Gretsch Pickguard Paint removal
A lot of people are asking about the best way of removing Pickguard paint, I'll show you the best way in easy to follow steps in this article. I also wanted to fit a guard to my Grestch 6120 Brian Setzer Hot Rod and be able to see the Green Sparkle finish.
I'll show you a way of safely removing the Pickguard paint and adding a Hot Rod Clear Pickguard to show off your Gretsch guitar's great paint finish! Here's how...
to make a 'Phantom Guard' - for your 6120 Brian Setzer Hot Rod!
Gretsch Brian Setzer Hot Rod Pickguard -
What is the best Paint removal method? Read on and find out.....
I recently purchased this 6120 Hot Rod in Extreme Coolant Green Sparkle. The lack of a Pickguard was a big issue as it made playing it less easy so I have decided to fit a guard, but at the same time have one that allows you to see the great finish as much as possible. Here is the 'Phantom Guard' job.
Gretsch Brian Setzer 6120 - Extreme Green Sparkle! - no guard - yet...
Having both versions of 6120 Hot Rod guitars I also don't want to lose the ability to see the paint finish on the green one - its of the best aesthetics of the guitar . So, I want to avoid a solid painted finish guard. The Silver paint is only on the rear face of the pickguard, so here is how to remove it. Safely!
The 2022 Green Sparkle (L) and 2005 Lime Gold Hot Rods (R) -
The genuine 6120 Hot Rod Pickguard will fit both guitars is the good news
I did order an aftermarket non genuine 6120 Guard in clear plastic sheet for this project but it was not to the same dimensions, after seeing the paint removal question, the solution was to modify a proper Gretsch one. The obvious part to use for this project was the Hot Rod 6120 Guard, a made in Japan part, available as a spare part.
Genuine Gretsch Brian Setzer Hot Rod silver paint backed Pickguard
For some guitar colours, the silver painted guard would look great against the paint, but on this sparkle finish 6120 I think the guitar finish is so 'mega' that it has to be shown in all its glory.
Pickguard reverse showing pressed in details
The solution to me was therefore quite obvious - buy a silver backed Hot Rod guard and make it see through. I've seen many posts about people wanting to know the best method of paint removal from a Pickguard. So here are the methods to use and those to avoid, based on my years of car restoration and painting work experience.
Firstly, the things to definitely avoid doing or using to remove the paint -
Here's why not to use these - from left to right above, explained below:
Sandpaper scratches too deep, Steel Wool is dirty, scraping is harsh and hard on the hands, Acetone (Nail polish remover) melts plastic so is a big no, Paint stripper may also damage the plastic and Thinners may attack or cloud the plastic material of the guard.
So now you know what not to use and why.
The best method to use for a clear Pickguard is here below
It is - Wet or Dry car bodyshop paper, used wet with washing up liquid
I've been around car restoration since 1982 and paint is one major area I have worked with on cars and I have also sprayed guitars I have built or refinished. So, to get the silver off the Pickguard back surface, I use a 1200 Grit grade Wet or Dry paper with water.
Pickguard reverse view and 1200 Grit paper
Wet the pickguard rear face first, this has the paint area we are going to remove on and we will be only working on this side of the guard.
(In the direction of the arrows as above)
Avoid working in 'swirl' patterns as they may take more polishing later
Wet the guard rear face and wet the paper, then start by rubbing the wetted paper (abrasive side down to the work surface) working from one end to the other along the 'longest side' direction of the Pickguard. Use a light pressure on the paper only, it minimises scratching. You only want to remove the paint layer on the back of the guard, not key the surface for later painting!
Stop and check progress and also re-wet the paper frequently during the work, this helps to avoid scratches and over working the job. We are only removing the paint layer back to the clear plastic on this job.
You'll quickly see the paint has started to be removed
as we have daylight showing through, above the flames logo
Do keep the paper wet to avoid it dragging and scratching!
