Scratching my top

[clarksavage]

I am curious about experience out there. I have a (new to me) Weber Aspen 1 and I dearly love this little piece of wood. For whatever reason, I played it next to a bunch of other, many prettier and much more expensive mandolins, and this one just stole my ears for its clarity and sweet tone.

It is a very plain mandolin, but I find that in two weeks of picking, I am beginning to scratch the spruce top finish... there is no pickguard. I don't like the screw on, Gibson type pick guard. I have an Octave Mandolin with a nice clear plastic pickguard stuck onto the front, it is mostly invisible but affords adequate protection against assault of my button picks (thanks, Steve, nice picks!)

What material have you used as a clear pickguard? Is there a good product I should look for? I figure I'll get some stick on stuff, cut it myself, clean the surface (it is a matte finish), stick in on and forget it. Thoughts?

[Richard Russell]

Glad to see that you posted the question! I'm looking for the same thing to protect my Mid-mo M-0. By the way, I did the same thing when I purchased this mando several months ago. Played many beautiful and great sounding archtops and kept coming back to this model! It offers such a different and pure sound! Flat top, round hole mandolins are a wonderful contrast to other mandolins and provide a special sound that is a delight to the ears!

[jjboone101]

Maybe Scott T. will chime in on this. He has a clear pickguard on his Nugget.

[8ch(pl)]

I designed an ebony pickguard for the Mid Missouri. It friction fits into the groove under the fretboard. Richard, I have one made from Cherry that I will send you for free if you email your address to me. It has a small, square piece of basswood glued to the side that will have to be sanded down to fit the groove. You can then stain the whole unit to a colour to match your fingerboard.

Let me know if you are interested.

[JGWoods]

Stew Mac sells a clear stick on pick guard material. I used it on my Flatiron cadet with great success, works fine on flattops where you don't have to worry about curves and wrinkles.

[otterly2k]

ditto on the clear pickguard material. It works great. I have that on a Larivee parlour guitar and it is virtually invisible, doesn't hamper tone and is very protective. I have a sheet of it sent me by a friend just waiting to be put on one of my OM's.

[jjboone101]

Does this stuff leave any marks when you remove it? Only work on lacquered instruments, or varnish as well?

[otterly2k]

Personally, I haven't tried to remove it, but I've read that others have done so with ease and no adverse consequences. That said, I'm sure "mileage may vary". In addition, there's some other stuff you can get that sticks just by static cling (e.g. no adhesive). I don't know whether it sticks reliably, but you wouldn't have to worry about glue...

[Paul Hostetter]

Much as I like Stew-Mac, any art supply store will sell the clear 3M self-stick mylar for a fraction of the price of the same stuff from Stew-Mac. Frank Ford has good instructions on www.frets.com about how to apply it. You needn't do his water routine, but if you decide to do it dry, just remember any fleck of dust will really show. These guards can be removed even decades later very safely if you follow a specific routine. I don't think the hair dryer method is very safe, and prefer using naphtha instead. I mention this because your first try might not be perfect, and if you want to try again, it's important to know how to reverse the installation.