Invariably all guitar builders will at some point recognize that there are some very good reasons why hot hide glue (HHG) has been the standard of the guitar building industry for all of time. Examples of instruments that are hundreds of years old and were constructed with HHG exist in very playable condition today.
Although Titebond is a wonderful glue and I believe that we are very fortunate to have it available to us today HHG dries harder, has better acoustic transfer properties, will not creep, and some will say is even easier to use and clean-up.
These days I use HHG for gluing all of my braces, the bridge plate, and the bridge and I am constantly finding new ways to use it. Although I cannot prove that my guitars have sonically improved from the use of HHG I do believe that they have.
An interesting demonstration to perform for yourself is to glue two pieces of scrap on using HHG for one and Titebond for the other. Then take a chisel to the glue residue that remains after removing the scrap pieces. You will find that the HHG residue is much harder, glass like, than the Titebond residue. It is this inherent hardness once cured that provides HHG’s superior sonic properties.
When I was considering trying HHG and asking questions of other builders it all some how sounded very complicated to me. Nothing could be further from the truth and HHG is very easy to mix, use, and clean-up.
The following is the first part of a multi-part tutorial that I wanted to put together on HHG. It has been said that there are a thousand ways to build a guitar there are nearly as many ways to prepare and apply HHG. What you will see here is what is working great for me and something that I could get my head around.
My hope, as always, is that others will weigh-in here in this thread and share with us all what works well for them.
Preparing HHG
The first step is to gather the things that you will need to prepare and use HHG.
My HHG comes from our sponsor LMI and is available in granular form in small containers. The gram strength is 192 which is a reference for the potency of the HHG. This seems to be perfect for guitar building.
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A Rival "Hot Pot" makes an excellent heater for the water that will be used to float the HHG bottle in. You will need a thermometer and I use marbles in the bottom of my hot pot to keep the glue bottle from directly contacting the heating element.
I also have the "Crock Pot little dipper" which I bought for use with HHG but mine runs to hot to use with HHG.
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My plastic bottles came from US Plastic, you can find them on the web, they are very inexpensive and work great with HHG. I bought them in the 4, 2, and 1 ounce sizes and favor the 4 ounce size for HHG.
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An idea that came from Mario is to use a stainless steel bolt in the bottom of your glue bottle. The bolt helps to weigh the glue bottle down so it sits more upright in the hot pot. Another idea that came from Colin is to be sure to degrease the bolt so as not to contaminate the HHG.
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To mix approximately 2 ounces of 192 gram strength HHG I mix 40 grams of HHG crystals with 68 grams of distilled water.
Distilled water is used instead of tap water to slow the process of mold that will eventually grow in HHG when refrigerated or not. Once the distilled water is added to the HHG crystals I do not shake the bottle or the HHG crystals that are not yet dissolved will get trapped in the tip of the bottle.
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To be continued.......
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