Regarding the right glue for right job.

by Taffy Evans

Oct 7, 2023

Hi, there was a post recently started by Walter regarding the best glues for certain guitar repair and/or building tasks. I came across this photo of a job I had some time ago where epoxy was used to re-glue this bridge by somebody.

I could not get the glue to give way using heat, not without damaging the guitar anyway, so I had to plane it off. The picture shows the old bridge and the new replacement one.

Taff 

  • up

    Walter W Wright

    yeesh

    from the pic it looks like the bridge was largely glued over the finish?

    what did you use for the replacement bridge? for a long time now i've defaulted to hot hide glue for bridges, both for reversibility and for creep resistance 

    Oct 8, 2023

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      Taffy Evans

      Hi. This job was so long ago that I have forgotten the details, but going by the details in the story below I would not be surprised if the bridge was glued to lacquer.

      Short story...]I hope]

      In the mid to late 1970s, I was doing a lot of work on Ovation guitars, [ where I learned how not to build guitars] I contacted the manufacturer to find out what glue they used in their guitars, but they declined to share that info.

      However, long story short, a visitor from interstate to my workshop happened to be a scientist and when I told him of the glue problem, he offered to research it for me.

      What I did not expect was to get, in the mail, a full breakdown of the contents of that glue. I did not understand a word except for the last couple of lines, "  This is a construction adhesive and I would suggest not suitable for guitar building. It would normally be applied using a caulking gun".

      I just went looking for that report and found a letter from Ovation Instruments dated 1975 requesting my services as a warranty repair agent.

      Cheers Taff

      4

      Oct 9, 2023

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