1954 Gibson J160E mystery glue

[Paul Breen]

I have a 1954 Gibson J160E in for work. This is the first year of issue for the J160E, it's an interesting piece.

The top and back are glued on with a glue I have not run into yet. It is foam like and present all the way around the perimeter of the top and back. I collected some and it is full of bubbles like an expanding foam insulation. It is fragile and crumbles easily. I tried heating in water for 10 minutes at 160 degrees with no effect. I soaked it in lacquer thinner for 10 minutes, also with no effect. The braces appear to be glued with a White glue(Elmer's?), definitely not the same adhesive.

What is this stuff?

[Paul Breen]

Paul thanks for posting back about the LG 3 with that update. Was the WPR glue just used for the top and back or did they glue everything with it? It was only used for the top and back of the J160e.

I emailed Gibson with a picture attachment and did finally receive a response, actually two responses.

The first response;

"Thanks for your patience while we looked into this for you! We’ve run this around to everyone we could, and cannot get any solid info on this glue. We have a suspicion that there may have been a major repair performed at some point on this guitar, and whoever performed this used some sort of material that is not usually seen for an adhesive. Our records only indicate wood glues and hide glues having been used for our instruments."

I replied; "The entire perimeter of the top and back show evidence of this glue. It seems totally unlikely any repair would warrant removal of both the top and back. 1954 was the first year of issue for the J160e and the model was experimental. The only possible source of this adhesive must have been the Gibson factory, experimenting with what was at the time, a new and modern adhesive. Check your records or ask your repairs department. Someone must have a recollection of experimentation with this glue."

And they responded back;

"We’ve checked every resource possible, and unfortunately we just don’t have record of this type of glue, so we aren’t able to provide any definitive information. Thank you for the inquiry, and sorry we couldn’t provide more help."

So they either genuinely don't know or won't admit experimenting with the WPR glue. It has be since 1954 after all. Employee's of that time would likely all be retired or possibly deceased by now.

[Paul Hostetter]

Not surprising they simply don't know. On the LG-3 the back braces and backstrip showed the telltale squeezeout, and some of them had even fallen out, which removed all doubt. There was no evident squeezeout from other places, so it's hard to tell, but I can't see why they'd do part of the body assembly with one kind of glue and other parts with another. FWIW, the bridge, also held down only by its screws, had been glued with hide glue.

There may be a few folks still at Heritage that would remember. I know no one wants to remember the radio-cured glue from the 70s!