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Pickguard lifting problem

Hi guys, I had a question about hooking down a pickguard thats lifting on an older acoustic guitar my cousin wants me to fix up for her. Its a 1974 Yamaha FG 300, plays sweet (even with only 5 rusty strings) at first we were going to take it off, until I did some research and found it was a bit of a rare bird. It has no screws and apears to be glued on. I was going to try Super glue but was curious what you guys would use, and what might work the best for such an issue. This is a great site, and I always get super advice that has helped me a lot. Any input will help, Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 25, 2013 at 6:36am

You could slip a hot thin blade under the pickguard ( a long cake decorator's metal spatula, or a long thin construction putty knife), and work it back and forth slowly and carefully to get the remaining existing glue loose. Then you could carefully clean the rest of the glue off, give the wood top a very light sanding or rubdown with steel wool to clean up the surface, then do the same on the backside of the pickguard so you have two clean bonding surfaces. That would be how the pros like Dan Erlewine would do it. Given that it is a '74, the pickguard was probably not put on there with cyanoacrylate glue (aka Super Glue). Instead they would have used 1) animal hide glue (possible, but not necessarily), 2) some kind of gelatin glue based on fish scales or seaweed, 3) thin wood glue or 4) something similar to Elmer's white glue. I'd do the Elmer's, only because the other require too much prep. It dries clear, doesn't appear to affect the tone that much, and unlike cyanoacrylate, won't crack due to shear forces if accidentally dropped. I've used it to do similar fixes on guitars I previously owned, including a 12-string Ovation Balladeer I still own whose plastic rosette came undone in the desert heat here. Just be sure to clean up any excess.

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Permalink Reply by Gary Merrithew on May 25, 2013 at 7:25am

Thanks Ron, sounds good, I think I can get it off easily as its peeling up pretty bad. It looked kinda like a gel type glue and has raised a lot over the years. After I get it off I think I'll (carefully) take a heatgun to the pickguard and press it between a couple boards to get it to flatten out a bit as its warped over time. If I don't get it flattened out I'm afraid she would pop up again. My cousin didn't really like the look of the guard but given it's a 74' told her we should try to fix er up to keep any sort of collector type value, ain't really anything you would want to Mod anyway. Thanks for the help, I don't do as much with acoustic guitars mostly work on electrics.