Regularly wash the paper during this operation and change it to a new cutting area as you go, rinse the rear of the plate too in the water to keep it wet for the work. The 1200 grade paper is a good compromise grade as it is less likely to lead to more scratching and clean up work with polishing, later on.
A harsher paper grit grade may be quicker to use but the polishing may take longer to resolve any scratches left. Check along the guard edges as paint can remain there.
The indented parts retain the paint, we want to keep this for this situation
as seen in this rear side of the guard view
One 'Phantom guard' clear of paint - just requires a polish!
see how the name and flames logo left stand out - just what we want
Now you are at this stage of the work, check to see no paint remains on the guard edges, once that is all clear, wash the guard off under a cold water tap and dry the guard off on a towel or kitchen paper.
At this stage, the guard may look a bit 'foggy' - this will soon polish off
There is still some paint residue to remove on the edges here, but not much
Now we need to do the polish up job, I use Farecla G3 Rubbing compound, used in car body shops to polish paint after spraying. T-Cut also works for this job too, I tend to use the Farecla G3 as it is quite neutral and has no harmful (to my skin) residues or solvents. It is also not too harsh in abrasiveness on the surface to be polished.
Wet a small scrap of clean soft cloth, add on a small toothpaste size blob amount of G3 paste and start polishing the pickguard in the same 'long side' pattern you did to remove the paint.
As you will see from the cloth below, at this early stage of polishing the G3 has rubbed off the remaining bonded micro layer of paint from the plastic guard material that has keyed into the Pickguard surface. This is good to see, you will soon have removed any trace of this.
Using Farecla G3 rubbing compound, you can see the last of the Silver paint -
this is normal and any remaining paint is quite quickly removed by polishing work.
Work and check the progress, remember to keep the cloth slightly damp to help lubricate the polishing and to slightly dilute the polishing paste. It should not take long to get the guard free of paint, abrasions and clear to see through, then wash and dry off.
Wet the guard off occasionally to see progress -
we are getting there quite nicely.
The logos are still present and visible - but so is the guitar's finish -
so we are achieving the end result!
A quick test fit to show what I was trying to achieve here.
Top view - 'Audience view.'
Pickguard test fit - it is almost invisible! -
Next is to prepare the hardware for fitting the guard
As we have achieved the Pickguard near invisibility, we need to consider the mounting bracket - of which we will use a genuine Gretsch one, disguised to blend in as much as we can with the finish on the guitar top in this case.
A new pickguard 6120 Bracket - I could only get a gold plated one -
this has countersunk holes on the foot - shown here for the screw head flush fit
The gold plating is a thinnish flash coat and was easily polished off
back to the chrome - here we can then prepare it for a colour coat
two thin and fairly translucent coats to help hide this against the paint top.
The bracket was then sprayed with a clear lacquer from a can -
I sprinkled on some layers of Green Sparkle custom car paint metal flakes
Once the bracket had been painted over, I used a spray coat of clear acrylic lacquer and sprinkled on some green metallic metal flakes used in custom car paint onto the wet clear acrylic surface.
I carefully damped this down with a tissue to bed it into the clear coat when it was near to dry. I did this a couple of times and then left it overnight to dry out each time. I then applied a brush coat of Tamiya Acrylic clear coat over the sparkle coat, using one coat per day over 3 days and left it to harden for a day between applications.
You can see the clear guard and the bracket in Green Sparkle! -
The Green will make the bracket blend in better than a plain chrome one.
The fixing parts are something to consider next, I had a screw to fit the plate to the guitar top which saved me a lot of money as the genuine part and bush is expensive for what it is. A 15mm length x 2mm screw should be fine for this job.
This should just be flush with the inside of the guitar top and not snag any wiring running underneath the wooden top of the guitar. I did cut mine to length and filed the end to take off any burrs before fitting.
When drilling the hole for the top plate screw, do it carefully with a cordless drill at low speed, this will help the drill not go through the top and cause any damage to any wiring under the maple top board of the guitar.
The screw cut to 15mm length should then screw in and remain flush with the underside of the top board.
Three mounting screws, Felt spacer, plastic spacer disc and Bracket
Colour matched to merge in with the guitar paintwork
The mounting parts are going to be 'colour coded' so that they merge in with the guitar colour more than if left unpainted. The Felt Spacer is actually a Dremel Hobby Tool polishing felt pad and quite firm, it is 7mm thickness x 10mm diameter so ideal to go under the Pickguard.
The 'Ghost Guard' is now in place -
the sparkle finish Bracket merges in quite well
The 10mm width of the Felt allows it to provide support to the underside of the guard. I gave it a couple of light coats of green acrylic which will seal and firm up the Felt fibres and also tint it to merge in to the guitar colour better than the plain white of the original felt.
The Felt had a hole for the Dremel Mandrel to go through so I did not have to make a new hole for the screw to pass through. So this was a bonus too.
The Logo and name were left on the plate and stand out -
they are not too obtrusive to the eye and tell you it's a genuine Hot Rod part!
The Gretsch equivalent spacer part is a plastic piece of tube - used as a spacer. The Felt being wider adds a bit more stability I think than the thin wall plastic tube.
The job has worked out really well and achieved the objective -
a clear guard, using Hot Rod Gretsch genuine parts
The screw crown tops were lightly sanded with 1200 grade to remove the Gold flash plating and then painted with transparent Tamiya clear Green acrylic and given a clear coat to seal them and help them merge in with the guitar.
The white plastic plastic disc is a spacer, it goes under the Pickguard Bracket for the nut. A Black Felt disc goes under the guard and is hardly visible as it is over an F-Hole.
See my note in this picture about the screw hole
for the body to Bracket screws positioning!
The drill bits you need to use may vary in size for the screws you use but for the genuine Gretsch Japan screws for the Bracket side mounting, I used a 1.5mm to make the holes for these smaller Bracket to body side screws and a 2.5mm for the top screw through the plate into the body - however, I had this screw in stock - so you may need to check against your drill bits selection to match a drill of the right size to the screw before doing the job.
REMEMBER - MEASURE AND CHECK BEFORE YOU DRILL!
Then check again....
I recommend that you use masking tape under where you want to drill the bracket, firstly, it is easy to mark onto the tape with a permanent Sharpie type fine liner and secondly it helps stop the drill bit slipping and damaging the paint.
Loose assemble the guard to the Bracket so you can move them but not so they slide around. Try the guard on the guitar top. Locate so the guard it fits around the Pickups and also has a 1mm or so gap against the side of the neck - basically as long as it is not smack up against the neck when fixed down. When this done, you can nip the nut and screw up but don't overdo it or you can crack the guard.
Note the bracket position in the photo - it points back toward the E string end of the Tunamatic bridge - this is handy to know if you don't have another guitar as a pattern to copy from.
I then test fitted my Felt to the screw through the Pickguard and tried the Pickguard on the guitar before drilling anything! I checked it off against the guard on the Lime Gold 6120 Hot Rod.
Once I was sure all was right, I carefully drilled the Bracket guard holes into the body and fitted the screws, then aligned the guard on the top and drilled that. One point here before you drill the top hole into the body top is that the Bracket guard has a slot that allows some traverse movement which you may require, to get the guard to line up correctly on the top. So do check before you drill!
The job is now done - from here you can hardly tell the green 6120 has a Pickguard!
only a slight shadow from the green sparkle bracket gives it away.
This Pickguard addition has made this 6120 Hot Rod a different guitar to play.
It is just such a better guitar to play with the guard being added. It adds precision to the right hand placement for single notes, solos and chord playing.
I hope that this post has shown you how easy it is to safely remove the paint from a Gretsch Pickguard and also how to add a guard to a Brian Setzer 6120 Hot Rod guitar!
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