Guitar Makeover Poll

Choose your favorite mockup

  • The original look

    Votes: 6 15.8%
  • Mockup #1

    Votes: 3 7.9%
  • Mockup #2

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • Mockup #3

    Votes: 8 21.1%
  • Mockup #4

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • Mockup #5

    Votes: 11 28.9%
  • Mockup #6

    Votes: 2 5.3%
  • Mockup #7

    Votes: 6 15.8%

  • Total voters
    38
  • Poll closed .

Vaughn McMillan

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
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Location
ABQ NM
OK folks, I'm looking for opinions. I've doing a makeover on a Mexican Fender Stratocaster. It's a black body, and it came with a white pickguard and white knobs and pickup covers.

I picked up some black/silver knobs, black pickup covers, and three different colors of pickguards. I did seven quick mockups and am still a bit undecided on which combo to go with. (Sticking with the original look is also a possibility.) Scroll through the pics and vote for your favorite. No guarantee I'll go with the majority voice on this (I'll be polling on other sites, too), but I'm still interested in other peoples' opinions. Also, nothing says I can't switch things around later. It takes all of about 5 minutes to swap out the plastic on one of these guitars.

Here's the original...white pickguard/white knobs and pickup covers:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2001%20-%20800.jpg



Here's Mockup #1...black/black:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2002%20-%20800.jpg



Here's Mockup #2...black/white:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2003%20-%20800.jpg



Here's Mockup #3...purple pearl/black:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2004%20-%20800.jpg



Here's Mockup #4...purple pearl/white:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2005%20-%20800.jpg



Here's Mockup #5...blue pearl/black:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2006%20-%20800.jpg



Here's Mockup #6...blue pearl/white:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2007%20-%20800.jpg



And lastly, Mockup #7...white/black:

Black%20Strat%20Mockup%20%2008%20-%20800.jpg
 
I'd would be more creative and go for black knobs and pickups, but use some sort of burl veneer, or higly figured spalted or curly maple for the pickguard, after all this is a ww forum isn't it? :)
 
I voted original, but I could go with 7 just as easily. Sorry, I'm a traditionalist and all my memories from the 60's and playing/hanging out with others pulls me to the "stratocaster" look of the day.
 
went with no. 7 but was torn at a original look but i dont like white knobs and no 7 has a distinguished look about it and i know you need to help out your image some in that department:)
 
This has been an interesting experiment in personal preferences. I'll try to address some of the points and suggestions that have been brought up.

I'd love to have a walnut Strat, but if I build one, it won't have a pickguard at all. Why hide all that chocolatey goodness? :) And I suspect a wooden pickguard on a black guitar wouldn't look as good in person as it sounds on paper. Plus, at about 1/8" thickness, I'm not sure it'd hold up all that well.

When I ordered the pickguards (on eBay, dirt cheap), I thought I'd like the purple one more than I do. In person, it just makes the guitar look kind of cheap in my eyes. Same things with the blue pickguard. They just don't work (for me) on a black guitar.) Either one would look much better on a white guitar, in my opinion.

Which leaves me with the black or white pickguards. Rob's suggestion that a rocker shouldn't have a conservative-looking guitar might hold more water if I was 20 years old playing in a '80s hair band. But I'm not...I'm in my 50s playing relatively soft electric guitar in an acoustic band. :D So a conservative look isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Bottom line is that it takes about 5 minutes to swap out the plastic on a Strat when changing strings, so I'll likely switch things around from time to time just for fun. But for now, I'm going with the combination that got absolutely zero votes: black pickguard with white pickups and knobs. If it's good enough for this guy (one of my guitar heroes), it's good enough for me. ;) (Note his rhythm guitarist is playing a black Strat in the white/white combo mine originally came with.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Ht6WIhhmU

Thanks for voting, all! :wave:
 
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