Bakelite month! Here at Tiny Tone we’ve been discussing how some materials seem a bit underrated, so in addition to kicking off what we hope will be a fairly regular blog, we thought we’d introduce a new feature; shining a spotlight on a new material which we think deserves a bit more love, a chance to try it out for the first time and see what they think- bakelite!
Of course, once we have your guard here on file we can cut you any future pick guards at a discount, so if you’re an existing customer or decide you’d like to try something different in future, you can own an additional guard at a fraction of the price!
For our first spotlight we’ve chosen to feature BAKELITE- the material that started it all!
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Get started by clicking below and selecting Bakelite in the colours box we’ll auto apply the discount to your quote
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Back in 1950, Leo Fender needed a suitable material to protect the front of his Broadcaster/Esquire designs, and at the time Bakelite was the only logical answer, as a precursor to modern plastic as we know it.
First developed in 1907 as a replacement for shellac, Bakelite, (or polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride to use its catchy proper name), was formed from a reaction between phenol and formaldehyde and quickly recognized as revolutionary for its properties; electrically non-conductive, heat resistant, easy to shape, and of course extremely hard. It’s certainly aggressive towards our tools!
It was rapidly used for electrical item casings/insulators, kitchenware, buttons, furniture, tools, firearm grips, in addition to many of the applications now granted to more modern forms of plastic- so by 1950, it would have been the only logical choice for Leo Fender on his quest for a cheap, easy to make and hardwearing material to protect his new line of instruments!
So why bother with it these days?
For starters, it looks great. We can offer it in either black or brown, and it has a shiny finish with slight grain.
The black stock in particular will look great on most guitars, though of course it’ll never look more at home then on a blonde Telecaster or 51-style P-Bass. It has a unique feel and surface texture too which is near impossible to replicate- and our brown material comes without any protective cover, so will be freshly pre-relic’d straight out of the box!
But whatever your instrument, consider taking advantage of our offer and giving it a makeover with a retro material that’s normally one of our most expensive!
