F.A.Qs

This is by far our most commonly asked question. In short, the answer is no.

You would think that (for example) Fender, the pioneers of mass-produced guitars, would have standardised their scratchplates long ago, as making all of them exactly the same would save them a fortune in production costs.

…However, we have a stack of around 50 different Fender USA ‘Standard’ strat templates, and maybe another 90-or-so different Fender Mexican ‘Standard’ templates at the back of our workshop that would beg to differ!

Our theory is that as the scratchplate is one of the last main items to be fitted to a guitar, it’s easier to modify this than to change the neck angle or shape of the neck pocket to allow for manufacturing tolerances. The upshot of this is that no matter how standard you think your guitar is, there is a more-likely-than-not chance that if we made a ‘standard’ guard for it, it would not be a perfect fit. This goes for all guitars, from all manufacturers.

We’re aware that our pricing structure places us towards the premium end of the scratchplate industry, but this is because we offer one of the widest ranges of pickguard sheet material options in the world, and we guarantee a perfect fit on all guards copied from an original (subject to our usual tolerances and terms/conditions)

Everything we make here at Tiny Tone is skilfully manufactured by hand, bespoke to order, by technicians with years of experience. As such, we do not offer returns unless the item is faulty, or doesn’t fit (this is subject to our usual tolerances and terms/conditions, and sometimes caveats may be given either verbally or via email or on the final invoice we send). If your scratchplate was made by us from an original, and isn’t a perfect fit, just let us know and we’ll make any adjustments needed until it’s perfect… just part of the service.

We’d love to help! We spend a lot of time scouring the globe for the best sheet materials to make scratchplates from, and are always happy to discuss options with customers- after all, there’s a huge amount of choice and a lot of subjective decisions to be made. HOWEVER, we do ask that you please have a good look at our sheet material examples under the scratchplates tab here on our website first, just so you have a rough idea of what’s possible.

We’ll be happy to do our best! Whilst we have an enormous range of sheet material available, some are easier to order in on a case-by-case basis, so give us a shout if you’re after something we don’t explicitly offer- we might be able to source some!

In some very rare, extreme cases there’s no way customers can give us anything to work from. In these cases, there are two options: either send us the entire guitar and we can freehand design one(guaranteed to fit), or we can pick a similar spec’d original template at random and make you a copy from that. However, with the latter option there’s no guarantee of a perfect fit, and if we agree to this there will be some heavy caveats involved…

YES! We’d love to. All we need is ideally a design file, or at very least an image to work from… in the past we’ve even managed to use hand-drawn art to make someone’s guard truly unique! Family coat of arms? A mix of Religious Iconography with kind of a ‘Saved By The Bell’ vibe? Totally. We can make this happen. Just add your request to the ‘other notes’ section on the quote form and we’ll add custom engraving to your quote!

We can also offer coloured infills too, so if you’d like a 3ply white Firebird guard with a red engraved Firebird logo, you’re in luck!

YES! Totally. We offer a ‘repeat cut discount’ to all customers who have a template on file with us.

YES! If you simply cannot wait, we’ll do our best to help. This will mean one of our craftsmen staying behind outside normal working hours until it’s done, or coming in on a weekend though, so there’ll be a healthy surcharge for their time. If you’re happy to cover that, we’ll have you back on the road in no time.

Yes… we do get this one sometimes. And sometimes, it can be the case- some manufacturers are able to make a Stratocaster copy for under £70 brand new, and yet a typical Stratocaster scratchplate from us costs between £60 and £70 posted.

To some folk this may seem a little odd, but we ask them to consider one thing:

If, like our scratchplates, your £70 guitar had been made;

• from the best possible materials,
• to the highest possible standards,
• by hand,
• bespoke to order,
• in a workshop in Manchester, UK,
• paying UK wages and tax,
• by not exploiting workers rights,

…how much would it have cost then?