Official Luthiers Forum!

By sound, I mean tone, volume, projection, etc...
I've been playing for 35+ years, building my first, and now that I have a little better appreciation of tonewood selection, bracing and thicknessing, I wonder when I see nice (mostly older) guitars with huge double pick guards covering at least 50% of the soundboard. Maybe I'm totally wrong, or maybe its just a marketing imaging thing in settings where tone isn't so important (stage set of HeeHaw being filmed), but it seems counterproductive to fuss all day long about how braces are scalloped, tops thickened perfectly.....then glue a big chunk of plastic over top!

I have no doubt that huge double pick guards on acoustics don't improve the sound so I will keep mine to a small OM oval size.
Here's a photo of Elvis' D28 with tooled leather cover. My band teacher once said Elvis only played three chords so maybe muting it didn't really matter.

David: Most pickguards are relatively small and light. Doubt if they have much effect on sound..........at least human detectable sound. Guards are located in an area of the top least affected by their attachment. Being a guard user, my experience has been no noticeable difference...............In other words any guitar I was less then satisfied was never the blame of a pickguard....!!!
Tom

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

The only ones that I could hear a difference on was wood ons

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
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You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Some people really need a pick guard. Without it they dig a hole in the top, which might have a greater effect on the sound.

I've been putting small wooden ones on the baritone ukes I've been building. Never thought about them changing the sound much.


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I find that clear .005 thick ones have no effect and did a tap test on a Dread with a Greven and the top frequency changed by one hertz. Most of the pick guard is in the least vibration area of the top.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
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Where did you find them Fred?

Even before I had a clue about how a guitar works I always thought that leather case was craaaazy!
Would be darn cool to have one though! I don't play much better than Elvis could!

I haven't noticed any tone effect from pick guards or tap plates either. But I'll note that .005" plates aren't much protection. .012" is a more common flamenco tap plate. .020-.045" is a common range for steel string pick guards. Brian Burns has done a lot of measurement of tone wood damping. His measurements of top wood with self-adhesive tap plate material suggests a large increase in damping (lower "Q"). (This is independent from any change in top frequency.)

Some self-adhesive pick guard material becomes very difficult to remove as years go by. (Think of old masking tape after 50 years. Think of impossible.)

The old LMI "luthier's white glue" was an excellent tap plate adhesive: low damping, easy removal. Fish glue is too aggressive--use water, or you'll pull up wood with the pick guard. Use water, and you'll raise the grain.