What's her backstory? - F-50R Pickguard

SteveT

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I joined the Guild family last year when I got a great deal on a 1984 F-50R on Craigslist. I love everything about this guitar and she is built like a tank. No structural problems but there are issues with the pickguard. I know that sometimes they will shrink but the gap where the pickguard meets the neck is pretty large and it makes me wonder what really happened. Many pictures of F-50R’s from this era seem to have black pickguards instead of the tortoise shell one like mine. She can’t talk to me so I am asking the Guild community to help me out. What did her past boyfriends do to her before she met me?

Questions -
Is this the original pickguard?
Do you think someone replace it and did not measure right?
Did pickguards come in both black and tortoise shell that year?
Will keeping it on cause future problems?
Do all F-50’s have the same size pickguard throughout the years?
Where is a good place to get a replacement if I want one?

Thanks!
http://tinypic.com/r/33mx0zt/9
http://tinypic.com/r/15g6x4x/9
http://tinypic.com/r/vw2ms/9
http://tinypic.com/r/2gufajd/9
 
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Bonneville88

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Congrats on a sweet F50!

Original pick guard appears to have been replaced with a wrong size / shape pick guard.
Might try carefully tracing / refining the contour of the original pick guard, getting
some pick guard material from StewMac and try making your own.
https://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Resources/Learn_About_Pickguard_Making_and_Repair/
https://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and_Supplies/Pickguard_Materials/
The replacement pick guard on the guitar would need to be carefully removed.
If not DIY, any good guitar shop can likely take care of it.

Pick guard shapes and body shapes of various Guilds changed somewhat through the years -
here's an F50 believed to be from the early 1960s, a '78 F50 BLD and a '12 F50 STD (both the 78 and 12 archback / maple) -
that's assuming all pick guards pictured are original, which may or may not be the case but
is believed to be at time of posting...

NiimQgp.jpg
 
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SteveT

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Hey Bonneville 88 - Thanks! Great information and pictures. I knew something wasn't right with that gap. I am going to look for a good luthier around Sacramento to help me out on this one. This would be my first pickguard replacement and if it was a lesser model guitar I might take the chance of experimenting but not with this one. I am not interested in getting her back to absolute original specs and I really like the look of a black pickguard on this guitar. Especially with the white pegs with black dots. The people on this forum are the best.
 

Bonneville88

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Steve - drilling down a bit - interesting to see the difference in where the
fretboard ends relative to the sound hole on your '84 vs my '78.
Looks like your original pick guard was the same contour as on my '78.

rXygn8yh.jpg
 
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Cougar

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...Looks like your original pick guard was the same contour as on my '78.

Yeah, it looks to be the right shape, but a piece near the fretboard was cut off or something. As you say, Steve, take her in and have a new pickguard put on - just big enough to cover the discolorations. And have it meet the fretboard, of course. The fix will not have happened until we see new photos! :tiger:
 

Guildedagain

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Just live with it, It's not that big a deal?

It's definitely an D35 pickguard and a real pretty one at that.

The Mc Guyver in me says artfully cut a little scrap of pickguard material, and glue it in. Way easier and cheaper than redoing the whole thing.

I just happen to have some of the original material that Hans sent me to make a pickguard for the D4-12, long story involving somewhat spontaneous combustion, and an airborne fireball, in the woodshed...

I'm sure I can find it, send you a scrap, it will match.

You'll be the only one to know, probably the only one to care anyway.

I used real strong double sided tape, worked amazing. Trace and cut out your piece, place it, hinge it with blue tape, peel the backing off the tape, lay it back down, press, remove blue tape, done.

Or, get a sheet from Hans if he still has one, and go through the process. Finding the correct guard for an old Guild wasn't a thing when I was looking for one.


large.jpg


Material from Hans.

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D4-12

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chazmo

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Yeah, it looks to be the right shape, but a piece near the fretboard was cut off or something. As you say, Steve, take her in and have a new pickguard put on - just big enough to cover the discolorations. And have it meet the fretboard, of course. The fix will not have happened until we see new photos! :tiger:

Yup, totally agree with Cougs. That was a pretty poor job replacing that pickguard, whoever did it. Pretty easy fix, Steve, provided the guard that's on there was affixed with proper adhesive. It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't though, in which case I'd leave it alone rather than pull up fretboard wood during removal.
 

Guildedagain

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What he said ^

When I did get the guard off the D4-12, someone had been under there before, did horrible things to the area, which can be buffed out but never be undone, but it does get covered over.

