Hosco SC-B3P-3 Stratocaster Pickguard with metal shielding, black 3-layers

Premium quality Pickguard from Japan. An aluminum shielding is glued to the bottom side.

The surface may appear dull or even scratched - no worries, everything is fine. The surface is protected by a transparent transport foil from the production, which you may not even notice. It's a temporary protection, remove it carefully after installing the pickguard.

The screw hole diameter is 3mm. Screws are not included in the package. For installing the pickguard to the guitar body, you will need 11 screws.

Depending on your taste, you can use screws with an oval head, as Fender does originally. We recommend using slightly thinner screws, for example, screws 2.4mmx12mm. The reason is that if you enlarge the holes in the guitar wooden body due to frequent disassembly, you can switch to slightly thicker screws, for example, our screws 2.7mmx12mm.

If you prefer a flat appearance without protruding heads, use screws with a flat head, for example, screws 2.4mmx13mm.

Additionally, you will need 6 screws for mounting pickups (which may be included with the pickups) and another 2 small screws for mounting the switch (which may also be included with it).

What should be the length of the screws for mounting the pickguard?

It is important that the screw thread goes around 10mm into the wood. The pickguard is 3mm thick, but the screw is recessed, so the pickguard reduces the length of the screw by about 1mm. This results in a minimum screw length of 11mm. We recommend using 12mm or 13mm long screws.

For your information, Fender guitars have screws with a length of 12.5mm (more precisely 1/2"), but Gibson uses shorter screws around 10mm (more precisely 3/8").

Should I pre-drill holes for screws into the guitar body?

According to us, definitely yes. We wrote a short article about it.

This question applies only to the production of a new guitar where the pickguard has never been installed... existing guitars, of course, already have holes.