It’s the little things that make me happy

thermionic · March 2023

It’s ten years since I bought my Loar LH-200 and it’s really nicely made for a £200 guitar - the spruce top is nothing special but the back and sides are lush and the mahogany (I think) neck is nicely flamed. It came with a stick-on pickguard which was plain black and made the guitar look really cheap so I took it off after a couple of weeks. It nails that 1930s Gibson vibe but I felt like it was still missing something… Then, last summer I saw Gwenifer Raymond play again with a really nice guitar - which turned out to be a Waterloo (aka Collings).

https://i.imgur.com/QpWoR3T.jpg

Then I realised what my guitar was missing - a firestripe pickguard! I found that JP Guitars of Bristol had a good selection of pickguards and I printed out a couple of their templates. At first I thought the L-00 guard was too big for my guitar, but I was just placing it wrongly… after looking up some photos of some real L-00s I moved it back and it was a nice fit. They had some expensive Tor-Tis and Tortoloid versions but I went for the printed version, which had a bolder pattern (like photos of originals I’d seen, they’re not like tort guards with a random swirly pattern).

https://i.imgur.com/4jyV50S.jpg

It’s a bit more translucent in real life compared to the photo and it’s a big improvement. Very nice.

Mellish · March 2023

@thermionic ; glad you're managing to find the bits you want.
Yes,i get a few things from JP.

Just back from a wedding gig. Threw in "Sugar Sugar". Broke a string, first time in years.

ElectricXII · March 2023

That makes the guitar! I’m biased though as I’ve got a J-35.

lincolnblue · March 2023

That looks really good. Out of interest how do you stick it to the body? I've often thought about putting a pickguard on my Faith Neptune but not sure if it's an easy job?

bertie · March 2023

crikey, never knew they existed, nearly on me doorstep to boot......................

Tannin · March 2023

lincolnblue said:

That looks really good. Out of interest how do you stick it to the body? I've often thought about putting a pickguard on my Faith Neptune but not sure if it's an easy job?

I had the same question, so I rang up my local luthier (nice chap, he fettles all my guitars and is building one for me at the moment) and he said to use that double-sided plastic stuff you can get from any big stationer.

So I did that. Worked like a charm.

thermionic · March 2023

lincolnblue said:

That looks really good. Out of interest how do you stick it to the body? I've often thought about putting a pickguard on my Faith Neptune but not sure if it's an easy job?

The material has a 3M self-adhesive backing, just peel off the paper and stick it down. You only have one chance, so after I was happy with where it was supposed to be I marked the edges by sticking little paper labels at three points on the guitar - masking tape would do, but I had these old labels where the glue had almost given up so I knew they wouldn’t damage the finish. The pickguard material is sufficiently stiff that there’s little risk of air bubbles.

https://www.jp-guitars.co.uk/sales/parts_and_spares/pickguards/pickguards.htm

It’s worth printing out a template to check that it fits. The big variable is soundhole radius and I had to trim a couple of mm on one spot on mine. It’s not perfect but it’s close enough.

p90fool · March 2023

ElectricXII said:

That makes the guitar! I’m biased though as I’ve got a J-35.

Me too, and I love their pickguards.

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It’s the little things that make me happy

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