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Posts: 1708
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to johnguitar)
John-- I wasn't saying that, but I will now: Titebond glues very well to itself. This is well known. But Titebond (yellow glue) is aliphatic resin glue, and PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) is white glue and I don't know whether it bonds well to itself or to Titebond.
John-- I wasn't saying that, but I will now: Titebond glues very well to itself. This is well known. But Titebond (yellow glue) is aliphatic resin glue, and PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) is white glue and I don't know whether it bonds well to itself or to Titebond.
Titebond is a modified PVA glue itself. As for it being a widely held notion that you are safe to reglue over Titebond, I find that highly questionable.
The proof is in the pudding, if you have repair work that sustains after being reglued over Titebond so be it.
There are many technical problems with regluing joints that are not cleared of an old glue. Hide glue is one of the few glues that can sustain being reglued over itself and that is one of the reasons it's valuable in repair shops.
One of the maxims you hear over and over when being taught to repair is don't reglue over white glue - of course it also depends if you get taught by violin repair people or contemporary guitar makers.
Not that I'm trying to tell anyone how to do it, but after having used hide glue since 1978 when I was first introduced to how to use it, and having used many gallons of Titebond for various non guitar making jobs, I'm skeptical of regluing Titebond over Titebond in every repair condition.
Well, if anyone has the guts, the titebond test is easy. *Build a guitar *glue the bridge with titebond original. *Take the bridge off *reglue the bridge with titebond org. *String the guitar with extra high tension and tune up an extra half a tone
Sit and watch what happens for a couple of years. If it holds, then Titebond org can be used for regluing over itself. If you want to be really investigator like, then build another guitar and repeat the above, but use Hot Hide Glue.
Ramzi: good luck. I´m sure your man will fix your problem.
Posts: 1708
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)
I once glued a bridge on with the tie block towards the sound hole. I used Titebond as always. I removed the bridge and re-glued it with the tie block towards the tail, with Titebond. No problems ensued.
I once glued a bridge on with the tie block towards the sound hole. I used Titebond as always. I removed the bridge and re-glued it with the tie block towards the tail, with Titebond. No problems ensued.
Ethan, May I ask how you removed the bridge? I presume you used heat but can you expand on your method.
So this was the first guitar I ever bought. It was like $700 at Easy Music in Honolulu back in '96. After a decade in Hawaii, it came to the desert in 2006, and one sad day last year, I opened the case to find this. Any advice as how to reglue the bridge?
Posts: 1708
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to jshelton5040)
quote:
Ethan, May I ask how you removed the bridge? I presume you used heat but can you expand on your method.
John-- I used a hot spatula, one that is about one inch wide by 8 inches long with an off-set plastic handle, Good Grips, or something like that. It is very thin. I heated it on a clothes iron and gradually slid it under the bridge.
Posts: 1708
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
quote:
Any advice as how to reglue the bridge?
Miguel-- It looks like a clean separation due to cross-grain construction and extreme changes in humidity. (However, perhaps there is a piece of spruce on the bridge near the lower-right corner of the bridge in the photo?) Assuming that the surfaces match up perfectly and that yellow glue was used--it looks like it--then I would re-glue by applying a moderate amount of yellow glue to the bottom of the bridge and clamping it in place overnight. The way I clamp is with two cam clamps, one on each bridge wing, with enough pressure applied to push down some of the arching of the soundboard, so that the soundboard is pushing back.
If yellow glue was used originally I think it illustrates Anders' point perfectly. You can.t tell from a photo.
Bridge regluing is not as straight forward as put glue on it and slap it back down. The bridge needs to be cleaned in some cases and the top needs to be examined.....why bother explaining why......
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
Miguel (and welcome back btw. )
I zoomed in on your photo and even though its difficult to judge from a photo. Here´s my thoughts. The work when gluing the bridge on has been horrible. The amount of glue on the bridge and on the soundboard is very big and I´m surprised it has held up so long. It also looks like it is PVA glue that has been used and that makes my surprise even bigger. Do as Shelton wrote, go to an experienced repairman. Both the bridge and the soundboeard needs serious cleaning.
The good thing is that because of the use of such a huge amount of poor quality glue, there´s very little harm on the parts.
Thanks Ethan, I appreciate you sharing your experience. I am sure that a joint full of glue like Miguel's is very different from what amounts to a starved glue joint like Ramzi's. The starved joint by definition would have less glue and more wood to bond to. I found this when searching for information on this subject. http://www.mcknightguitars.com/glue-hardness.html If anyone is really tempted to take this to heart they should probably do the tests themselves.
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to johnguitar)
pouring a puddle of glue into a cavity is hardly a determinate test for adhesion. I've read several places that titebond adheres well to itself and have used it many times on previously glued surfaces with excellent results.
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)
Thanks, guys for the advice. (good to see you, too Anders. Did you move back to Scandinavia?)
Looks like I'll just take it to someone. Problem with Phoenix is we don't actually have a luthier here. We do have "techs" and electric guitar guys. Maybe one of you guys should just move to Arizona. It hardly ever gets cold here or anything.
The guitar, by the way, was by Matsuoka from the mid-90s. Surprising to see them make such a seemingly elementary error, wouldn't you say?
Posts: 1708
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Another victim of dry weather... (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
I don't think they made an error. Cross-grain construction, where two pieces of wood are glued together with their grains running perpendicular to each other, cannot survive drastic changes in humidity, because each piece is expanding and contracting in perpendicular directions. That's why the moldings on chests that are made of solid wood have to be nailed or screwed on. And I doubt that they would have used an excessive amount of glue, because it would just make a lot of work for them to clean up the squeeze out. In fact, I could see in the picture that squeeze out didn't go to all of the edges of the bridge.
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