Loose Pickguard

[Brian Boedigheimer BBmade]

Update:

Yes indeed, adhesive holding pickguard to the lacquer. The pickguard material came right off and the underside is perfectly shiny. The adhesive failed on the pickguard but not the lacquer of the top. It’s a sticky mess removing it.

I think once all the adhesive is cleaned off I’ll abrade the lacquer on the top with something like 800 grit to give it one consistent sheen and level out some scraper marks. Then I plan to abrade the underside of the pickguard as well so the new adhesive film will keep the pickguard in place for the long haul.

That is the plan thus far. A very sticky, tedious cleaning that I’m about 75% done with.

This photo shows the situation immediately after the pickguard came off.

I welcome any insights as always.

[Danny West West Guitarworks]

Ugh I hate that adhesive that Gibson has been using for pickguards. Seems to fail pretty often and is an absolute mess to clean up. I’ve had luck getting the majority of it off by rubbing it with an eraser or a piece of rubber until it starts to pill up into grabable chunks that you can peel off. Then spend some time wiping with naptha for the rest. I haven’t done any sort of surface prep aside from making sure all of the old adhesive residue is gone.

When it’s time to get the guard back on with the 3M film I like to put a few drops of soapy water down wherever I’m trying to stick it. This allows you to float the pickgaurd down and reposition it if needed. Once it’s where you want it, start to press down and squeegee out the soapy water and it’ll lay down without any air bubbles.

[Brian Boedigheimer BBmade]

Thank you! Yes this stuff is a sticky mess and does not come off easily. It did as close to nothing on the pickguard material but doesn’t want to come off the top. I got the pickguard off the guitar in about 30 seconds and thought, this is too easy the next part will probably suck and…it does.