Question about 3m sheets for pick guard

[iwalktheline]

Hey guys, it's been awhile. Just had a quick question, a few years back I had been having issues with the Hummingbird guards and all that fun stuff. I had bought one of the vintage/molded ones and because it was clear, it had air bubbles all over the place which annoyed the hell out of me. I took it off and put one of the newer ones on, but recently I had the idea of putting the other one back on. My question is, which of the 3m sheets is the proper one to use that won't have air bubbles showing through? I just love the look of the vintage ones and wanted it back on, but I just don't want the air bubbles/pockets to ruin the look again. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

[62burst]

Air bubble avoidance is all about patience. Carefully cleaning the guitar's top and the pickguard with (VM & P) naphtha first. And very slowly removing the blue backing paper on the 3M adhesive sheet. If the backing paper tears in the slightest bit, you'll have a bubble occur when the p/g is placed on the top. They're affordable enough- buy at least one or two extra sheets ... plan on the adhesive pulling up with the backing paper on at least one of those sheets. Go SLOW. Make some arrow markers with masking tape to locate where the "points" of the pickguard should be, because you only get one chance when placing the pickguard down on the top. At least with the 'bird, you can butt the guard up against the fretboard extension.

 

How big is a Hummingbird pickguard- 6" x 11+" ? One of the larger guards out there, larger than a super jumbo p/g. You'll need to find some pretty big sheets of the 2mil (.002") 3M 467 MP, or get two clean straight edges of two smaller pieces up against each other.

 

Good luck, take some pics of your project-