Need help on aging a pickguard

[CT Dude]

Hello all...I'm interested in knowing if anyone has had any success in attempting to age a white Telecaster pickguard to the smokey yellow?

I did a search here in the TDPRI and there's not much in the way of any techniques or suggestions as how to do it.

I have a project Telecaster that I'm considering refinishing in a black relic'd finish and I think an ivory/parchment/yellowed pickguard would look nice.

I've heard of placing the pickguard in coffee and I've heard of tinting it with lacquer from Guitar ReRanch but I haven't heard of what the outcome is with those techniques.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

CT Dude

[John Harrison]

...but, I had a similiar issue when I was unable to match anybody's "creme" or "aged white" pickguard material to the lacquered white binding on my guitar. Coffee and tea did nothing, even after a week of "marinating". I'd heard that tobacco juice worked, but I had no desire to go that route.
I ended up using brown Kiwi paste shoe polish. Three applications (apply and buff out, apply and buff out, apply and buff out) and it came out pretty darn close.

[JohnK24]

Started out as a standard MIM bright white tele guard...a lightly scuffed it with steel wool to give the surface some "grip" for the finish. The finish was two light wipings of Kiwi Brown Shoe Polish...apply with a cotton sock, let is sit for 10 tens, then wipe hard enough to remove the excess...you'll need to do this at least twice to get an even aging effect. Don't forget the beveled edges and pickup cut out. Now, here's the best part, if you get the polish on too heavy or just want to remove it and start again, regular bleach worked well to clean that kiwi right off.

Now, the finish, I used a can of Craft Store spray lacquer (a few buck at Wal Mart's craft dept)...spraying the coating from about 12 inches above, I applied a nice coat, let it dry for an hour, then a second coat. The finish product looked great, aged with a nice gloss...this gloss hides the roughen surface from the steel wool.

hth,

JK