Pickguard ON or OFF? (AGAIN!!!)

In my search, I turned up countless old threads about pickguards being on or off a Les Paul.

Still, I decided to start a new one.
Why?

I couldn’t decide which one to bump up to 2025 - and I could add a poll for fun.

So, here we go!

I pulled the pickguards off of every Les Paul I ever owned, until I bought a Black Beauty reissue.
It just looked better with it on there.

When I got my M2M Les Paul two years ago, it was drilled and had the guard mounted on it.
Seriously? I was surprised.

You know what?
It actually looked pretty good.

Some of my Les Pauls will never get a pickguard. In fact, a couple of them were never even drilled.

I decided to get aged pickguards from Dan at MojoAxe, and put them on my ‘03 68 RI Custom, and my ‘22 Standard 60s.

Especially on the Custom, they weren’t aged enough. The binding is yellow as hell on that guitar.
I hate fake yellow.

As far as the physicality, if the guard interferes with my playing?
It does not.
Not like it used to, anyway.
It’s strictly a visual thing for me now.

Depends on several factors, varying from guitar to guitar.

Bonnie didn’t seem to care either way.









I dunno …
I’m not loving either one of them.

EDIT: I’ll sell both of these guards to anyone who wants them.

Im 2 on 1 off for current lp’s.

What would Jimmy Page do? There's your answer. Pickguard always on.

I’m almost ashamed to admit that after all these years, I don’t really have a good reason either way.
It’s pretty much cosmetic.

You know -
A decision any 3 year-old can make?

Off, as Skydog intended

I would think functionally on this question. If you are big on strumming heavy duty, keep the pick guard, as it is intended to protect the lower body from aggressive pick strokes. But if you pick softly as some do, you don’t need to protect the lower body, and can decide only on appearance.

I needs a pickguard...looks incomplete without one.

I need a pick guard because I put my fingers on there sometimes

took the pickguard off my ebony R0, which reminds me I gotta clean that baby up.

I do tend to anchor my pinky on the guard, so it serves another purpose as well as protecting the top.

However, visually, they just look uncomfortably naked without the guard.

So, for me, on, always - and with very very few exceptions, they also need to be cream. Black belongs on very few.

strayedstrater said:

Off, as Skydog intended
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I see your Duane, and raise you a Dickey:


(To be fair, many younger pics of Dickey show him playing sans pickguard. Looks like he got wiser when he aged )

Off. The answer is always off.
Take it all off. To me a Les Paul looks dumb with a guard.
To me it's like lets add this one piece of bling that ruins the whole look. I know sacrilege.
Why hide all that pretty wood?

Most importantly, they get in my way. My fingers tend to hit them and it throws me off.

The beauty off all this back and forth is.... we will never have consensus, because we're all different.

ON ... and with a gratuitous pic to boot:

My personal rule is if you can see the woodgrain- pickguard off, to see the woodgrain, because I like seeing it.
If you can’t- pickguard on, because I have seen Les Pauls with a solid finish with the finish scratched off, and don’t like the way that looks.

There can be exceptions, and if you choose to do it opposite of me, cool.
It’s your guitar.

And Specials and Juniors are in their own category.

My personal preference....

I hate extra holes in guitars....anywhere.

If you had a pick-guard on and then take it off, no matter what its fvkin ugly because of the extra holes.....no matter what you do the extra holes suck to look at.....extra holes on guitars triggers me...big time...

I'm a finish guy by trade...

In my brain extra holes and jury rigged shit doesn't cut it....


Also....

2 and 3 ply pick-guards are fvking butt ugly so its a lose lose whether its on or off......

I fvkin hate 2ply anything ...seriously eww

So I will either suck it up and buy a guitar with no pick-guard ever installed... or ...pull that gay ass 2 ply POS off my guitar and replace it with a nice single ply pick-guard.....

And as a bonus opinion.....and only my opinion....I just can't do the flat mount multi screw pick-guards on the Gibson LP Specials.
They are the ugliest design I've ever seen.....100% deal breaker...

I will never own one of those fvkers.....just passed on an incredible deal on a used Special because of the pick-guard.

Its a bummer because a nice Mahogany Flat slab guitar is where its at, and Gibson scarred them for life....

See your Dickey, and raise you a Haynes.

Love his signature Les Paul when I tried it the other day. Wish I could afford it.

Also, I think it depends on the guitar. I like the guard on mostly but for a few, like the cherry red Haynes model above and a few others where it's a considered omission, I really like it. Don't like the guard off on his burst though! Very un-Jimmy.

Obviously off for the slash tones