What are the plastic materials used for making various pickups and guitar hardware?
Polymers are plastics used for Injection molding, thermoforming, extrusion, casting and film or sheets. Below are the common plastics used from guitar pickups to accessories. ABS: is a thermoplastic with good impact resistance and compressive strength. Acetals: are thermoplastics with applications similar to nylons. Has high impact resistance and ultraviolet radiation causes surface damage. Acrylics: are usually transparent thermoplastics also known under the brand name as Plexiglas. Butadiene Styrene: this is a very cheap plastic and has poor resilience and fatigue strength. Cellulosics: this polymer encompasses cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate, cellulose acetate propionate, cellulose nitrate and ethyl cellulose. Cellulose nitrate becomes brittle (early pickguards) and burns rapidly. Ethyl cellulose has low flammability. Epoxies: the epoxy resins are thermosets when cured. They are used with glass fibre to form composites. Melamine formaldehyde: this resin when thermoset
