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I've used fish glue for almost all the wood to wood joints on this guitar, is it a good glue for the bridge also? I figured it would be but the reason I ask is it seems most people use Titebond or HHG. I guess a lot of fish glue users also use some HHG.

If I did use fish glue what would you guys recommend for clamp times and how long before stressing it? I figured 12 hours for clamp time.

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Jeremy Douglas

Jeremy buddy I have used fish glue for bridges and it works great. For a bridge I wait 24 hours for it to cure.

Ditto to what Hesh said

Yup, leave it clamped overnight, and give it about a day from initial clamping before stressing (cure speed can depend on the humidity). For this reason along with cleanup I pretty much always use hide glue for bridges now. Fish glue seems so appealing because of the long working time, but the bridge is a joint that you really don't typically need a lot of time with.

Either glue works fine, but I prefer hide glue because it is ready to unclamp much sooner, and much easier to clean up.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Thanks guys

David, If I had some HHG I'd use but I don't want to buy the pot and everything just for one joint. Maybe on the next guitar I'll try HHG.

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Jeremy Douglas

Jeremy, take a stroll through a Goodwill or second hand store, heck, check out a dollar store. Look for a baby bottle warmer or a hot pot. Either one will work as long as it has an adjustable thermostat. Pick up a cheap digital thermometer from the dollar store while you are there. Put some water in your chosen heater and figure out where 140º is and mark it. I use little plastic bottles from a beauty supply store. Fit in the baby bottle warmer and still have room for the thermometer probe. In total I spent about 30 bucks for the warmer, thermometer and 10 bottles.

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Aoibeann

Thanks Lillian, do most baby bottle warmers get that hot?

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Jeremy Douglas

Jeremy,

I'm not Lillian, but I got a bottle warmer at Walmart a year or so ago.

It features a little rheostat on the front to adjust the temperature and
145F is within its range. It also has a safety cutoff if the water
all evaporates (i.e., won't overheat).

Cost was less than $15.

Good luck,

Eric

I wouldn't have thought they would get that hot. Shows what I know about feeding babies.

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Jeremy Douglas

I have the Parents Choice baby bottle warmer that has 3 settings. 140º is right around 2. I was surprised as well. I thought it would have been at 3.

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Aoibeann

I've been using a coffee cup warmer for years. Works great.

One of my students has used only fish glue on a couple of guitars. He has not had any problems so far. However, another very good luthier I know has had fish glue joints come apart on a guitar that was in a particularly warm and humid place for a while. I don't know all of the details, but basically I'm going to be a little less free with using the stuff in the future than I might have been.

I was using a candle-warmer, but I finally found the perfect coffee-cup warmer. Along with the baby-food jars of hide glue it's just like being back in NH without all the sneezing!

In my experiments, I've found that fish glue has a really good ability to make a 'seal' around the outer edge of a glued surface that can inhibit the inner glue from curing. The stuff really needs to get rid of some water to cure, and the thickness of it and that tendency to self-seal around the edges of the work can be a big detriment. If a joint doesn't have sufficient 'air exposure' (a function of surface area as well as the porosity/water absorbtion of the things being glued) then I leave it clamped a really long time, and usually hanging over my heater where the air is warmer and really dry.

I'm sure no-one else has tried this experiment, but I tried to glue some chunks of shell to a piece of clear plastic so I could see the glue spread and test glue-drying on two nonporous surfaces. Hide glue will cure overnight as long as it's room-temp or above, and will certainly cure if it's a bit warmer. This is much longer than the normal cure time, but it's to be expected. The fish glue needs a day and a half, with heat, and will not cure at all except at the very outside edges at room temp. The only way to tell if there's just edge-cure with a bunch of liquid glue underneath is to glue to something clear or pry it all apart with a chisel at intervals.

Take what you will from that experiment as it wasn't with wood, but it gave me enough pause that I'd be wary of using fish on any large surface gluing operation (fretboard or bridge) without leaving the clamps on for a good, long time in a dry room.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Interesting info. I'll be sure to leave it clamped for a long time, no need to rush at this point. Thanks.

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Jeremy Douglas

FWIW I've used fish glue on maybe 10 guitar bridges, none of them have failed yet. Of course, this corner of the world is not known for particularly high humidity, quite the contrary. I leave them clamped for about 24 hours.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Jeremy,

I used fish glue on about a dozen guitars for the bridge. No problems with it holding, but on one guitar I had to remove the bridge to refinish the top and getting it off was a bear. I now use hide glue for the bridge because it releases so much easier with heat. Fish glue is very heat resistant and you have to get it really wet to release it. Much easier said then done.

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Randy Muth
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