Does a pickguard affect resonance/tone

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

#44

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 10, 2017
Messages
49
Reaction score
2
Hey all, I'm new here and all but seen the discussion about the forum not being as active lately and figured I'd help add to some discussion.

I bought a vintage LS80 from here a few months ago (love it btw), and it is my first les paul style guitar. I originally had removed the pickguard, believing that I enjoyed the aesthetic of a les paul without it more than with it.

Fast forward a few months to last night and I randomly decided to put it back on. This was the first time really playing with the pickguard on and I immediately noticed/felt that the notes were ringing out differently, and in a positive way. It's almost as if the guitar is resonating better? It's hard to describe but it was a positive difference.

This was just some unplugged playing so I'm interested in seeing if I notice any difference in the sound when plugged in. I'm curious if you guys have any thoughts/experience with this type of thing?

Cheers
 
About your pickguard on/off question, sorry I have no idea.
I did remove the pickguard on my LSS, but just because I think a P90s equipped top look better without it.

Anyways :wink:, nice of you to give it a 'boost'. 8)
 
The pickguard itself doesn't affect the tone at all on a Les Paul.
What it does affect is the angle of your pick attack.

You're able to get your picking hand fingers down onto the guitar or gripped around the bridge pickup - this allows you to dig into the strings better than with the pickguard on - which kind of gets in the way.
 
Ya I'm not expecting a difference in tone when plugged in. After playing the guitar for a few months without the guard and now trying it with, there is a slight but noticeable difference in how the notes resonate/ring out acoustically though.

I'm open to it being placebo but I had no preconceived notion with regards to it having any affect beforehand. It was a simple random decision to screw it back on to see how it looked visually and this was just an immediate observation after playing a few notes.
 
I'd like it if the neck pickup rolled off better so I'm thinking about having a local luthier put in a 50's style wiring harness.

Other than that minor gripe it's been great so far, I love it.

I noticed you've sold a couple other guitars/parts. Have you made any cool additions recently?
 
Thats great to hear! Ive been cutting down my collection to just what i need. I had 5 Tokai ls models from that era and lots of parts so i've decided to move them on.
Heres one ive decided to keep, 1981 Tokai LS 200...

yfrv59K.jpg


All original parts except for a set of aged OX4's and a 50s harness with genuine sprague black beautys.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top