I’d just spray paint it and finish with a few thin coats of a good clear coat lacquer. Let it dry hanging 12-24h between coats.
Something like Testors or Tamiya paint used for models should work. You probably want to very lightly sand the thing with finishing sandpaper first.
You could always buy a cheap pickguard on ebay or something and practice on it if you are nervous 
Yeah I was hoping the fella would rather have some money than no money. The price is the paint- they can mix up a minimum of 100ml for their gun and the price of that alone was 60…plus the plastic primer and lacquer.
He said that you could probably do around ten of the pickguards with that amount of paint though…it just didn’t make sense for one.
@howard yeah I’ve been thinking the same. I asked the fella about it and he went story mode into how it wouldn’t compare etc…which I believe ,but it also wouldn’t be a hundred quid!
There are options,just seemingly very few and far between,especially on the two humbucker side.
I had a good look at the pickguard when it was off and DIY vinyl wrap wouldn’t look great.
Oh well, white for now…I’ll spend the money on more lessons/courses instead
Yeah, for that much money you can get an artist to do a custom art pickguard for you… I think I’d do what howard is suggesting if it bugged me.
Well the white has magically stopped bugging me with how much I’ve been quoted so far!
There is a thread on here, where a guy got either a Stingray, If memmory serves me correctly, it was an SBMM Short Scale, and I beleive it was white with a white pick guard, but it could have been black, I am pretty sure it was white.
Anyway
The point is, that he wanted to spruce up the bass, didn’t think he could live with white on white, sooooooo
He investigated a process called Paint Pouring ( again, if memory serves me correctly, or IIRC) and he made a pick guard that was, pardon me sounding like a rich lady, but it was “to die for darling”.
This was mixture of black red and white, and it almost had the effect of a pick-guard that is PEARL, like my black pearl pick guard, but it was a multi color.
So this was a hand painted, (or pour painted) pickguard that had the effect of that PEARL, but it was multi color and looked great, and it really, really, really looked great on a white bass, but it would look great on a black bass, a grey base, almost anycolor bass, as long as you are smart with the pick guard color you start with and the colors you choose.
I will try to find this thread to link you to it, Heck, it might be further up this thread, but IDK.
I will just search for Paint Pouring and see what comes up.
Hang on, but don’t hold your breath til I return.
Here it is, isn’t this cool AF.
I would proudly put this on my White Stingray
Not exactly like pearl, like I remembered, but still, the drips and the color mixing, it is really freaking cool.
And the instruction video how to do it
That looks killer.
Whatever you do with paint, just throw on about four or five thin coats of clearcoat lacquer and it should be reasonably durable.
Now, if I did that, on one of my stingrays, I would get a replacement control cover, one of the plastic / acrylic ones and paint it the same as the pick guard.
Now wouldn’t that look cool on a Stingray. I think it would.
It might work really good for your bass @Stando if you get the right two to three colors going.
And, who knows, maybe start making a bunch of them and selling them on Reverb, I bet somebody could make a little hobby money, and have some fun at the same time doing something like that. I am fairly cerrtain if priced right, they would sell good.
You can get the plain white Sterling Pickguards for $6 on Ebay, granted they come from china, but I bet you could work a multi pick guard purchase out with them and get them for about $4 or $5 each, with free (month long) shipping, but if you did that, and factory in about $100 to $150 for paints and supplies (getting started, lets just round up to $150),
So an initial batch of 10 and material would run $200, and then you do the work and sell them for $25 (you would need to factor the reverb fees and tax and shipping, which would be free USPS priority envelope so that you actually received $25 for each one, put back in your bank account via transfer), and already off the bat, you would get $50 profit off the first run, which will get you 10 more pick guards, and the next 10 are all profit, so $250.
I have not shopped supplies yet, but I bet there would be a way to start out cheaper with supplies, so that you may make $100 the first run.
And with all the pickguards on there for $45, $50, and $65, cheaply made (i know, my brushed metal one was from the WD custom pick guards, and the Chinese Plack Pearl one I bought from Ebay, is better quality.
The edges beveled nicely, the holes drilled and chamfered and deburred, and it was packaged nicely.
The WD pickguard, for how much they charge, it was rough cut on a mill or whatever, it was drilled and barely chamfered, but not deburred and a mess in each hole, and the beveled edge is non existent.
They say there is a 45deg bevel standard, but you HAVE TO pay for a DELUXE one, like $5 (to get THE SAME FINISHED EDGE THAT THE Chinese PICK GUARD came with for free)
So being 100% honest, the Chinese pick-guards with awesome paint poured finishes would not only be nicer then the WD custom, but better as well.
