GFS tort?

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:30 am

Has anyone had experience with GFS Tort pickguards? Thinking of ordering a pickguard from guitarfetish for my Aria strat copy....Is it close to Fender MIM or more like Squier? I'm not expecting it to look vintage, but if it looks as bad as the one that came on my Squier P Bass, I might have to pass

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:39 am

I ordered a sheet of tort from GFS to make a pickguard and it was pretty crappy looking.
Not sure if their finished pickguards are made from the same material though.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:13 pm

I had a gfs tort guard, wasn't great at all really. It was pretty obviously a blown up print (there was pixelation), I've heard wdmusic have the best.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:12 pm

wd's red tort is good for a print. I've never seen their brown.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:31 pm

you have if you've seen rob's bronco...

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:27 am

bronco pickguard is from chandler (pickguard heaven)
http://pickguards.us/priceotherfenderand.html
http://pickguards.us/materialoptions.htm

cost 60 bucks back then. now they are 67.

EDIT: the one on the left if chandler pickguard. the one on the right is stock fender pickguard

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:39 am

Those look ace....

However the guitar I'm putting it on isn't worth much more than the pickguard costs, so I'm just thinking of something cheap...if the GFS one looks like ass are there any better options in the sub $20 range?

Also, I think I'm after red tort.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:10 am

A friend had the GFS tort and it was pretty gnarly... to the best of my memory it's like the stuff on the CV squier basses. I don't know if all of their tort is like that but it was a loaded strat guard from them.

It's probably this stuff their JB guards are cut in

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On occasion Mighty Mite tort can be good, and it's definitely cheap, but it's hard to know what material you're getting as there are a lot of different pics online... none of them that I've seen have looked ^^that weird though.

The standard tort guard model is MM5303 and they're generally around $10-$15 bucks.

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:35 pm

I got a GFS tort Strat Trem cover for my Vista and it is awful..... If it was not on the back of the guitar I would not have even put it on....

but like u said...its a cheap build so ur call

61fury · Post by **61fury** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:20 pm

I had a brown one, it looked like a cheap photo of tort. Looked good from far away though.

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:52 pm

Does anyone still make real tort? It seems that it's all just pics of tort now.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:46 am

speedfish wrote:Does anyone still make real tort? It seems that it's all just pics of tort now.

That'd be illegal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoiseshell_material

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:04 pm

BacchusPaul wrote:
speedfish wrote:Does anyone still make real tort? It seems that it's all just pics of tort now.
That'd be illegal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoiseshell_material

No. No. No. I am referring to simulants not actual tortoiseshell.

The cheaper version looks like a flat picture with a piece of clear plastic over it and the real version is a thick lacquer type material that looks like solidified fire swirled around like water in a solidified form. You can see the colors have depth from the top to bottom and are thick like whispy smoke frozen. I hope this explanation helps. The cheap one is just a picture of the real stuff and is as flat as a piece of paper.

Thanks

Mo Law-ka · Post by **Mo Law-ka** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:08 pm

How does this look?

BillClay · Post by **BillClay** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:39 am

the gfs looks the same as the shit they use on cv squiers and a bunch of other cheap shit. Its not the fucking end of the world, but the minute you get closer you get to them the shittier they look. I bought some to use on cheapo guitars but can't bring myself to use it on anything of any real value.

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:36 pm

Mo Rawka wrote:How does this look?

That looks fucking great for acoustics, now we just need the equivalent 3ply for electrics. So close. So fucking close brother.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:55 am

speedfish wrote:
Mo Rawka wrote:How does this look?
That looks fucking great for acoustics, now we just need the equivalent 3ply for electrics. So close. So fucking close brother.

Yeah, those are really, really flimsy thin (almost like wrapping cellophane but with a bit of molding texture that needs to be carefully removed on the back without causing visible scratches) and only supplied in small sheets.

I use a slightly thicker adhesive-backed acoustic material I found on GPR to simulate '50s 1-ply LP Junior pickguards, by sticking two bits of it back-to-back to thicken it up and make the tort pattern darker/more complex. The sheet isn't big enough to do a Strat guard and the pickguard does come out really thin/flexible, but it's at least passable for smaller 1-ply tort applications. Because the material is slightly see-through, the laminating of two layers makes it look way better than it did as a single layer.
I wouldn't trust it to have stuff suspended from it Fender-style or for an elevated pickguard or anything like that though... it's still too thin.

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