During the 80s I played in a band with a guitarist who sprayed his entire guitar (body, neck, fretboard, strings, pickups- everything! with Pledge furniture polish before and after every time he played it. Every other guitarist who saw him do this was horrified and warned him not to do this, but he ignored the advice. I don't know how long the guitar lasted as the band split up, but I would guess not long.
I have been doing exactly the same and all my mates do to this day from way back in the 70,s. My Gibsons and Fenders are as good as they were back then, I have a friend who is a chemist and it would be good to see him debunk this as his knowledge is very good around industrial chemicals and how they react with other chemicals and substances, he plays guitar too, and yes he uses pledge, and he has no issue using it on his 1960,s Les Paul, furniture polish is the go to cleaner for guitars and always has been since I've known, what's in it that makes it fine for french polish and not a guitar???
Greatly appreciated the masking tape "hinges" to lay down the new pickguard in exactly the right spot. A much better idea than I would have come up with. I did slightly cringe at the use of a heat gun on fully tensioned strings, but no "Pops!" So I guess that's a judicious hand at work. Please keep them coming.
I have a 1970 Yamaha FG300 which has a very similar pickguard, I think made from celluloid, it had warped at the bottom and lifted up by an inch, but was really stiff unlike that one. For years it got force glued down , then lifted again , repeat.... in the end I softened it by soaking it in very hot near boiling water, and bending back flat with rubber gloves, until it was pretty flat, then clamping under a load of weight on a flat surface while it cooled. It worked and has stayed flat on the guitar for years now. The other option I read about was to heat it up in the oven, but risk it catching fire at pretty low temps!
But then again. The scratches you get gives personality to the guitar without a pick guard. It shows your dedication to set guitar. Imo it ads that oomph @@joanarling
A good friend and very nice multi-instrumentalist closed her eyes and bought a Hummingbird a few years ago. A dream guitar, but almost out of reach on a very strict single mum household budget. But she says the guitar sounds fantastic when she’s gigging with her americana/folk hobby band. I will tell her about the nitro finish being a bit on the fragile side.
Excellent job - beautiful guitar. And it looks like the Gibson Hummingbird had a slotted bridge pin job done. Made the guitar sound even better is my guess.
I have a 2014 Gibson Hummingbird which I brought new and the pickguard was in the case, not mounted onto the guitar, which I found was standard Gibson practice to allow you the choice of mounting it or not. It has/had the adhesive already applied, and a peel away backing that you just took off and then mounted the pickguard onto the guitar.....basically this adhesive does not stand the test of time [Especially if you live in a warm climate], and the pickguard will start to peel away from the guitar = PITA. I suspect this is the same situation with the guitar in the video, and yes, the bloody things NEVER line up with the sound hole either.
Good idea with the tape hinges - but should use blue painters tape.. Also, should not use heat to remove pickguard because it weakens glue for the bracing underneath. 🙂
Nice sounding guitar nothing real fancy to look at but really the sound and pliability is what should be the most important things when it comes right down to it correct.
You don’t need tools to pull bridge pins. Just push the string down slightly into the hole. The ball end will come free from the end of the pin and the pin will easily lift out. No chance of damaging the pin or marring the surface of the bridge unless you have steel fingertips.
Whenever I've had to remove a pickguard from an acoustic, I've always used naphtha. I wouldn't want to risk heating up the finish too much. Obviously, you're much more familiar with using a heat gun than I am, I just don't trust myself with it.
I’ll take the two builds a week over this format any day. There’s a million repair channels on RU-vid, and none that do what Ben does like Ben. Do Ben stuff!
i know that reaction, i ve had it a few times, luckily, it will go soon. nice guitar good job. Worse reaction I had was with septrum, a type of antibiotics. That one nearly killed me
I think there was a missed opportunity here. It would have been nice to hear a sound test of that guitar both before then after the old pickguard was removed to hear the tone without a giant chunk of plastic glued to the sound board.
I would like to know which hummingbird pickguard you replace with? I have a genius Gibson humming bird but I cannot find a proper replacement for it. Thank you.
lol I used to use Lemon Pledge to clean rosewood fretboards while restringing. My 2018 J45 is one of many Gibson acoustics of this era with delaminating pickguard. Its a common problem. Don't keep it in its case either as nitro offgassing eats cellulite.
Mineral spirits easily remove most adhesives like that and is safe to use on nitrocellulose finishes. Also, you can probably reuse that pickguard after heating and clamping it between two flat surfaces, then use some 3M 468MP transfer adhesive.
Who else believes most acoustics look far better without the pick guard? If you do need one, how about a clear one, which some guitars use? I play fingerstyle, and hence often remove them for aesthetic reasons, and any tech can replace it if you are selling.
I have a Hummingbird I bought new in 2003. The pickguard is not coming loose, but the artwork on the pickguard is 80% worn off. Mine looks like a thinner and harder tortoise shell material than the one in this video, I'd like to replace it but don't know where to get a 2003 Hummingbird pickguard.
I love these Gibson's, and you did a fantastic job even with the radius not matching. Josh should do all your demos. It's my favourite RU-vid game "what cover is this?" Thanks Bun/Josh I had the time of my life 🤣🥰 good riddance to the pledge polish
I have one of these Hummingbirds and even without using any cleaning products the pickguard began peeling off and I had to repair it. The adhesive Gibson use on these pickguards just sucks and the material being weirdly rubbery just wants to roll up
Great video. I have the same problem with my Gibson Hummingbird. I can't seem to find a new pickguard like the one you installed. They don't sell them in the US.
Let me get this right. Gibson sent a replacement part for a feature part of their guitar, and the sizes are different? Isn’t the Hummingbird guitar one size?
The shape of the reaction looks to me like it was the cream they used to keep the tat moist and protected from infection caused that. On a side note has anyone else noticed the uptick in Stew Mac ads during crimson videos? Also has anyone else seen the Driftwood Guitar ad as well?
The "flubber" pickguards that Gibson uses now REFUSE to stay down. Take one off and it will roll into a cylinder after a couple of weeks.Am surprised there hasn't been a class- action lawsuit from angry Hummingbird and J-200 owners.
At first I thought Ben was wearing eye liner and I thought....."oh no, please don't say it's so". To say I was relieved at the end of the video when I saw that it was just inflammation is this year's understatement......phew.
I really hope this is just a joke that isn't funny. If you're genuinely "relieved" that Ben is physically ill and suffering rather than simply wearing eyeliner, then you have some serious judgement issues.
He should confiscate that guitar and give it to someone that has enough common sense not to use future polish on a Hummingbird. Will people ever learn!
@@CrimsonCustomGuitars You should remind him that being gleeful at your customers pain isn't a good long term business strategy... also alcohol works, just don't try rubbing it in 🙂
Make a big point of leaving the strings on at the beginning when they were in the way and then removing the strings at the end anyway. And then when the new one is installed it still isn't lined up with the sound hole. I can't watch your videos.
