Gluing Down Lifting Guild Pickguard

Here we have the infamous lifting pickguard, familiar to many players of older Martins, Guilds, Gibsons, etc.  Our project Guild clearly suffers from this syndrome.

For decades, American guitarmakers used celluloid pickguards glued to the top.  The celluoid shrinks over time, and begins to pull off from the top.  In some instances, it may stay attached, but the shrinkage causes splits or cracks.

In any event, I need to reglue the edges of the pickguard where it's coming up off the top.

I carefully went around the edges with my trusty palette knife - inserting it until it hit a section that was still glued down.  The idea here isn't to take the whole guard off, but rather to free up anything that's loose so I can get glue under it.

I made a caul to put under the top beneath the pickguard to support it.  You can see how I routed two channels that will fit over the top braces.

The caul's made out of birch ply - it's solid but it chipped here and there.  No big thing, but it's not the most beautiful caul ever.

Now I can get glue under the loose and raised sections of the pickguard.  I just spread regular Titebond onto the trusty knife and slid it under.

It makes a mess, but the glue is water-soluble, so it cleans up easily.

It's a good thing, too, because I made a mess.

I did tape around the pickguard too, to avoid getting too much glue everywhere.   I wiped up as much as I could with a damp rag.

Then I stuck the caul underneath, and put a piece of waxed paper on the top of the pickguard.  Then I clamped down a hunk of wood to hold the whole thing down flat.