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Great thread, thanks Barry.

I took the whole day researching the threads about binding regluing, thanks to everyone that has been participating in the (many) discussions over the years.

So I gather from your experience that Canopy glue is a great candidate on finished instruments? Good initial tack but long enough working time, with no risk on existing finishes, cleans easily too? Looks like a no-brainer to me!

I’m in the same place as Barry was, with a pre-2000 (don't know the exact year yet) Guild DV-52 coming in the shop that's having its binding come off pretty much all around from the pics I've been sent by the owner. The damage is obviously related to the guitar having been held hostage in a hostile environment for the last two decades. The owner has a waterfront house with temperatures oscillating between 30°C in the summer and minus 30°C in the winter (no heating then). So all that shrinking and expanding likely caused the glue to fail.

Barry, Roger, do you still hold this opinion of the stuff? Anyone else replicated Barry's findings on Canopy glue? I have some coming my way right now, it will arrive before the guitar so I’ll be able to do some testing myself, but I'm awfully respectful of the opinions of the good people here so I’m all ears.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

One drawback with canopy glue that I didn't see before is that is does not adhere so well to the particular plastic binding I use. It sure connected to the wood better. I seldom glue plastic bindings, next time I will do some more experimentation before I use it, maybe sand the plastic binding and/or use acetone to clean it up.

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New will change the old,
turn to ashes or gold

http://www.gammelgura.se

Like Roger, I have found that canopy glue sticks better to some plastic but not so much to some. I have done two guitar back bindings so far. It worked really well on some PVC binding. And it worked good on some ABS binding. But it did not work at all on some vinyl binding that I got some years ago from the Martin connection. The vinyl binding peeled right up.

I always sand the back of plastic binding before gluing to help adhesion. I will try to take some photos of the latest project.

Thanks guys. I think I'll give it a shot and make sure I'll use sandpaper on the back of the binding. Thanks for the tip. Up until now I was veering towards trying Franklin liquid HG. I'll see where I'm headed when the guitar comes in. IIRC, this Guild has a satin finish so no real touch-up possibilities here…


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

_________________
Pierre Castonguay

Are you regluing the old binding or using new?

Adding more ambiguity to the discussion...I just (slow learner) found out about Elmer's clear glue. Like water-clear. About as runny as Duco Cement. Some intrepid soul with time on his hands might give it a trial on the vinyl binding that doesn't play well with canopy glue.

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Peter Havriluk

Hopefully I'll be regluing the old ones. There seems to be no significant shrinkage at the moment from what I could see over FaceTime.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

_________________
Pierre Castonguay

Here is my latest binding replacement. A 70's Martin D-37K that had the back removed for extensive interior repair. The challenge here was keeping the existing black/white purfling intact. Also, the body had gotten wet and moldy and had moved around a bunch so the binding ledges were uneven. So, I could not even up the ledges with my binding router. I had to install the binding oversize and then scrape it down flush.

This guitar will require a bit of amber toner to be sprayed on the binding to get a better color match. And this is the one where I was planning to use the vinyl binding from Martin but switched over to some old PVC binding due to the better adhesion.

VERY nice job, Barry. Guitar looks spectacular as well, from what we can see.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

_________________
Pierre Castonguay

Thanks Pierre. It is a pretty special guitar. Came into my shop about 10 years from a guy who was only willing to spend $100 to fix it. Took the guitar out of the case and the neck fell off into my hands. Other joints on the guitar body were loose. I looked inside and saw a heavy growth of mold on the back. Told the guy it needed a lot of work. He asked if I would buy it for $150 so I said yes. I have been slowly working on it as time allows. The interesting thing to me was that the guitar looked like it had never been played. Only one ding on the guitar. No fret wear and not a scratch on the neck.

I cleaned and scraped the inside to remove the mold. Reglued all the loose braces. And I took the Kimsey approach to take the guitar back to pre-70's specs, including brace scalloping, new smaller maple bridge plate, removed popsicle brace and relocated bridge to correct intonation. It will also get new frets, a neck reset, bone nut saddle and bridge pins and Waverly tuners.

Great work, Barry.


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Now THAT'S a great story. Congrats. Would like to see more pics for sure, I love the look of koa.

From time to time a customer brings in a guitar that clearly needs more work than it's worth. If the estimate is turned down and the customer decides to move on and get a new one, I offer to try and repair the junker on my own time (for free) and then give it to a local music school's foundation. The foundation then proceeds to match the guitar to a motivated student with empty pockets.

I sure would have bought and kept this Martin for myself, although I don't like the sound of koa that much… just because it's so spectacularly beautiful.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

_________________
Pierre Castonguay

Another candidate: Elmer's clear clue, water clear in a clear bottle. About as runny as Duco Cement.

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Peter Havriluk

What about using it on existing finishes? What kind of glue is that?


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

_________________
Pierre Castonguay

So guys, I tried Canopy glue on the Guild's binding. The condition was far worse than I was told, with the very brittle glue joint coming loose all over the guitar.

I'm happy to report it went very well, far better than I expected in fact, following the good advice of our nice fellows Barry and Roger. It cleaned up very well after having cured for at least 12 hours, as easily as fish glue with a cloth damp with warm water, leaving precious nothing to correct on the satin finish.

A word of caution, though. It's supposed to be set enough to begin cleaning after 2 hours… not so. As I un-taped the (heat-stretched) waist binding to clean up, fully planning to re-do the taping for a full 12 hours, the bugger sprang right up. The good news is all it needed was a re-heating of the thing, causing the glue to soften and I added some and re-did the taping-up, telling myself what the heck, if it fails I'll just do it over after cleaning up the channel again. Well it held up just fine. So. I'm very happy, thanks to you folks.

Please don't mind the background of the pics, I did this one while on a holiday on the Saint-Laurent riverside.







Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay