What is a pickguard really for?

[franksnbeans]

Really?  The name implies to guard your guitar from your pick, but has anyone really had a problem of wrecking your guitar with a pick?  Especially on les pauls.  They just look like a piece of plastic junk.

[bass sic]

That's why I took mine off.

[zachoff]

My pickguard has pick marks on it, but I think they add character too... Black/Tort puts off a different vibe than Black/Pearl.  That sort of thing.

[franksnbeans]

Now you got holes in your guitar from a piece of shitty plastic...super!

[liquidsmoke]

I've seen guitars without pickguards that had big areas of exposed wood from picks wearing through the paint. You'd have to be a pretty serious warrior to inflict such damage I would think though.

[moose23]

I've seen guitars without pickguards that had big areas of exposed wood from picks wearing through the paint. You'd have to be a pretty serious warrior to inflict such damage I would think though.

Yeah I've seen lots of guitars with pick marks on them but never about where the Les Paul pick guard goes.

[neighbor664]

It's mostly a place to store extra picks and guard them from pocket lint.

[eddiefive10]

Check out Willie Nelson's acoustic

[mutantcolors]

I think homeboy needs a pick guard above the strings eh?

[Mr. Foxen]

I've seen guitars without pickguards that had big areas of exposed wood from picks wearing through the paint. You'd have to be a pretty serious warrior to inflict such damage I would think though.

Yeah I've seen lots of guitars with pick marks on them but never about where the Les Paul pick guard goes.

Problem with playing another guys sig guitar, designed for that guys style.

[Baltar]

I liked having one on my old Paul.  It made a nice rest for my pinky when doing arpeggios. 

[Jake]

Although not always useful for everyone's playing style, aestetically, I love the lines that a pickguard adds to a guitar. They are a nice way to contrast not only the colors of the guitar body, but also help make the texture and grainlines of the wood really pop.

Here's some of my alltime fav pickguards:

[RAGER]

The first 2 ain't pickguards.  They're decorative electronics holders.

[Jake]

Oh. My bad.

[The Shocker]

How about this one?

[RacerX]

How about this one?

Nice, but it should be much larger. Big enough to cover all that gold shit.

[The Shocker]

Aw man, it looks better in person.

[dogfood]

How about this one?

Tastefully understated!

[franksnbeans]

Okay, shit that covers electronics and routed wood is necessary,  but a pickguard on Les Paul or a dot is retarded.  If you're picking that far as to wreck your guitar your wasting extra movement
a just playing sloppy.

[Lumpy]

How about this one?

Tastefully understated!

I loooove sparkle paintjobs (for other people, but not for me). And I love tortoise pickguards, I think they go with almost every color. But that looks kinda wrong. Would look nicer with a pearloid or MOTO (mother of toilet seat) or formaica style. I usually hate pearloid but in this case it may be called for. Look at DiPinto guitars for good examples of pearloid/sparkle matchups.

But if you say it looks nice in person, I believe you.

To answer the original question, it's all about accessorizing, girlfriend!

[SoupKitchen]

I think homeboy needs a pick guard above the strings eh?

I love the looks of that guitar, and a mirror-image pickguard above the strings would add to the symmetry.

[somedude]

Pickguards are more useful for strummers than pickers. The way we play guitar has changed a fair bit from the way they did in the 1950s.

[Ranbat]

^ This.  These guitars were designed for strummers, not shredders. Most guitars designed for modern players don't have pickguards.