question on drop tops

[melodymaker]

i have a 98 drop top can you add a pickguard to it and make it a drop top classic or is there more involved anyone out there know?
thanks melodymaker

[tom]

we don't do that. if you did, you'd have a very large hole all the way through the guitar, control cavity size! it would leave the wall of the guitar weak.

[wolf]

If you mean, can you simply fit a scratch plate on the guitar face, then YES.
I've done just that to another of my guitars.
Do a good job though, when marking the screw holes, and remember that there's no going back.

cheers

[sylvanshine]

melodymaker-

No offense to our TAG brother from across the pond, but I would listen to the guy that builds these. You can't do what you want without routing out the guitar.

[guitarzan]

at first it didn't seem like such a big deal of a request- but now that i think about it- it would be an issue to re-cut for the controls. If you have a switcheroo, you'd need to rout the top for those to come up high enough to clear the pickguard. Even if you had a 5-way blade, you'd still need to find a way to bring that stuff up to accommodate the screws being mounted on top of the pickguard (so that you're not screwing a pickguard down on top of the mounting screws for your blade switch). It just seems like a whole lot of trouble for the aesthetic swap from a standard to a classic look.

You might just think about selling that one and using the money to buy the Drop Top Classic that you want. If you wait long enough, one is sure to pop up on ebay before too long and I don't think there's really any price difference between the two on the used market.

just my 2 cents.