4.52am Issue: 003 9th October 2016

year it went from a dark burgundy to a
bright red. Then after the next year, it
turned completely faded orange. It's quite
amazing and this has helped me to fine
tune my colours to the exact hues for the
most authentic accuracy.
As Spitfire Pickguards has progressed, we
have had many requests and demand for
new items over the years. We have also
introduced our line of age white or vintage
mint pickguards. We have yet to find an
authentic vintage mint material produced,
so we have been forced to come up with a
process to completely hand make our own
mint pickguards to authentic perfection.
Once again, “If it doesn't exist, create it.”
We also make Spitfire Tortoiseshell key
chains. This is a great way to take a
decorative piece of your Spitfire pickguard
with you no matter where you go. Most of
the time your key chain will be made
directly from your personal material that
you ordered, perfectly matching your
pickguard.”
What is the most popular style/shape?
“Our most popular style and shape would
definitely be the Fender Jazzmaster. I
started this business obsessed with the
Fender Jaguar hoping to be making and
selling Jaguar pickguards most of the time,
but found the Jaguar pickguards were not
high in demand.
Everyone was asking if I could make
Jazzmaster pickguards instead. When we
finally got the Jazzmaster templates ready,
I couldn't keep up with the demand, but
was happy to be doing what I was
passionate about. The second most
popular pickguard Spitfire produces would
be either the Fender Precision Bass or the
Fender Stratocaster.”
I understand you have other things planned
that perhaps aren’t as vintage-oriented, can
you tell us a little about them?
“Some other ideas that I have been playing
around with are out of this world, literally. I
have been fascinated with space and the
unknown for most of my life. Recently my
interests in space has become stronger and
this has lead me to doing tests for making
gas-like Nebula patterns out of the
tortoiseshell material. My first prototype
was a black border with a striking red and
blue Nebula cloud bursting through the
middle of the pickguard. This combination
of colours made for quite a beautiful display.
The mix of colours brought out a wide array
of reds, purples, pinks, aqua blue, deep
blue, and even white in some areas. I didn't
stop there. I also found out a way to
implement stars made from different sizes
of chrome flakes. These are all circular
shape and have a mirror like finish so they
reflect brightly whatever light they come in
contact with. I still didn't feel this was
enough.
I was working with a customer at that time
who wanted one of my pickguards, but
wanted it to have a semi-transparent
backing. He wanted it transparent so that
he could put lights behind his pickguard to
illuminate the tortoiseshell pattern. This
was quite the challenge, because the
transparent backing had to also be opaque,
white enough for my tortoiseshell layer to
pop with its vibrant colours and details
when the guitar lights are off. Over a black
backing all tortoiseshell would be hardly
visible since its mostly transparent. So we