Replacement pickguard for 1968 Martin D-35

[woolyh]

A family friend has a 1968 D-35 and the pickguard is long since gone and he mentioned wanting to find a replacement so I thought I'd do him the favor. I checked on the Martin site and they list an "Oversize" pickguard but it's not specific about what guitar it fits and contacting Martin surprisingly they didn't seem to know either.

Is this the right fit for the D-35?

 

[LBXPDX]

I would go over to the unofficial Martin guitar forum and do some searching there. I believe there is some proper prep work that needs to be done in order to clean up the old guard area and there should be some good information on locations to get a replacement pick guard. I have a 68 D28 and when my picture needs to be pulled I will probably replace it with a tortoise even though it is not historically correct

 

[woolyh]

Thanks for the response. Might try contacting Martin again while doing some more forum searching. It took Martin 3 weeks to reply last time though ;p

I'm not sure how much work it needs, something I noticed is that they must have put the lacquer over the pickguard as there was none where the guard used to be.

 

[Jack Daniels]

if you can trace the outline of the old guard (from the shadow on the guitar top) and send me a scan, I can look for one that will fit. I have access to a large stash of NOS Martin Guards and certainly there would be one in the batch that would fit.

 

[adamrobertt]

Thanks for the response. Might try contacting Martin again while doing some more forum searching. It took Martin 3 weeks to reply last time though ;p

I'm not sure how much work it needs, something I noticed is that they must have put the lacquer over the pickguard as there was none where the guard used to be.

Likely so. Probably glued down and lacquered over. You might want to take this to a professional IMHO. Isn't as simple of a job as screwing a fresh guard onto an electric guitar.

 

[mc5nrg]

When the black PG on my 018 cracked- an extreme NOS purchase that may have been baking er rather seasoning in Chuck Levin's display cases for a long time- they just sent a replacement to the shop in Philadelphia* that I had asked to get me one. Tortoise shell and fit fine.

Yes, they did just finish over the guard. A tradition they may still do? Note that PG shrinkage is a common cause of top cracks.

*Bluebond sometime after Dale died. I could have dealt w/ this through a store in Bryn Mawr but for personal reasons didn' t want to give them any $. Turned out the pg was gratis.

 

[rockitcity]

If your friend is the original owner and registered it when new, it might be covered under warranty. My wife's early '70's D-35 had the pick guard shrink and come loose and Martin fixed it at an authorized repair facility at no charge. Of course, if the pick guard is just missing, warranty might not apply.

 

[walterw]

you'll probably need to get one made to precisely fit the edges of the old finish line for the result to look right

 

[Tony Done]

I would also suggest trying UMGF, there are probably custom options that are very good.

 

[woolyh]

Thanks for the replies all.

I don't have any pictures of the guitar but I do have a video.

It doesn't look like there's much damage which why I assumed just sticking a replacement self adhesive guard from Martin would do the trick if it's a good fit. Maybe I'll just take a punt and order one from Martin and send it to him.

I'm in the UK and he's in Asia so I can't really check the guitar out in person again unfortunately.

 

[fernieite]

This guy (Taylor Mullins) makes really nice celluloid pickguards. He's highly regarded on many of the acoustic forums, and he made a beautiful guard for my Harmony sovereign!
https://www.facebook.com/holterpickguards/