Hesh wrote: This will be difficult for some here to hear but we do not think that Fish is interchangeable with HHG everywhere.
We used it around 15 years ago for about a year to reglue bridges and a whole manner of things. Norland fish glue bought fresh and date code checked from Norland and pitched every year.
Out of the 20 or so bridge reglues we did that year nearly all of them failed in only several years. We were so disappointed that we proactively contacted the non-failed-bridge owners and offered to redo theirs with HHG and we did some of that too.
We are in Michigan and run a very high volume dedicated repair shop with no music store affiliation. We only do service nothing else and are swamped right now beyond any level we have ever seen prior. We also guarantee our work and even more importantly we have an innate sense of right and wrong that guarantees aside if we could have done something better we will launch and make it right. That's how we roll.
I mention some of these non-glue related things because the fish failures that we experienced were one of the worst things that ever happened to our business.... We simply cannot have work of ours out there that is not going to provide heirloom value and be a great example of best practices.
So although it rains here it is not all that rainy and fish did not stand up well to our environment with an application that is already perhaps the most difficult glue joint on the entire guitar because of RH and temp swings, bridges.
We went back to HHG and never had another failed bridge reglue.
Our process for regluing bridges is pretty involved too and at least two dozen OLFers saw it in person when at our shop. We expand the gluing area, are religious about HHG handling and timing, and have everything in place and clamped in 10 seconds or less with perfect mating surfaces. We did the same things that mattered with fish but the joints failed in higher humidity exposures.
Great piece of factual info, thanks Hesh.
Although fish is my go-to glue for a lot of (most) repairs, because it’s so easy and convenient to use, I never used it for bridges because warnings like Hesh's, heard from quite a few reliable sources over the years are always flashing a light in my head.  I just won't try it on a high-stress area. Whereas I use fish most of the time for cracks, braces, hard to reach areas, bridge plate overlays, etc. The stuff is always ready.
And whenever I mix a batch of HHG for a bridge reglue, I’ll use it for whatever I have to do that day.
Pierre
Guitares Torvisse
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. I've successfully used it on binding where I like the long open time, I've also used Old Brown Glue (liquid hide glue) in that application and like it too. Lately I've just been adding some urea or salt to my hide glue mix to increase the open time of my hot hide glue mix.
That’s all I need to know to make my mind up! Loose bridges, discolored joints, & can’t handle humidity yikes stuff ought to be banned! Glad I asked before trying.
