Wood glues?

[Steve H]

Have you used Gorilla glue or equivalent for instrument making? Any reasons not to? I have a headstock drilled out and shaped to attach the the end of a neck and was wondering if the 'extra strength' was worth the effort.

Some incredible tapper builds here, I'm stepping up from cigar box guitar making.

Thx


Steve

[RocknDrTom]

There hasn't been enough research as far as I know on the acoustical properties of gorilla glue, so it's hard to say.

But I do know that I HAVE used it in last resort cases where I needed a very strong bond. The thing I don't like is that it expands, so anything you glue, you have to apply a minimum amount, and clamp it well. If it seeps out, it's tough but not impossible to clean up. If you use too little, then you worry if it's enough to create a strong bond - if you use too much, it oozes out, so it's not easy to work with.
I've used it to bond a top mounted bridge to an electro/acoustic saz that I made. The tension of the 7 strings were always pulling at the bridge/tailpiece and with conventional glues, it was still pulling off the cedar soundboard. Cedar is very oily, and sometimes tough to make a secure glue joint. So I used the Gorilla glue, and it's PERMANENT.

[RocknDrTom]

In case you're wondering - here's a pic of some of my saz collection. The sazes are Turkish long neck lutes with adjustable frets. Fun stuff. The saz I was talking about is not in this photo - I don't have a photo of my homemade saz. The second saz from the left is in the process of being restored after my ex wife smashed it to pieces.

Notice that the sazes are all different sizes. That's because "One saz does not fit all."

[GaryOpenhill]

Originally posted by RocknDrTom
The sazes are Turkish long neck lutes with adjustable frets. Fun stuff. "

How does those adjustable frets work? IS it possible to putsomething like them on a tapping fretboard?

[RocknDrTom]

The commonly used "fret wire" on Turkish lutes is simply fishing line. Yup, common monofiliment fishing line is wrapped around the neck about three times and lashed to itself to stay in place. The neck does not taper at all, so it is easy to slide the fret up or down to where you would like it. if you look closely, you might see that the string wraps all the way around. Because the string wraps all the way around the neck, it makes it hard to slide up and down the neck when playing, and I've often caught my flesh on the ends of the fishing line. But if you have good technique and it's set up right, it's not a big problem.

When I worked at ENSONIQ, I used their Peterson Strobetuner to precisely set the locations for mine. So mine are set to both Western equitempered and the most common Turkish pitchtable, which is nearly identical to the equi-tempered pitchtable, but has almost a 1/4 step flatted 2nd and 7th in the scale.

Sorry for hijacking your thread - I hope I was helpful in the glue discussion. Any other commentors on the use of Gorilla glue?

[BigDaddyPoo]

A local builder used gorilla glue on her tele with bad results. It expands leaving you with ugly seams. Titebond Original is the way to go. Someone on www.mimf.com did stress tests on several glues and Titebond was the strongest with less tendency to creep.

[TheEclectic]

At one time I was carrying out experiments on guitars I picked up off E-bay for cheap - the shipping was often more than the cost of the guitars. Here are some results:

I second the warning about expanding. I used Gorilla glue once on a part of a fretboard / soundboard join and it raised that part of the neck making the guitar unplayable above the 12th fret.

Make sure that the Titebond is fresh. I had heard that an opened bottle is good for only 6 months. I used some older glue once on a classical guitar bridge and the bridge came off when the guitar was tuned. Titebond II is a different formula, so use the original as mentioned above.

CA glue seems to be good for some applications, like repairing some cracks, glueing binding, glueing braces, etc. but it stains the wood (looks sort of like lacquer) and kills the finish. The good stuff can be purchased at any woodworking store and it comes in thin, medium and thick formulas and requires an activator. Not sure of the long term durability - some say the crystaline structure will cause it to fail eventually.

[rjgoos]

Glue?? You need glue to make a tapper?

[Krappy]

boo on gorilla glue. i never read directions, and had to glue a nut on to an instrument. my father-in-law had some G-G on his shelf...came back 10 minutes later and it had all foamed up and expanded. what a mess! dja ever try to open the jewel case on a new cd or dvd? you should try the adhesive they use on the tape that seals those packages...or sneak over and peer in goos' window and see just what he is cooking up over there...

[rjgoos]

Krappy wrote:

>or sneak over and peer in goos' window...


For the best view of my humble attempts at tap guitar construction, I recommend the east basement window on the north side of the house. Beware of the cat, though.....she won't stop bothering you, until you feed her.

[BrendaEM]

I've read that some people have used various solvents for reducing the oils in exotic wood so they can be bonded/glued