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Because I was a little unhappy with the perloid pickguard of my new Burns Bison, I ordered a black one from Mr. Gibson in London and changed them. The Guitar looked so much better to me - and didn't work! No sound, just some noise and a very thin tone! What happened? One of the members in the german music forum noticed, that there was no ground wiring (don't know, if this the correct word in English) between poti and switch. So I found out the reason: The perloid pickguard was pasted with one piece of aluminum foil, but the new one with two overlapping pieces of foil that were not electrically connected! So I put a little piece of aluminum foil unter the screws and the problem was fixed finally.

Well that's an unusual little problem and full marks to whoever sorted it out for you! And it's certainly improved the guitars looks (pearloid scratchplates are one of my pet hates; in my opinion they work with red and nothing else).

Was it an easy fit or did you have to fill and redrill any of the holes? (As I usually find myself doing with Strats.)

Replacement puck guards can vary enormously - I bought a replacement from BG and it was nowhere near the same size - I ended up routing some wood. BG explanation was that they were made in 3 different factories in the Far East !

Eddie Cross now asks for original plate or a template as they vary do much. If you don't have to remove the Scratchplate from an early model don't. They are likely to shrink / distort. I have seen some horrendous examples of this at Eddies workshop .

The replacement pickguards (three pieces) fit perfectly. But I had to remove the neck, because the end of the fretboard overlaps the pickguard.