Another Removing Pickguard Thread

[ajay]

I am strongly considering putting a new pickguard on my '68 Kalamazoo. I just got a custom inlayed Truss Rod Cover for it. The same guy makes cool wood pickguards with custom inlay, and I'm thinking of putting a pickguard on with the same theme.

My Kalamazoo is all mahogany just like a Gibson B-15. The pickguard has three screws on the corners, so I thought that I would remove three screws and lift it off. WRONG! It also has some major adhesive under there.

I intend to use the hair dryer and dental floss, but I will probably end up with a curled mess of plastic, and I intended to trace the pickguard to make a template for the new one.

Anyway, has anyone removed a pickguard from a late 60's Gibson, and if so what kind of a mess is underneath that pickguard when You finally got the old pickguard off?

I know that naphtha will remove the old adhesive that remains on the top. My main concern is performing this removal without softening the glue on the top braces underneath the pickguard. As far as the template, I guess I'm going to get some tracing paper and get the copy off of the top that way when I'm done. I'm pretty sure that there will be an easily traced shade difference on the top when I get it cleaned up.

 

I'd it worth all of this screwing around? Yes, I think so. I have never liked having screws on my pickguard. I just thought that the screws were there to hold the pickguard, but apparently they were used to hold it in place while the adhesive dried so that they could ship it ten minutes after securing the pickguard.

 

At this point, I'm considering throwing in the towel. The Truss Rod Cover will be cool enough. And when I sell the guitar I can just put the old Teuss cover back on, but I won't have that option with the pickguard. I had intended to secure the new pickguard with minimal adhesive and using the adhesive only in the area of the original pickguard. That way I could always return it to original condition, but since it is glued and screwed, I guess I'm screwed too. Anyone have an opinion? I'm interested in any opinions, good or bad.

[CAMELEYE]

I'm with the towel option. Just play it. However ... I find naptha worked slowly under the guard with a little help from some dental floss and maybe a q-tip or twenty would allow you to skip the hairdryer.

[ajay]

Thanks. Yeah, the Naptha would work. I was hoping that heat with dental floss would work, but even with quite a big of hair dryer heat the dental floss just snaps off. I think that I'll keep my pickguard removal to brand new guitars. They used some major goop under there, so I'll just keep looking at the screws forever. Better to have an unsightly pickguard than to have a nice old guitar with a bunch of loose braces. The tone on the old Kallie is really incredible, so I'll just put my cool Truss Rod ZCover and leave it at that! Thanks for Your vote! I'm with Ya' on throwing in the towel. I'll use the pickguard money to put some cool Kluson replacement tuners on the old girl!