Putting art on a statocaster pickgaurd

You won't like the texture, believe me

If I were you I'd draw the art and order a water slide decal of it. Then you spray a clear coat on it and it will be there forever, it won't be messy, etc.

>>937169
What about some kind of marker? Would this work on a pickguard under clear coat?

>>937172
Depending on the varnish you use, the base on it will actually act as a thinner for the marker as well so it will be smudged

>>937159
What kind of art? If complicated use waterslide or print on vinyl.

If you have skills and equipment, just stencil and spray paint.

>>937196
I was gonna have my girlfriend paint something on it, probably a floral pattern.

>>937203
It'll probably be all bumpy and shit and unpleasant to feel. But if you do decide to go down that route, sand pickguard, prime, hand paint with a good thin acrylic so it's not bumpy and lumpy, sand smooth-ish, spray thick matte clear coat. A gloss finish is a no go because of hand paint.

Or draw stuff in photoshop or illustrator, print it, and it'll look awesome.

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>>937159
Dunno if this can help you OP, but you could use plexiglass. I designed the pickguard for my 12 string and then proceded to cut it out from a plexiglass panel I had lying around. This way you can glue whatever you'd like to show under the pickguard (in my case, it was fabric, which I ended up using on the top of the pickguard too). Generally speaking, I had unpleasant experiences of direct drawing on plastics and such.

>>937435
Just gotta ask: Is that an active guitar that you added a battery cut-off switch to? I was considering doing that on my electric bass.

>>937707
The little switch is a selector for two piezos. Piezos and magnetic pickups are on separate circuits (they have separate jacks).

The piezo pickups' circuit is passive because I have an external tillman preamp that I use with a bunch of acoustic instruments. If you want to create it and put it in your bass it's not hard at all, you just have to have some experience with soldering and circuits. The preamp can be very tiny, depending on how you build it. You can even find kits on ebay with every component you'll need to make one preamp

http://www.till.com/articles/GuitarPreamp/

>>937159
Why not just buy a clear pick guard and put the artwork underneath so you protect the artwork also?

>>937707
Don't do it. It will pop every time you flip the switch. Just unplug your cable when you're done. Batteries are cheap and last around a year.

Luthier here...
In terms of actual work, not much. Take out some screws, remove all the electronics mounted in the pickguard, put them in the new pickguard, put the screws back. Done.

As for your art... That's up to you man. Markers would work well, but putting a clear coat on soft plastic is a bitch. Can't say I know a lot about how to best go about that part.

You COULD get a thin piece of wood, trace your old pick guard on it, cut it out to shape, coat that in primer, sand it. THen you can paint and clear coat that pretty nicely. IMO that's a better option. Airbrush could be nice on that.

>>938146
Clear coat has a tendency to bubble/bleed ink from markers. At least from what I've noticed using a spray clear coat on sharpie ink.kinda cool effect but it can cause some distortion.

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>>938146
I've tried that tracing the pick guard method before minus the painting/priming, and I would recommend OP try it. It made a fun and fairly easy project for me and the cost came out a little less than a stock pick guard. If you can't find a single piece of wood the right dimensions, you can glue two pieces together side by side