types are VERY dangerous to the eyes. Anything short of that (besides using fire ) will just be a superficial treatment.

Germicidal lamps can be found at better lighting supply stores, but they are special lamps and you will need the correct ballast to run most of them.

I used to have a small EPROM eraser that used a small incandescent UV-C lamp that was ballasted by a big film capacitor. Sorry, I don't have any more info.

-Peter

[javacody]

sunlight and lots of it. You could try staining with tea or coffee, but I've heard that most pickguards won't take the stain worth a darn.

[bwanasonic]

Most pickguard suppliers carry and *aged* looking white pickguard. I can't say I've had the best of luck getting an aftermarket pickguard to fit my strat just right tho. And they aren't cheap.

Good Luck
Kerry M

[Nasse]

I remeber a famous gtrmaker told he used secret mix of tea, coffee and tobacco, with UV radiation, and freezer treatment for body

[Gus]

Some plastic will not age.  The easy way is to hang the parts in the sun for a few weeks.

[Luke]

I remeber years ago in a guitar magazine someone saying that they aged the plastic on their guitar using cigarette smoke. I can barely afford smokes for me, let alone my guitar though

[Johan]

if you can get some, you can try amoniac....it used to be that many cleaning agents , like AJAX, contained amoniac but becouse of concern of health and problems with discoloring plastics (!) they usualy dont any more...sigarrette smoke contains traces of amoniac....

Johan

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

It all depends what the material is, the 'classic' yellowing is of celluloid base material. I'd experiment with samples of a pickguard first. Xylene with picric acid dissolved in it MIGHT work

[Ammscray]

Coffee and tea won't do it...I've found there's only one way that works better than anything else I've tried...and this is how the guys do it that charge alot o dough for their guards...

 lockwood anilyne dye...get the brown or amber types and you can mix them to get any type of look you want, from aged white to aged mint green! You need to de-gloss the guard first for best results...you can now get lockwood anilyne die in several places online after not being able to get it (easily) for awhile...http://www.wdlockwood.com/main.html

[Peter Snowberg]

Watch out about using analine dyes.... some of them are TOXIC AS ALL HELL! :shock:

I used to use them to dye oil for doing liquid projections and without a doubt, they will stain ANYTHING except glass. I have projectors that still have analine stains on them from the late 1960s. It's even hard to get the residue off glass once dried.

They are carcinogenic and OSHA exposure limits are 2 Parts Per Million for some of them!

Nasty stuff, but they will stain.

Please be careful!

-Peter

[Davefx]

Smokin a lot of cigs will do it, Phillip...  :lol:    :roll:    Sorry, I had to...