Let me start by digressing:
I don't know about you, but I love the look of old pickguards. There's just something about those really old style plastics, be it bakelite or cellulose nitrate, that is very appealing to me. I think it may be a sense of nostalgia...depending on how old you are and from which part of the world you come from, you may remember the old bakelite light switches and celluloid combs etc that you just don't see around much anymore. These old plastics age gracefully IMO. Modern plastics are so tough and durable that they no longer age in the same way and without the same patina.
Of course the new guards are made from totally different materials so it is unreasonable to think that it should look and more importantly, age, like the older ones. Unfortunately celluloid guards go for a LOT of money these days (at least mint green ones do). I don’t know about you but I would not feel good paying hundreds for a bit of plastic. If that’s how you roll, then more power to you.
For the rest of us we will have to soldier on with the PVC guards. In this post I will compare some of the guards that I have in my possession against the replacement Mint Green Pickguard from Allparts. I do not have an original or reproduction celluloid mint green guard to compare it to so that will not be one of the comparison points.
Appearance
My main issue with the appearance of this product is its colour. The darkness of the green is a tad too intense. In fairness, having not seen an original 1960s celluloid pickguard, Allparts could have been going for the colour of an aged original 60s pickguard.
In fact without knowing how a given image's white balance has been corrected for lighting, there's no way of telling the 'real' colour of original pickguards just by looking up images online. I do know that the images of original pickguards that I've seen show the green to be quite a lot darker than Fender's new '62 pickguard. I doubt this has to do with image white balance alone - aging (stains, UV, etc.) is almost certainly a factor.
Lashing Guitars has an excellent piece on celluloid nitrate pickguards and how theirs compare with the originals. Most may not have the means to purchase a lashing guard, but this article gives some excellent insight into those old pickguards and their characteristics:
As alluded to earlier, I prefer my mint green pickguards to be a little more subtle. I’ve provided photos of the Allparts mint green pickguard next to a Fender 11-hole standard mint green guard and 1985 Fender Japan guard. I’ve included the photos with X-Rite’s ColorChecker passport so if you have that system and a calibrated monitor you can get an accurate representation of the colour of all items.
Pictured (L to R): 1985 MIJ ST72 Pickguard, Fender Standard Mint Green, AllParts Mint Green
Fit
There's a good chance you don't know this (I most certainly didn't) - not all pickguards are the same shape! Of course there are the differences in screwhole quantities and locations, but further than that if you actually line 2 pickguards up back to front they may not be identical copies of each other. I was under the impression that they were all cut from the same template but I guess I was wrong.
At first this doesn't seem to be a huge issue. The differences are quite small and almost imperceptible unless you know what to look for. However I can imagine a scenario where someone wants a replacement pickguard for his old strat, buys a part that doesn’t QUITE cover the same real estate that the old one used to and gets annoyed because you can see the outline of the old pickguard under the new one.
The differences I’ve noticed are:
Lower horn: Skinnier and sharper on the Allparts guard
Area above middle/neck pickguard: Slightly less coverage than Fender
Things to note:
The “notch” for the trussrod was put there by me using a file and some abrasives. That is not usually there so don’t fault Allparts if you don’t like the look of it
These are bevelled pickguards, so the difference in size when comparing one to the other (photo 3) may not be so apparent.
Photo 1: Lower horns. Left is Allparts, Right is Fender
Photo 2: Upper area. Left is Allparts, Right is Fender
Photo 3: Upper area. On top is Allparts, below it is Fender
Conclusion
I was not too impressed with the Allparts Mint Green pickguard. In fact, after purchasing it and modifying it somewhat (took the shine off, put a notch in, and made the bevel wider) I decided that I did not want to go ahead with installing it.
As always I encourage anyone reading to go through the facts and make your own decision. Allparts do not make crappy products, and this mint green guard could be the one that suits you. Hopefully the photos and links provided along with the other readily available information online will be enough to make an informed decision on purchasing.