worn top question -- Regal tenor

[Cary Fagan]

Hi all, I just acquired this Regal tenor. I'm really enjoying playing Irish music on it. As you can see in the photo, the top is pretty worn. I don't plant or brush when I pick but I am finding that when I strum I sometimes brush the top. I'm looking for suggestions to protect the wood. I have some true oil but I wouldn't want to do the whole top and am wondering whether it would stand out. A pick guard? What do you all think?

[jim simpson]

I'm a fan of pickguards, here's one I added. I had to trim it to fit the shape I wanted but not hard to do. They are peel and stick so removable if need be.

[Cary Fagan]

Thanks, Jim. I have put pickguards on before, shaping them to fit, and I'm thinking it's the way to go. Some of those grooves are pretty deep.

[ajh]

StewMac has a clear, adhesive backed thick film for pickguard/top covering that I have used with good luck. But if you have deep grooves it might be very tricky to get it to lay down without air pockets.....and it is not coming back up without ripping bare wood. Is very transparent if done right. Works great.

[sunburst]

...They are peel and stick so removable if need be.

If a self adhesive pick guard is applied to bare wood with wear into the grain like the OP guitar, removing the 'guard will almost certainly take quite a bit of wood with it. I'm not sure I would recommend a self adhesive pick guard in this case, and frankly, it is too late for any good remedy other than adjusting technique, or perhaps using a static cling pick guard when playing and leaving it off of the guitar when not playing.

Since ajh and I were typing at the same time I'll ad this:
A clear self adhesive clear pick guard will not lay flat with no trapped air pockets on a worn spruce top, and once again cannot be removed without risk to the top.

[rcc56]

I've never had any gripes with installing a pickguard on an old flat top instrument to prevent pick wear. That's why guards were invented in the first place, and were standard on most steel string flat tops by the early 1930's.

John is right, a clear guard will not lay down on that guitar without air pockets showing. An opaque guard would be better.
I don't know of any reason that I would want to remove a guard later, so long as it's a nice looking guard and has been well installed.

[Cary Fagan]

Hmm. Food for thought. I think probably it's better to protect the guitar with a pickguard but I understand now that removing it would be harmful. So I will have a good think. Any thoughts of whether a guard will dampen the sound? It's nicely resonant and I wouldn't want to lose any of that.

[poul hansen]

If the top is shellac, you can clean it up easily with alcohool and a cut off paintbrush on the most dirty places and then fill the grooves with superglue or less permanent but more labourious with shellac layed on with a paintbrush; sand the lacquer down a few times, without sanding the wood(to keep that original vintage look)then you can apply whatever pick guard you want.

Shellac will subside a little over a month or two, so should be repeated if you want it totally smooth.

This one was dirty and had grooves like yours both sides of the soundhole.

[Richard500]

The (unknown) glue on the self-stick might also react with the old finish, so shellac mightbe both the release agent and the chem barrier. No guaranties. You could also lessen the grip by dusting it with, say, talc or sawdust until it just sticks enough.

[rcc56]

I've installed guards on quite a few guitars that were built without them, including some pre-war Martin and Gibson instruments.
I've never noticed any adverse effects on the sound. I always have used reasonably thin material, about the same thickness that Martin uses.
I suppose that if you installed a very large, 0.100"+ thick guard, like what Gibson used on some of their guitars in the 1960's, you might lose some sound.
I think my Regal Octofone sounds better since I installed a guard, not because the guard changed the sound [it didn't], but because I don't have to play it extra carefully to avoid digging a hole through the top.

[Cary Fagan]

In the end I decided to add the pickguard so as to avoid any more wear on the top and prolong the life of the instrument. Also so I didn't have to worry when playing it. It was a very big area to cover above and below the hole but I think it came out well. I looked at images of some Regal tenors with pickguards to try and get a similar feel to the shape although mostly I was trying to cover the wear. It sounds fine.

[rcc56]

I think it looks a lot better than it did.
Now you can play it without worry.