Removal Of Foil Tape On A Warmoth Pickguard?

[satchurator]

Hi,

I purchased a custom pickguard from Warmoth but neglected to request omission of the foil shielding.
I will be using a Callaham aluminum shield instead, so am thinking about removing the adhesive foil.
Does anybody know if Warmoth's foil will come off easily and without leaving adhesive residue?
(If it ends up being a hack job with lots of tearing and goo-gone then I'd probably just leave it intact).

Thanks!

 

[stratamania]

I pulled it off before, but then applied some copper shielding so was not concerned about residue and I'm not sure if I cleaned any off or not.

From what I can remember it came off easily, and if there does happen to be any sticky residue it would probably clean off with lighter fluid, naphtha or the like quite easily.

 

[line6man]

Why are you trying to remove it?

 

[fdesalvo]

^ what he asked.  If you are gonzos about shielding it, just lay your copper tape over the top of what's on there.

 

[line6man]

^ what he asked.  If you are gonzos about shielding it, just lay your copper tape over the top of what's on there.

That wouldn't be a good idea unless the copper has conductive adhesive. You don't want to create a capacitor between the ground planes. In any case, though, it makes no difference what you use for shielding a pickguard. If it has aluminum on it already, then there is no reason to remove it and reshield with something else. There won't be any advantage.

FWIW, though, I was not aware that Warmoth even offered aluminum shielding on their pickguards. My pickguards have always just come plain.

 

[stratamania]

I don't know the OPs reasons for removing it but the reason I did was quite simple and perhaps obvious. I wanted my copper shielding to extend further than what was already there and I wanted the shielding I applied to be of an even nature not stuck over something else.

 

[Cagey]

I purchased a custom pickguard from Warmoth but neglected to request omission of the foil shielding.
I will be using a Callaham aluminum shield instead, so am thinking about removing the adhesive foil.
Does anybody know if Warmoth's foil will come off easily and without leaving adhesive residue?
(If it ends up being a hack job with lots of tearing and goo-gone then I'd probably just leave it intact).

That little patch of aluminum foil they put on the back down around the controls isn't a shield, per se. Much too small for that, were it possible for such a thing to work in the first place. It's just there to dissipate static charges that will develop as you rub the pickguard with your fingers. You'll hear "crackling" noises on some guitars that don't have that as you rub the 'guard. You don't need to remove it if you're going to waste your time, money and effort applying foil to the entire 'guard.

 

[satchurator]

@line6man

Why are you trying to remove it?

Similar to stratamania’s reply #5: I already had a Callaham full-pickguard shield before I received the Warmoth pickguard. Since I have it, I want to install it. And if its simple to remove the existing Warmoth foil, then I’ll do that because it'll be redundant.

 

[fdesalvo]

^ what he asked.  If you are gonzos about shielding it, just lay your copper tape over the top of what's on there.

That wouldn't be a good idea unless the copper has conductive adhesive. You don't want to create a capacitor between the ground planes. In any case, though, it makes no difference what you use for shielding a pickguard. If it has aluminum on it already, then there is no reason to remove it and reshield with something else. There won't be any advantage.

FWIW, though, I was not aware that Warmoth even offered aluminum shielding on their pickguards. My pickguards have always just come plain.

Good point - I always buy copper tape with conductive adhesive.

 

[satchurator]

For anybody who is interested or searching with a similar question, the Warmoth foil came off easily in one piece and left only a little adhesive behind. My particular custom pick guard was made in Spring 2015.