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A friend asked if I could look at his old acoustic. This was his first guitar and he wanted to give it to his son to learn to play.

I looked it over and passed along it's death sentence to my friend. Told him he'd be better off buying a better guitar for his son to learn on. He could wrap up over half what he could buy an inexpensive Tak or old Korean Epi for. And with brass (flat) frets, even if I made it playable it wouldn't be long before they'd be gone again. He wasn't surprised, and told me to forget it, he'd turn it into a wall hanger. He's been out of work for 11 months, so I knew money was an issue.

But as I was trying to put it back in the cardboard case, I just couldn't give it back to him in that condition. This obviously was a keepsake and meant something to him. Screw the money, I had to do some things to it before I gave it back. Popped the hollow plastic nut loose (it broke in two pieces, CA'd it back together) and aligned it with the neck so the low E didn't fall off the frets. Replaced the old broken saddle with a bone one that I'd taken down a bit too much for my Sigma, but matched the stock one surprisingly well. Brightened up the brass frets a bit and tomorrow I'll get some hardware to replace the missing ("Really? I don't know what happened to them, I haven't done anything with them.") bridge bolts.

The pick guard was obviously bowed up from the top and it didn't take much investigation for it to pop loose. Now I'm stuck. I don't want to make a new one, but I don't know how to get the old one to relax so I can glue it back down. Minor flexing rewarded me with a loud crack sound, so I don't want to try clamping it down for fear it will split. Would some oven time at 180 degrees let it relax? I really want to keep it original if I can. Worse case I'll make a thin wood pick guard and put the old one in the case.

Any ideas from those with more experience than I?

I'm more worried about the horrible original glue job on that pick guard. Major overkill and looks like it might be what caused the bowing in the first place? Personally I would scrap it and order a replacement from LMI or Stew Mac, scrape that old glue up and clean the area and properly glue the replacement down. That original one looks pretty shot to me, regardless I wouldn't try to glue it or anything else down without cleaning up that glue mess from the original.

If I can get the original to lay down flat, obviously I'd have to get the glue pond off before I could re-attaché it. Remember this is a free gratis job, so I don't want to spend any more money on it than I have to. Plus I'd like to give it to him by Tuesday, so I really don't have time to order parts and pieces.

I suppose, worse case, I could sand down the edges to get enough flat surface to glue it down solid. After all, it probably won't really be played much.

I used to tell them I could fix it so no one else could..... It's a flower pot.
You're a gem for trying, Allan.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Oh man.
An instrument(?) like that is a sweater with a loose thread dangling off. Don't pull on it! you'll quickly have a ball of yarn at your feet.
Sorry, not very helpful.
I have no idea what the pate' not holding the guard on is.
I would put a healthy bur on a scraper, double stick the guard to the bench, and quickly scrape all the way down to whatever black plastic that is to see if it was any more pliable w/out the glue.
That would be a way to quickly get to the next fork in the road.
I doubt solvents would be useful.

Have you tried using vinegar to remove the glue? If it isn't epoxy you may have luck and it will soften it enough to scrape it off.

As for flattening out the old pickguard try a warm clothes iron. The pick guard on my CF-100 had one corner that was bowed up and someone had used what I think was model cement on the corner to glue it back down. The glue ate into the celluloid and deformed it in 2 dime sized spots. I wanted to replace it with something that looked original but none of the plastics have the same look as the original and to buy new celluloid sheet will cost about $50 by the time you add in the hazardous material handling cost for shipping.

I first soaked it in hot water and then used vinegar to remove the glue from the back. Then set the cloths iron at the #3 setting and put a blue shop towel over the guard and used the iron to work out the warped spot. I then flipped it over and used the tip of the iron on the spots that were distorted from the glue. I made those spots just proud of the surface of the guard and then wet sanded it with 600 wet or dry paper with a block and worked my way down to 5000 grit and then buffed it out.

Yours is in much worse shape than mine but you may have some luck with it.

Here is how mine turned out. The corner closest to the camera is the one that had the bad spot. You can still see a little bit of it and there are some pock marks in the upper part but it turned out pretty good and saved me $50.

Hope this helps,
Bob

Tried the hot water and vinegar, no go.
Steam iron with damp paper towels and pressing between some plywood seemed to flatten it back pretty well. Until I put it back over the glue and a little pressure split it lengthwise. So now I do have to order a replacement, as well as get the old muck scraped off so it will stick down. Hopefully that's the last thing on this job.

Just realized I hadn't posted an update on this thing. Mr. Farmer you were right, it was like a loose sweater string.

My bigest concern was the absence of the bridge bolts. There was some evidence that they were screws, and had been driven into the top. I made a bridge plate since I don't believe it ever had one. In the process of enlarging the holes for the screw head, each threw a chunk of wood off. Finally got things in place and plugged the bridge surface. A stain pen matched well enough.

Ordered a sheet of acrylic and fabbed up a new pickguard. No matter how or what I tried, I couldn't get all of the old glue off the top. Ultimately used double face tape to put in back on. Custom caul to help clamp it to make sure it stayed put.

Had to tighten down the tuners so the gears meshed. Oiled the fret board. Several times. Polished the frets. Strung it up with some light nylon strings and with great trepidation began to tune it up. Ultimately got nervous, and left it a step down.

Gave it back to the owner, who was quite surprised. I told him he could play it for about 30 minutes then he had to promise me it would become a wall ornament.

Big ups for Allan.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince