Hosco TC-P3P Telecaster Pickguard, white pearloid 4-layers

Component of premium quality from Japan.

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 temporary protection, remove it carefully after installing the pickguard.

The hole diameter for screws is 3mm. Screws are not included. For the installation of the pickguard to the guitar body, you will need 8 screws.

Depending on your preference, you can use screws with an oval head, as it is original with Fender. We recommend slightly thinner screws, for example, screws 2.4mmx12mm. The reason is that if you wear 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.

What should be the length of screws for pickguard installation?

It's important that the screw thread goes about 10mm into the wood. The pickguard is 3mm thick, but the screw is recessed, so the pickguard will reduce the length of the screw by about 1mm. From this, the minimum length of the screw is 11mm. We recommend using 12mm or 13mm long screws.

For your information, Fender guitars usually 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.