FV-1 - alternative pickguard

[Dazastar]

Can you add a different pick guard to the Pitbull Flying V (FV-1) I've seen a few loaded ones on eBay that seem to have the guitar lead jack on the pick guard and not on a separate mounting plate that goes on the rear point.

Like this one

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/White-3-...53.m1438.l2649

Or is it a completely different fit. If so, Where can you get matched pick guards?

Regards,

Dazza

[Simon Barden]

Hi

There are two main styles of Flying V pickguard. The original '50s style arrangement (like the PBG kit has) with 3-in-a-line controls and separate jack plate, and the later 60s version with the controls in a grouped triangular arrangement and jack integral to the pickguard. They are not interchangeable types.

But even within one generic style, there can be big variations depending where the guitar was made. I bought a cheap replacement pickguard for my 60's style Gibson Faded V, but found it was way out in all dimensions, so ended up sanding down and polishing the original one instead.

Having a look at the kit photos, the PBG V pickguard is a cross between the '50s and '60s styles, with the three controls in a line but the bridge post holes going through the pickguard and a much wider control area section.

So it's neither one nor the other, and finding a replacement will be very hard.

You may possibly get a 60s style guard to fit, but the chances are that it won't match the existing routing (so you'll need to do some rout enlargement) and you may have some existing routing holes showing, which will need filling in (so a solid colour would be needed to hide this). You'd also need to decide where to have the output jack. If you left it on the 'guard, you'd need to fill in the body rout for it. If you used the body jack rout, you'd need to use the 'guard jack hole for something else. You could use it for a rotary switch to select other pickup configurations (like split and parallel coils), or even add a 4th pot to make it a more LP like 2x tone and 2x volume configuration. I've swapped the bridge volume and the tone pot around on mine so that the bridge volume control is easier to get to.

With a 50's style pickguard, you may have a better overall fit, as the pickup selector switch is in the same place. But you could find that the pickup cut-out spacing is wrong, as is the single bridge post hole position. There are no kit picks of the flying V body routs, so I don't know if the '50s style 'guard would fully cover the control rout or not.

So without doing what could be a lot of work, it's really either a custom made pickguard, using the original as a template, or else sticking with the kit one. For a bolt-on neck kit, I'd just stick with the stock kit parts and see what you can make of it. If it was a set-neck kit, I'd be prepared to spend more getting it looking right.

[Dazastar]

Hi

There are two main styles of Flying V pickguard. The original '50s style arrangement (like the PBG kit has) with 3-in-a-line controls and separate jack plate, and the later 60s version with the controls in a grouped triangular arrangement and jack integral to the pickguard. They are not interchangeable types.

But even within one generic style, there can be big variations depending where the guitar was made. I bought a cheap replacement pickguard for my 60's style Gibson Faded V, but found it was way out in all dimensions, so ended up sanding down and polishing the original one instead.

Having a look at the kit photos, the PBG V pickguard is a cross between the '50s and '60s styles, with the three controls in a line but the bridge post holes going through the pickguard and a much wider control area section.

So it's neither one nor the other, and finding a replacement will be very hard.

You may possibly get a 60s style guard to fit, but the chances are that it won't match the existing routing (so you'll need to do some rout enlargement) and you may have some existing routing holes showing, which will need filling in (so a solid colour would be needed to hide this). You'd also need to decide where to have the output jack. If you left it on the 'guard, you'd need to fill in the body rout for it. If you used the body jack rout, you'd need to use the 'guard jack hole for something else. You could use it for a rotary switch to select other pickup configurations (like split and parallel coils), or even add a 4th pot to make it a more LP like 2x tone and 2x volume configuration. I've swapped the bridge volume and the tone pot around on mine so that the bridge volume control is easier to get to.

With a 50's style pickguard, you may have a better overall fit, as the pickup selector switch is in the same place. But you could find that the pickup cut-out spacing is wrong, as is the single bridge post hole position. There are no kit picks of the flying V body routs, so I don't know if the '50s style 'guard would fully cover the control rout or not.

So without doing what could be a lot of work, it's really either a custom made pickguard, using the original as a template, or else sticking with the kit one. For a bolt-on neck kit, I'd just stick with the stock kit parts and see what you can make of it. If it was a set-neck kit, I'd be prepared to spend more getting it looking right.

Many thanks for the helpful info