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james condino
Jan-14-2008, 2:26pm
I've git a 1907 Gibson A coming into the shop later this week for a bit of repair on loose binding. I know there are hundreds of differen opinions on how folks would fix this today. I believe it was originally put on at the factory with hot hide glue. Is this still appropriate for the repair? It has been several years since I have used anything but wooden binding on my new instruments, so I'm interested in folks current ideas. This is a 100 year old instrument, so I'm not interested in cyanoacrylate options.

Thanks for your help.

j.
www.condino.com

Gail Hester
Jan-14-2008, 2:42pm
James, hot hide glue forms a great bond wood to wood but not wood to plastic and I’ve never seen hide glue residue under binding on the old Gibson. I clean the area as good as I can and use celluloid dissolved in acetone as the adhesive.

sunburst
Jan-14-2008, 4:25pm
I often use titebond for loose bindings, but that's usually those pesky D-35 waist bindings.
For your situation I would probably use hide glue. It will hold if the binding fits in place very well. If you have to stretch it, precautions might have to be taken.

While Gail is right that hide glue doesn't stick to plastic (celluloid) particularly well, nothing holds plastic bindings to wooden instruments particularly well. it's never a joint I would consider structural, and it's not intended or expected to be. If you grab a plastic binding and pull, it will usually rip right out of the slot no matter what you glued it in with, except maybe epoxy. I think hide glue will do fine.

Michael Lewis
Jan-15-2008, 1:34am
Check the mating surface of the binding. If it has any wood fibers it will glue well with Titebond or hide glue. If it is rough the same should hold true.

A lot depends on how well the binding fits and why it is loose. I'm sure you have enough experience to deal with this effectively.

Now that you have our attention we would like a report when the repair is complete. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

james condino
Jan-15-2008, 4:49am
Thanks everyone for the input. I've built a lot of instruments over the years, it has just been about five years since I've touched any celluloid or plastic binding. I just thought I'd put it out there to see what the general opinion and current standard was.

Repair trends change regularly with time and increased knowledge. Remember all of the vintage Martins that had the heel block slipped and the binding tucked before everyone figured out that steaming the neck joint and resetting it was a better idea?

I'll post images later in the month when this one works it's way through the lineup.

Enjoy the day...

j.
www.condino.com

Hans
Jan-15-2008, 5:17am
Titebond works well and cleans up nicely.