Plastic coating pickguard protection

AmundLauritzen

Where can I get the plastic coating that are often put on Selmacs to protect from scratch from the fingers brushing against the guitar?

I'm going to remove the pickguard on one of my archtops because I'm going to re-work my bebop playing with gypsy picking. I want to protect the finish of the guitar. Anyone know where I can get it?

Jazzaferri

I think StewMac sells the sticky back clear mylar sheet

Bones

HI Amund,

I asked the same question a while back.

Here's the thread. I ended up using the removable type. Seems to work pretty well so far.

Be careful not to leave it on the lacquer for a long time if you are not using the guitar though since I think it can react with the lacquer possibly. Just read the instructions.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11504&p=60435&hilit=pickguard#p60435

AmundLauritzen

Thanks guys! I went ahead and ordered these mylar sheets, along with some .10's to put on the archtop to match the gauge of my Dell Arte. .10's are unorthodox for archtops, but it's worth a try. I'm excited to see how this experiment works out. The plan is to standardize my setup and picking technique for all styles of music.

Bones

So you don't have a 'floating' pick guard on your archtop.

When I was switching to gypsy style picking I was playing an archtop with a floating pick guard but it seemed to get in the way so I took it off.

AmundLauritzen

Bones wrote:

So you don't have a 'floating' pick guard on your archtop.

When I was switching to gypsy style picking I was playing an archtop with a floating pick guard but it seemed to get in the way so I took it off.

That's exactly the case here. I'm going to remove the pickguard which is why I need the plastic. That floating pickguard is in the way when I rest the 3rd and 4th fingers on it, I can't "dig" into the strings properly, that's the best way I can explain it.

Today I started practicing bebop again, improvising on jazz standards very very slow. I was playing "All the things you are" at 120bpm all 8th notes. That gave me time to think of the picking, so I can use all my bebop vocab but now work gypsy picking into the licks.

Funny thing it sounds so much better when played with gypsy picking. The momentum and direction of my lines sounds so much stronger than with economy picking.
This also eliminates the nightmare of having two different picking styles to switch between.

If I knew all this five years ago I'd probably be a pretty good player by now, haha :P

Bones

It actually helped me learn to pick without my right hand anchored by removing the pickguard on my archtop. Since the strings are so much higher off the top of the guitar (than a selmac) my fingers didn't really even touch the top which felt pretty weird at first but it forced me to let my hand float rather than anchoring it like I used to do. Then when I got an actual selmac style guitar I my fingers just lightly scrape on the top but are not anchored.

Jeff Moore

Do like Bones says! Takes a while!