Hmmmm… I got time on my hands. Anyone want to fund a project. LOL
I love the one @lee_editorial did in that other thread. Perfect colors for the white Stingray IMO.
I actually had that one in the back of my mind (from memory, not from revisiting the thread like I just did) when I was thinking to get this pick guard (from WD Pick guards). But I refused to pay $55 for it, and after getting the Diamond plate one (which I love, don’t get me wrong) I am glad I didn’t pay $55 for it. ( I got the diamond plate one for like $22, so I am happy)
But that one was the reason I was looking at this. For the color scheme.
And then even this one, for the color mostly, but for the grossness of it too.
But I think that painted one in the other thread wins hands down.
don’t need to, you do laminating resin as a last coat, also poured on.
then you do some trims with exact-o knife and some light sanding, and you are good to go.
That paint it not gonna chip at all.
It is an interesting process, looks very simple. just need to set up a proper work area, and it is not difficult, there is no need to be artistic or have any skills to do this, and it looks great and is totally unique one of a kind custom.
Nice video series. He has others that I plan to watch, I am sure goes over the set up and materials needed and all that. From what I gather, he has videos doing entire guitars, not just pick guards.
I will post back with video links if anything is worthy.
Yup that works. Getting that hard shell is the key.
Yes, I just cannot get used to round wound strings. Those are Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky Flatwounds, and they are pretty bright for flatwounds. EB claims that they “combine the smooth feel of flats with the growl and brightness of rounds.”
They sound great with the new pickup, clean and bright without being clanky (is that even a word?).
Of course, then I run it through an SVT amp sim and muddy it up again. 
But in a good way.
I am opposite. I just can’t get used to the feel of flats. I have the Ernie Ball Slinky Flats… and they are a bit brighter then other flats, but still not the round sound I desire, and not the rough sand paper under my calloused finger FEEL that I love.
I put them on one of my Stingrays, and I don’t play it much as the others, I just don’t like the feel of the strings, they are like “slippery” for lack of a better term, almost like my finger will slide off it, or it will shoot out from under my finger tip like a peeled grape, but I leave them on, so that if I pick it up enough, maybe I will get a feel for flats and play it more and see what all the fuss IS about.
I don’t have the Flats on the bass with the Aguilar pick up however, but I do have it on a MusicMan pick up, so not a bad pick up at all.
I have this weird thing where I find flats to be sticky feeling. Rounds are frictionless for me but flats seem grippy when moving my finger on them.
I guess it just depends on what you learned with. When I played bass the first time around (half a century ago) all basses had flat wound strings.
The first time I handled a bass with round wound strings was a year ago when I unpacked my new Squier PJ bass and exclaimed WTF? Within minutes I was online looking at flats.
When I got the Ray 4 I really wanted to like the round wound strings, and it was several days before I ordered the EB slinkys.
I’ve even toyed with the idea of putting LaBellas on the Ray 4.
FWIW I don’t like Ernie Ball rounds very much, D’Addario are much better IMO. If you want to give rounds one last shot it’s hard to beat D’Addario nickel rounds.
I had Super Slinkys on my 604 for a while and did not like them nearly as much.
totally agree.
funny enough, 20 years ago I only wanted Ernie Ball strings on my guitar, and then I decided to try a few different brands (including GHS, Dean Markley, Gibson, Fender …), and then I changed to D’Addario, and I never went back. now I use D’Addario (round nickel wounds) on my guitars and basses. the only exceptions are acoustic guitars (Elixir and Martin strings depending on the guitar).
in my opinion, D’Addario strings feel way smoother than Ernie Ball strings, and also D’Addario strings last much longer.
I’ve used D’Addario for a long time on various instruments. I remember putting them on my violin 25 years ago… They are good value for money. But strings are another thing that is subjective. Luckily, they have lots of different types of strings too.
Oh my that really does look great!
My best bet would be to hand the project over to my resident artist,my daughter and then if she enjoys doing it I could…wait this idea sounds suspiciously too close to child labour…but…if I get the pickguards from china,as per your idea, and if she does the work…can’t see anything wrong with this!
Funnily enough after I’ve given up yesterday, I still poked old google about and this time I put “uk” after the custom pickguards search and found a couple of pages with ok designs and prices.
I’m very surprised about yours from WD - they made it sounds sooo good on their site!
And they aren’t cheap!
Thanks for looking that up , I might just give it a bash and you never know, I might unlock some hidden artistic fold in my old noggin
