Official Luthiers Forum!

Are all CA glues the same. Are the Glues you buy at a bargan store just as good as the glues you buy at LMI? What is your preference with the taper on the fingerboard? Do you have the strings parallel to the edge of the fingerboard or do you have a slight taper away from the strings as you get closer to the sound hole?... Larry

Larry bro I'll take a shot at the CA glue question.

All CA glues are not the same. The CA that is typically available in big box stores and in the check-out lane of the supermarkets is crap IMHO and not suitable for what we do. You can get lucky with it and have decent results but there is no way to know that what you are purchasing is not 4 years old.......

CA also has a relatively short shelf life too and the places that sell the higher-end glues will often keep back stock CA in the fridge and rotate the shelf stock as required.

Some of the brands that I have used and think are superior brands are Pacer (ZAP), Satellite City (Hot-Stuff), Bob Smith (they make epoxy too that is excellent and Bob Smith is often sold under white/private label with better hobby store chains). Carl Goldberg makes a good CA too also available at Hobby stores.

Although I have not used it Starbond is rated pretty high by OLFers (Craig I think?). And Franklin, makers of Titebond just came out with their own line of CA too which with Franklin's positive reputation is probably a good bet too.

CA often comes in various viscosities too with thin, medium, and thick being pretty common. Thin is for a perfect joint and will wick in where ever you want it and where you don't want it too if you are not careful. Medium is gap-filling and so too is thick. If I recall correctly thin will set-up in a few seconds, medium gives you a little over 10 seconds and thick can take a minute to set-up.

I try to purchase fresh CA from a reliable seller and then keep it in the fridge when not in use and that extends the life. Unlike outdated epoxy CA will thicken up or even get rock hard when it is old. So you can tell if the stuff is any good just by inverting the bottle and watching if it reacts as it should for the respective viscosity that you are purchasing.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

On the fretboard,I try to keep the strings parallel to the board as much as possible.Just looks better to me.

Thanks guys....The reason for the question on the fingerboard is that the last guitar I built I used the same measurements on the fingerboard that was on the OM plan that I have...The wide part of the FB is to wide in my opinion and I didn't like it....I usually plot everything out in Autocad and use printed templates to get my meaurements....The FB has been bothering me to the point that I am going to change it out....Thanks Larry

The standard for fretboard tapers is a board which tapers faster than the strings do (ie: look at any factory instrument). In other words: the string to edge distance increases as you get to higher frets. I use a uniform 1/8" string-to-edge distance on the boards I make and those I make for customers unless they request otherwise as I find it more aesthetically pleasing (as do many builders).

I use Bob Smith CA. I buy the thin stuff in something like 250ml bottles that I leave in the fridge, and I buy the medium stuff in the largest dispensing bottle they make (which is like 30ml or something). I go through a lot of the thin stuff!

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

If I recall correctly Coach Tony (Karol) recently posted that he likes to see the width of the fretboard at the body/neck joint match the string spacing on the bridge if this helps at all (and if I repeated Tony's post as it was actually made - hope so ).

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Ann Arbor Guitars

True that! I had a bottle of HotStuff crap on me recently.. I wasnt aware of this but luckily I found out repairing some cookware and not on some beautiful guitar.... Thanks for the heads up Hesh...
Cheers
Charlie

Bob, When you say 1/8th do you mean to the edge of string or the center, more significant on the base?
Mike Mcnerney

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Mike McNerney