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Pretty much as the title states, I'm wondering what kind of glue people would recommend for gluing a wooden pick guard to a french polished top.

Thanks

I am not a huge fan of pick guards, my hunch is the added weight is not a plus for sound quality/production - but seems it matters not since so many guitars have them. Plus for some playing styles they are a must have -- but Willey's guitar in on the cover of AG mag looks crap but still going.

Even Elmer's sticks well to (wax free) shellac -- I'd use thin double sided tape if only to help prevent sound hole cracks that could occur if the pick guard wood and the sound-board wood expand and contract at different rates with humidity change.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

The same adhesive sheet that is used on lacquer and other guitar finishes works for plastic pickguards on a FP top so I don't see why it wouldn't work here. I would completely finish all sides of a wooden pick guard before installing to minimize movement.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

+1 on the pressure-sensitive adhesive sheets. I've used the 3M product that stewmac sells: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Pickguards/Pickguard_materials/Pickguard_Adhesive_Sheet.html, but LMI sells something similar (if it's not identical): http://www.lmii.com/products/mostly-not-wood/pickguard-material/transfer-adhesive Take a look at Robbie O'Brien's video on how to use this properly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kVRmu5_k8I

Where I've done a wood pickguard (like the one on my avatar), it has always matched a fingerboard and/or bridge, so I've treated it the same way with a bit of lemon oil after installation. No other finish, but seems to work fine.

I/ve used fish glue on a small spalted sycamore pickguard.intended for a tenor pineapple uke.

+2 for the pressure-sensitive adhesive

Also - do you know the "hinge" method using masking tape to make a hinge to locate the guard when installing - works great.

Here is a "Hack" for ya...

How about Velcro?

Then you can change your pick guard to suit your mood...

I'm wondering the same question at the moment. But like ken I am concerned about the different expansion rates of contrasting wood causing a crack on the soundboard. I did wonder about rather than gluing the whole of the wooden pick guard on, having extremely thin post-like shims so that there was only a few points of contact between the sound board and the pick guard.
Does this sound like a sensible idea?

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We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at guitars.

fwiw I glue my wooden guards onto plastic then use the adhesive sheets for reasons stated.

Thanks for the tips

it seems like the pressure sensitive sheets might be the way to go

Hesh-I recall seeing the tape hinge on a Dan Erlwine video a while back, I'll have to go back to refresh my memory- thanks

jfmckenna- what kind of plastic sheet? how thin?

I've never done a pickguard before, and have not really thought much about them, hadn't even considered the expansion contraction issue . I've mostly built ukes up till now and am moving in the guitar direction, even then I'm not that fond of them but this time it might be a good option to cover a cosmetic issue on the bottom edge of a rosette. That, and my son who will be playing it a lot wanted one, I wasn't originally planning it, but when the time came it seemed like an easy out for a poorly routed rosette channel . I like the fact that this is one choice I don't have to make right away, who knows maybe I'll bag the pickguard in the end, I'll make it and see if its better with or without. This is for a guitar I have going for the local woods building chlalange

I don't remember how thin the plastic sheet is but it was thinnest I could get in black. The black makes a nice line. Most of the wood I use was a very thin walnut burl.