What is your preference, and why?

[medley]

Just curious. I could probably get myself used to either way, just wondering what the argument would be either way.

Or, what the majority of you all do. Would be neat if we could do a poll. Maybe somebody knows how to do that.

[Doug Hoople]

My f-style came with one, a beautiful bound ebony pickguard. I took it off while taking a classical mandolin lesson and it started buzzing. Ironically, part of the lesson was to demonstrate picking with a loosely closed fist, with no pinky planting and no referencing a pickguard, both disallowed to gain freedom in other ways.

I've left the pickguard off since and learned my lesson well... there are no marks on the finish where the pickguard was.

I'm getting my next mandolin made without one.

My $0.02, that's all. The only rule to follow here is to get at least one lesson with a good classical mandolin teacher.

[Brady Smith]

I couldn't see it being worth much other than getting in the way. They can be purdy though.

[jk245]

To have one is a small price to pay for protection of an expensive investment.

It not only protects from abrasive forces applied to the finish but it also prevents skin oil build-up in the area protected.

[medley]

I ask because my new mando came without 1, and as far as I can tell, I would never hit the finish while playing. Just wondering if they are more cosmetic?

[Richard Russell]

They are quite functional, not just cosmetic. Very protective, many players constantly plant a finger on the top of the instrument while playing. Constant abrasive action going on. It becomes a personal thing. I like to look at them on other players instruments, but, I dislike them on my own. I'll take the little scratches, just looks good to have the "worn in" look to me.

[mandolirius]

First off, they are not pickguards. Pickguards are what you see on an acoustic guitar, affixed to the top for exactly that purpose - to protect the top from the pick.

On a mandolin, while they're often called a pickguard, they are actually finger rests. Some people, myself included, base their right hand technique around it. My fingers brush lightly across it most of the time, sometimes I'll put them down for an instant for greater stability. An passage requiring intricate pick movement, for example. The rest of the time, I'm using it as a sort of guage, to help me keep my pick in a consistent position.

I guess there are some players whose right hand approach is ferocious enough that they could damage the top, but I really think that is pretty rare. The two main reasons for having one would be either to use as a aid for the right hand or just because of the way it looks.

There is also an ongoing debate about whether or not they affect tone and volume.

[John Flynn]

I like the looks of them, but I don't have them on my mandolins. I feel they encourage me to post my fingers, which I have mostly cured myself of. Also, I have never put a pick scratch on mandolin, so they don't really serve a function for me. Finally, I have also had them cause buzzes. I personally don't think they have any adverse effect on tone or volume, though.

[Tim2723]

I've never needed one, as I don't plant my fingers and a don't get close to the wood with the pick. I like the look on an F style where it adds to the pleasing shape, but I don't like the look on an A style where is detracts from the symmetry. My bowlback has an inlaid wooden pickguard, but I don't understand the sense of it.

[Doug Hoople]

It not only protects from abrasive forces applied to the finish but it also prevents skin oil build-up in the area protected.

What skin oils will build up? Mine have none.

[Andrew DeMarco]

I prefer no pick guard. I don't like the way a pickguard looks. If I hit the finish, so be it.

[Celtic Saguaro]

Whether you plant or not if you always pick parallel to the strings as you should and do not pick toward the body of the instrument you don't need a pick guard. #The problem is that not everyone knows that or cares. We had a post recently of a youtube vid with someone trying out a brand new bowlback mandolin who was whacking the inlaid pickguard about every third stroke. #It was annoying to listen to and if the guard hadn't been there he would have made the top look like the one on old Bill's Loar in no time. If you're like old Bill and you don't care, fine. For the rest of us, I suggest leaving the pickguard on!

[Larry Simonson]

I have seen quite a few really fine instruments with gouged out bare spots from fingernails of the picking hand. I suppose it gives the instrument some battle scars character, like Willie Nelson's 'Trigger'(a severe case)but it seems destructive to me. More importantly, if you lend your pride and joy to another picker to try, you may be non-plussed at what a fingernail can do in a few minutes.

[mandroid]

Ist Mando I owned had one onit , so i miss absence of one.

It's a picker's depth guage, rather than a pinky planation.

the fingernail slides easily over it.

For my F, I had the one I got from C.A. installed sloping down a bit,
rather than a continuation of the plane of the strings.


so its not in the way either when not functionally handy.



and someplace to park your chewing gum.

[300win]

I've never had a mando with one on it. But I'm a finger planter, and all the mandolins I've had had the tell-tale sign of that to some extent. Of course I've never owned a real good mandolin until recently when I got a Gibson A-9, and my picking has worn through the very thin finish on this mando. I tried some clear tape for a while, but took it off, what I've donne is put a small dab of clear poly there to keep from wearing through the wood. I've ordered a armrest to go on my mandolin and I think that might help as the Gibson has a higher arch than any of the pos mandolins I've had before, so in my way of picking that is making me plant my fingers a little heavier than ever before. My thinking is the armrest will raise my hand up a little and reposition it. I don't think I could use a pick-gaurd, and not sure if I would like the looks of one on my mandolin.

[mandolirius]

I just got an armrest from Doug Edwards and I can't say enough about the benefits of using the combination of it and the finger rest to help keep my pick in the optimal position and allow my right hand to move freely but with more stability. I've had to do a bit of retraining to learn this technique, but it's really making an improvement.

[jk245]

I've never had a mando with one on it. But I'm a finger planter, and all the mandolins I've had had the tell-tale sign of that to some extent. Of course I've never owned a real good mandolin until recently when I got a Gibson A-9, and my picking has worn through the very thin finish on this mando.

Quite surprising the Gibson A9 and A5 come standard without the pickguard, while the lower price Flatiron Festival has it.
The discontinued Gibson A5L, at a higher price than an A5, had the pickguard. The guard for the A5L should fit the A9 and A5 because they are basically the same size instruments with different ornamentation.

[woodwizard]

I prefer a pickguard. I'm just use to one I guess and mine's one of those smaller abriviated ones so I think it looks pretty cool. In the old days of Gibson I think they called them finger rests but currently they are calling them pickgurards. I think they are both and I like the extra protection just in case. There is no difference in the tone or volume as far as I can tell with or without. My Goldrush is a banjo killer either way. Very loud and great Gibson tone.

[mandolirius]

<In the old days of Gibson I think they called them finger rests but currently they are calling them pickgurards.>

Pickguard seems to be the word most people choose, and it's hard to fight common usage. When I was in grade school there was actually a saying: "aint" aint in the dictionary. Well, it's there now and has been for a long time.

But if you think about it, we're talking about a pick crossing the E string and then dipping down a good inch or more to make contact with the top. Who plays that way?

[kudzuklunker]

They's UGLY!

[gnelson651]

I prefer no pickguard. Both my Eastmans and Fullerton came that way. I gave up finger planting after about 6 months of playing. I find that it restricts my wrist, especially for tremelo and decreased the volume. Instead I let the back of part of my palm brush against the back of the bridge.

[Doug Hoople]

<In the old days of Gibson I think they called them finger rests but currently they are calling them pickgurards.>

Pickguard seems to be the word most people choose, and it's hard to fight common usage. When I was in grade school there was actually a saying: "aint" aint in the dictionary. Well, it's there now and has been for a long time.

But if you think about it, we're talking about a pick crossing the E string and then dipping down a good inch or more to make contact with the top. Who plays that way?

They're called a finger rest for a reason. The primary thing people do is plant their pinky. The other thing people do is play with their non-picking fingers splayed out, in which case they can also brush against the finish. The finger rest protects against both these habits.

I used to plant my pinky pretty persistently, and my first mandolin has a circular splotch from the sweat acids where I wore the finish through from planting. Not very pretty, but it was an entry-level mando, so no great loss.

[chip]

Sometimes I'm tempted to take it off one of my F5's. I like to take good care of my things so I feel that it's probably better to keep them on and protect the instrument.
There's really no reason to attempt scratching something as nice as a handmade instrument so I don't take the chance. I have an A model that doesn't have one so I guess that will suffice for the time being. If anything I think I'll put one on the other side too....

[pjlama]

No. Because I neither plant nor scratch and as was stated earlier, theys ugly.

[JeffD]

If it is part of the instrument when it was made I leave it, if the instrument is made without one, and doesn't have one, I leave it.

I don't want to get into a pinky plant or don't plant thread, because its never ending, and everyone is right. I happen to plant, not always but enough. I plant with a pick guard, I plant without a pick guard. No different.

I also don't obsess over the change in finish my fingers, or pick even, might make - I want my instrument to show the idiosynracies of my playing.

I also don't think pickguards (finger rests, I even heard it called a scratch plate once) make much, if any difference in the sound. If the instrument came with, I assume that the sound it makes with is the sound the luthier intended, and I am the last person to second guess a luthier. Like a french horn is designed to be played with the left hand in the bell.

And they look cool.