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I have never installed a wooden pickguard before and I am considering doing so on my current build. I will use a French polished shellac for the finish of the top. Can I glue the pickguard on to the shellac finish? What type of glue should I use? What's a good thickness for a wooden pickguard? Thanks for any advice.

You can get sheets of adhesive tape for this purpose from Stew Mac I believe ...

+1 on the pickguard adhesive from StewMac. I would think thinner would be better, 1/16" or less if you can get it that thin. Shouldn't be a problem unless you're using some kind of burl.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I just did this. I just used a veneer. I flooded the surface with thin CA and squeegeed it in, I’m not sure that was necessary though. I used the Stew Mac adhesive sheet right on the French polish and it works great. The only problem I had was I misaligned it when I started sticking it down. Once it touches you can’t move it, so be careful.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Thanks everyone. I'll try the StewMac pickguard adhesive. Good point about the burl. I am using Portuguese olive root which is sort of like a burl so I will make it just a bit thicker.

How do wooden guards stand up? I would tend to think that they would mar quite easily.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I'm thinking the same thing. Isn't the pick guards job to protect the finish and wood of the guitar? Sounds like a neat idea but it make me wonder. Also, (a bit off subject) could you carve a pick guard on the guitar if the top was thicker in the area? This is a hypothetical really since I think it's a waste of wood to do this and maybe not really useful.

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久保
美智え

Hi All

I have been using wooden pickguards for about 8 years. I like both plastic & wooded guards so I use what ever is wanted. They both come off fairly easily so replacing wood with plastic or replacing a worn one isn't too hard. My experience with wooden guards is that they hold up very well. I have guitars that are eight years old, played hard and still have the original wood guard. I had one of my guitars evaluated by William Cumpiano a few years back and one of his concerns was the wood pick guard. He said it might dampen the top. I think that is a valid concern. He didn't tell me wether it was the weight or the stiffness of the wood that concerned him, but it must be the stiffness because I recently replaced a plastic guard with a wooden one that was exactly the same size. My wooden one was 1 gram less in weight than the "Tor-Tis" guard that it replaced. I thin the wood to just less than 1/16" in thickness and use Tru-Oil as a finish.

There are some advantages to the wood guard. Advertising and personalizing. I'm attaching a few pictures below.

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