A pickguard is pretty much what it sounds like. It's generally a shaped piece of
plastic that protects your shiny and beautiful
guitar from the repeated assaults of your
plectrum when it's pounding out some
Ramones or
Pixies tunes. The pickguard is very useful, preventing the guitar from getting covered in nasty looking scratches, and protecting you from having to spend
cold hard cash to get your wooden lover
refinished and pretty again. Instead, you can just replace the shredded pickguard every few years for a few dollars. On acoustic guitars, the pickguard is usually placed to the right of the
soundhole. On electrics it's to the right of the high e string, or it covers most of the
face of the guitar.
The pickguard for my Epiphone LP looks more or less like this:
|\
| \__
|_ \
| \
| \
_| \
| \
|_ \
| \
| \
_| \
|_________ |
\___|
(note: the indentations on the left sides are the right edges of the humbuckers)
The pickguard for a Strat looks something like this (please pardon my artistic ability):
__ _
| \_ _ / \
| |_______| \ / \
\ \__/ /
\ /
\ /
\ _________ /
| \_______/ |
| |
/ _________ \
/ \_______/ \
/ \
| _________ |
| \_______/ |
| |
\ /
\ /
\ _______ /
\___| \ |
\___|
So there you have it. Pickguards come in different shapes, colors, and sizes, but they all have the same purpose: To keep your guitar nice and shiny. And they look cool, too.
Rock on!