Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone

I should've called a few weeks ago, but just got around to calling LMI
about my tortoise bindings this morning. They seem really really dark
and don't show any figure unless you get them at just the right angle with
light behind them. LMI said they will look like what they look like against
the spruce lining. For those of you with experience, will the finish reflect
light into them to light them up? I'm hoping for anything positive. The
five bindings cost around $50 with shipping...

Good color because of sunlight reflection:


Against spruce lining:


The pic against the lining actually has more figure than usual, if you can
believe that. Please say finish refracts light in and lights them up...James Orr39041.5539930556

James,

That's just the nature of tortoise celluloid bindings. The only light you'll see in them is whatever gets reflected back from th wook beneath them. There was a thread here on the OLF about a year ago. I think John How had some input on that thread.

I put them on an EIR guitar and they just about disappeared around the back, but showed up a lot better around the top because of the light spruce and purfling behind them. Look at the last photos on this page and you'll see what I mean.

On old Martin 000-21s, they put a thin light backing on them, so that it appears that there's a thin white purfling strip around the back. They didn't do that on the D-21 for some reason.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Also, if the tortise is thinner then it will reflect better. The thick stuff won't pass much light even with a light colored backing.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I used them once and struggled with the same problem you are having. I ended up making them very thin which helped a lot. It can make a difference on the top if they are getting glued over two different color woods, i.e spruce and rosewood. You could see through the binding if you looked closely and the tortoise figure will show up more against the spruce. If I was going to use them again I would do what the last post said the old Martins did and put a very light thin wood or fiber strip behind them. I think this would help a lot. Are you going to use purfling with them? I've wondered how to do a side purfling with plastic binding. I usually glue everything up and bend them together but I don't know how I would do the side purfling by itself.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I'm afraid thin bindings will looks strange. How thin have you guys gone?
I'm planning on a black/koa/black purfling scheme, and that basically
sounds like the anti-matter for these. Oi.

Thanks for the responses, btw. Very appreciated.

James, somewhere in the archives is a guitar that Matt Gage did where he backed the Tortis binding with a white strip, as already mentioned, it looked fantastic.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Thanks for the heads up, Lance. I searched for Matt's posts and found
the thread. Man, what a great look! It's exactly what I'd like, minus the
white. I'm going to PM him and I'll report the details.

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?
TID=4383&KW=matt+gage#forumTop

Thanks for the heads up!

Well, as it turns out, Matt used different tortoise than I did, BUT, we're
trading a few pieces! This is the guitar I thought I'd linked to:

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/useruploads/MattGage/2006-02
-02_121738_feb2_003.jpg