If your eyes are good enough, you can see the top damage through the guard after it shrinks into the top some, this would be through the thin tortoise material.
 

adorshki

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Did pickguards come in both black and tortoise shell that year?
Doubt it but possibly Guild themselves used off-spec color if necessary.
They were pretty lax about stuff like that, we see it all the time.
If you want to be period correct suggest doing some google image searching, but I recently tried to ID the vintage of an F50 form photos myself, and my memory is that yes late '70's to early '80's showed black guards.
THEN when the models got the new "JF" numbers (JF65 for the F50) ca '87-9, they had tortoise 'guards....UNTIL they got an abalone rosette ca '94 at which time they went black again.
So varied over time and as others showed, even the shape varied.
 
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adorshki

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I believe that's a D35 pickguard.
Don't think so, dreadnought guards had different contours than F-body 'guards so countours wouldn't have matched as in Bonneville's photos.
Dreadnought 'guards just don't look right on F-bodies.
Also in general for a given period it would have been the same guard on all the dreadnoughts unless there was a special color reserved for a model, like black on D55's.
Exceptions would have been very early D25/D35 with an unusual "truncated" p/g:
xwzxx9wikwlwkkiply6x.jpg

Can't recall ever seeing anything like that on any other dread models.
(The 'guard that is, the silking is just their everyday sitka. No joke)
 
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beecee

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I happen to like black pick guards with ebony fret boards, tortoise with rosewood.
 

Guildedagain

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I'd say the guard is dead nuts the same as the one I made for the D4-12, which someone had scraped the original giant guard off off (can't blame them, it's too big, goes all the way to the bridge, it's a turn off for me too), and the guard someone had replaced the oversized original with was this small dread pickguard shape.

I have a good mind for figures, and there's no that many pickguard shapes for these old guitars. I spent about three months studying this back in 2016 I think it was.


Yes, black with Ebony, tortoise with Rosewood ;-)
 

adorshki

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I'd say the guard is dead nuts the same as the one I made for the D4-12, which someone had scraped the original giant guard off off (can't blame them, it's too big, goes all the way to the bridge, it's a turn off for me too), and the guard someone had replaced the oversized original with was this small dread pickguard shape.
I have a good mind for figures, and there's no that many pickguard shapes for these old guitars. I spent about three months studying this back in 2016 I think it was.
I've got a pretty good eye too, but much better in real life than from pics.
To be fair though you could be ight, and I can see it's possible Guild may have even used a kind of "universal 'guard" which fit both shapes closely enough for a time, but my comment was based on how different the early F50 is from the '78 Bonneville posted.
That might well be a kind of "universal" guard on '80's-'90's era guitars.
But note also that the guard you traced for your D4-12 follows the body edge contour perfectly, and how the 'guards on Richie's G41 look to be in fact F50-style 'guards, they don't mirror the contours nearly as closely, and the G41 was in fact an oversize dread with a 17" lower bout width:
MarkWright_1.jpg

Anyway, I think of the "F body" guards as traditionally a little skinnier in the waste and a little wider by the bridge to better complement the F-body shape.
Note the 'guard on your D4-12 is pretty equal depth at its widest, on both ends.
But the more I look at it, the more I think you might be right about the OP'S '84, that might well be a dreadnought 'guard from a later time:
If it had been properly matched to the fretboard it would have required extensive radiusing to match the rosette correctly, and wouldn't have covered the outline of the original.
 

SteveT

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Wow! Thanks for all the feedback from the Guild community. Best news to hear is that most agree that what is on my guitar won't cause any further damage. I really do appreciate the advice and offer for "Guildedagain" on sending a piece to fill the gap but I think I am going to pass. Thank you though. I am going to leave her as is for now until I find the right person to help me replace it with a black pickguard to match the ebony fretboard. I'm in no rush and I am just so glad I found this guitar. Also, today I got a personal email from Hans Moust about answering questions about my guitar. I usually do not respond to random emails but he looks pretty legit and nice to see others on this site referring to him. In an effort to support and give back to his community, I will get back to him.
 

SteveT

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I just sent Hans an email answering his questions about my guitar. I hope to someday read his book and it sounds like he is working on new one. Also, if I ever take the old pickguard off my guitar I will be sure to save it and pass it on to someone on this forum who may find it useful.
 

Bonneville88

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Added another :happy:

Early '60s, mid-60s, late 70's, and an '11.

ucaU4vd.jpg
 
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