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Gents,

What is your experience with plastic binding? While I like and have used wood, I am doing an archtop for the first time and prefer the ease of using plastic binding, etc. for this one. Plus, it's traditional.

What are the pros and cons of various types of plastic? ABS vs. Boltaron vs. celluloid? Thanks.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Steve,

I use ABS almost exclusively. It just seems to work better. Celluliod is nice, but its expensive to ship. I find (other than restoration purposes) that it does not seem to function any different than ABS which is a lot cheaper!

If your going to be down this way anytime soon, I can give you a piece to play with. I basically can install it cold with no heat on an non-cutaway guitar. It bends that easy. At times you have to sort of pre bend the waist line if its deep. But that can be done just by bending the abs cold in your hands. It will retain its shape (with a little spring back) for quite some time. A cut-away is a bit different. It tends to be best to use a heat gun or hair dryer for a few moments to warm it up. It will get very plyable quickly. At times (if its a sharp radius), I will heat it up and tape it in place dry. After 15-20 minutes, you can remove the tape and it holds its shape. The first few guitars I did with ABS, I did the entire top/back this way. Pre-bend, heat and let cool. Then install. But the last few have just been bending as I go and using plenty of tape.

BTW: There is an ebay seller called Bezdez that I have used for several years. They sell ABS for $1 a piece. The piece is long enough to make it around a dread top in one piece and just shy of doing that same thing on the back. Certainly you could to half the back and half the front with one piece. (the neck does not get binding under the tenon on the top.) On a concert or any othe small body, you can go around in one piece.

Joe

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Joe

Thanks, Joe, for the info!! ABS it is then. Cheers.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck