Took the Pic Guard off my new Les Paul - Looks much better

lancemanion

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I just got a couple of Les Paul ukes and they came with cheap looking white pick guards. I really didn't like them. Emailed Epiphone and the tech recommended using Naphtha to remove them (although he said it would void the warranty). I soaked the edge with Naphtha (got it at local paint store) then used a plastic prying tool (the kind used to repair cell phones) to work the edge loose. I then soaked some more Naphtha under the guard and worked it loose. I didn't damage the finish at all. I think it looks much better and it probably helps the tone and volume also. Hope this helps anybody that was considering doing this.

LP 05.jpg
 
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Looks great!
 
Personally think it now looks more like the generic copy les pauls but admit that I too dont like the guard you removed.
 
What I think is funny is that they forgot to do the trapazoid fret markers. if they did that it would have been perfect, IMHO of course
 
oi Lance....them there chooks seem to like it too mate!
 
He's Thanksgiving dinner, been feeding him scraps to fatten him up, so now everytime I open the front door he comes running for a hand out.
 
He's Thanksgiving dinner, been feeding him scraps to fatten him up, so now everytime I open the front door he comes running for a hand out.

Oh no! Thanksgiving dinner! Deary, that sounds like a modern pastoral tragedy in the making. There is a bitter irony in the food chain sometimes...the poor dude thinks he's found favour...my eyes grow misty... :(
 
The pick guards on the real Les Pauls come off allot too. One of mine I have it removed, but the others still have theirs. It all depends, allot of people ont he Les Paul site remove them, and it is a topic of discussion fairly regularly (with or without). I like them, depending on the color and theme of the guitar. And Epi didn't actually forget the traps on the uke. The prototype had them, but they decided to not put them on the production ones to keep the price down and offer it for the price point they did. I kinda wish they kept them tho, even if the price was a little higher. But, no worries, I been doing some inlay work and plan to add them to mine.
 
With or without the pickguard, I'm not really a fan of this uke. It seems like they could have done much better.
 
Well for the price, they did pretty good. I do hope there might be an upgraded model in the future, that would be nice. The action on mine was WAY too high as purchased though. Luckily, that's a five minute fix. The string height from the factory seems to be kinda inconsistent, from what I've read here. I might try removing the pick guard, maybe put a black, brown or tortoise pickguard on. Thanks the the Info on how to do it!
 
"Void the warranty" for taking off the pick guard? HAH!! That's real customer service for you from any company connected with Gibson. Course, if you hadn't taken it off and had a problem with it anyway, the warranty probably would've been void because you "plucked a string." Sorry about the little rant, but Gibson and their affiliates just don't seem to care about the ones that feed them. Can't figure it out.
 
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Actually that isn't at all unusual for something like this to "void the warranty" for most consumer products. I have never had to get warranty work for a Gibson product, but I've found that with most companies, even if "any modification" technically voids the warranty, if the modification wasn't associated with what needs to be repaired under warranty, they generally do it.

I've heard some folks complain about Ruger products (not uke related, I know) not having any warranty at all, but anyone who has ever dealt with Ruger with a problem with one of their products knows Ruger pretty much takes care of anything that isn't obvious abuse.

As there are plenty of potential problems and things that could go wrong with a modification like removing the pickguard. Note that they did take the time to tell the O.P about how to best accomplish it with the least amount of risk to the instrument. I'd say that bodes well for the company, actually.
 
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