Thread: Tortoise shell
View Single Post
  #15  
Old 08-11-2012, 08:16 AM
J Patrick J Patrick is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 5,679
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Misty44 View Post
And it made guitars sound really good. Until the Endangered Species Act of 1973, tortoise shell (Hawksbill) was readily available.



After that, the quest for the Holy Grail of faux TS commenced and - imo -rose every closer to the real thing with Red Bear and more recently Blue Chip. The only downside to TS is its need to be polished to keep a smooth bevel. Blue Chips don't, they're practically indestructible.

The only TS pickguard I ever saw was one Tony Rice had made from a shell given to him in Japan decades ago by an admirer. It's on the old Martin 58597, pre-CITES:



He might have significant trouble taking it out of the country (not that he plans to of course).
...heres a tortoise shell guard that is on a guitar i got from a woman in St Augustine Florida...she said that her elderly neighbor was throwing out a box of old stuff from his garage and she rescued the very old shell from the garbage can ...she had a well known Martin repair expert shape it and install it on this stellar Santa Cruz 000...rather than smooth the face they decided to leave the natural swirl on it....its beautiful and unique but surely adds nothing to the tone of the guitar

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8...D720/ry%3D480/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8...D720/ry%3D480/
Reply With Quote