Pickguard-mounted pickup

A pickup whose mounting screws run into the plastic pickguard rather than into wood, so the whole assembly hangs from the guard.

The advantage is simple: no routing is needed and a pickup can be fitted or removed without touching the body, which is why many archtops, hollowbodies and semi-acoustics are built this way. The trade is that a plastic guard is not a rigid mount, so the pickup can flex with the guard and its height adjustment is less precise, and on a hollow instrument the guard may itself vibrate. Some designs use a metal bracket from the guard or the fingerboard instead.

Example: a floating miniature humbucker screwed to the pickguard of an archtop lets the top vibrate freely with no cavity cut into it.

Pickguard-mounted pickup

See also