vintage gibson pickguard ?

I have a Gibson A snakehead from 1925. Someone told me that removing the pickguard would improve the tone even further (it ain't bad now). Is this true? Most pickguards that I've seen are attached via a kind of clip that extends from beneath the pickguard, across the side, and clips onto the back. Mine is actually attached with a small screw on the side of the instrument. I've looked at pictures of old Gibsons and have seen only one picture with this sort of attachment - maybe they experimented and then returned to the clip. This leads me to my next question - if I chose to remove the pickguard, I would be left with an unsightly hole. What now? Leave the pickguard on because the tone won't change? Take it off and fill in the hole? Take it off and leave the hole. Ugh. Jude

[jim simpson]

jude,
I am sure there are many opinions regarding the pickguard and it's effect on sound by I'll add mine. I have not noticed the difference from my experience with a number of examples. My preference would be to keep it on if it's in good shape. I believe the earliest examples did use a clip rather than the screw. If you do decide to take it off, you could either have the hole plugged and touched up a bit. I guess you could put the screw back into the hole and leave it there. If you like the way your instrument sounds now, I say leave it. I actually made a floating pickguard and added it to a Weber Yellowstone. It did the job that I wanted it for and that was to protect the finish. Good luck in your decision making!

[Bob A]

Hey Jude

The concept of removing a pickguard to improve tone comes from the supposed blocking of sound generated by the vibrating top. Unless the guard is huge, it's kind of a spurious idea. The screw-in support will leave a hole if you remove the guard. The old style clamp would leave an ugly mess in the finish, so it's a tradeoff. I bought a 1921 F4 that someone had already installed the screw-in guard on, and I like it fine. It's not so fragile as the other style, and the mandolin sounds great. I also like a pickguard because it helps me locate my hand relative to the strings, and makes things easier to play.

On the other hand, I have an F5 clone that was built without a guard, and the finish is worn thru where the previous owner's fingernails rubbed. I'd leave the guard, but of course it's not my mandolin.

[Jim Garber]

I believe that Loar era and later Gibsons have the kind of pickguard attachment yor refer to. You can removethe pickguard but i would not plug up the hole esp if you want to sell the instrument. Keep the pickguard safely because if it is missing it will devalue your instrument.

Jim

Thanks to the 3 of you (jim, bob and J) who responded so quickly and for the sound (no pun intended) advice. I believe I'll leave on the pickguard. I'd sure hate to take it off and find no difference. I can put this concern to rest. Jude

[grsnovi]

Jude,

My '20 Gibson mandola had a guard with hardware that would resonate at various frequencies depending on how loudly I played. I just took it off.

It can go back on an two minutes, so give it a try - you may like it.

I doubt that taking it off is going to affect the tone any.

[danb]

Taking them off can make the instrument sound a bit different- on an oval-holed instrument it's blocking just a little of the soundhole. They're set up in such a way that they don't impede top vibration though. Personally, I think that using it as a "finger rest" so you aren't leaning on the top helps improve your tone as well as it stops your hands from muting the bridge and top.

[AlanN]

Here's my opinion.

Take it off. I've found that any piece of extraneous hardware on a mandolin defeats tone. This includes finger rests, arms rests, things that attach to the back.

[MANDOLINMYSTER]

If your comfortable playing with the pickguard on, leave it on, I personally like the guard on, and I don't think theres any tone diffrence or volume decrease. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif