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Anyone have experience with gluing a Cocobolo bridge? I've glued Cocobolo bindings, head plates, and fretboards using epoxy or super glue, cleaning first with acetone, with no issues. I've got a bridge glue coming up and of course I don't want to use these glues on a bridge. Will HHG work well provided the bridge is scuffed and cleaned?

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It will probably be alright.

I have done a couple .. fresh razor blade scrape, no acetone wipe ( I never do that), fish glue. I imagine HHG would be fine too.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Greg, I/m 3mi from raytown rd/main st grandview. I/ve used epoxy on coco backs .but like tony above mainly use either fish or 315 g HHG. I also typically use a lower density bridge my faves walnut, hawthorne, persimmon, honey locust, etc. I use 80 grit or 120 on the bottoms of my bridges to create small grooves

I don't think I have ever used a cocobolo bridge, but I've glued plenty of backs and sides and appointments, mostly with hide glue. The trick seems to be freshly prepared surfaces and a good fit. Lots of people report that cleaning coco with acetone or the like will draw oils to the surface and actually cause more problem than it solves, so I've never experimented with it. For a bridge, I would do the same thing. Oh, and I never scuff the gluing surface, and my bridges stay put, they are mostly smallish African blackwood or BRW bridges, on steel string guitars with medium strings. The consensus on the forums, from what I have seen, is that scuffing is counterproductive, but again, I have not really experimented much with it.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

You can treat it pretty much the same as Rosewood... It actually is in the Rosewood family.

I have replaced a few Brazilian Rosewood bridges with Cocobolo so I could match what they had. I use HHG and just before gluing I scrape it down. Some guys prefer to use Acetone but I have never had any problems with just scraping.

Bob

I have several, at least 5 I can think of, guitars out there with Coco fretboards and bridges and have simply glued them up with a fresh scraped or planed surface using either LMI White (old stuff) or Titebond and have no separation issues that I know of yet, going on at least a decade.

I use 80 grit scuff of bridge and spruce, and west systems epoxy, wet out both surfaces, then thickened in the joint.

We are quite close, I am about 3-4 minutes from the Main St. exit off 71 highway, Grandview. We should get together.

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It will probably be alright.

Thanks for the tips guys. I have always heard that cleaning with acetone is a must, interesting to hear that many don't. I have always lightly scuffed my bridge bottoms.

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It will probably be alright.

I agree that Cocobolo bridges need only the same treatment as other Rosewoods. Scrape and glue within about 15 or 20 minutes. HHG is fine. I have done several with Cocobolo, before I learned better. Too heavy for classical guitars.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Like waddy said, watch the mass of the bridge. Btw, I like your tag line

Yup, same as the others. Proceed as normal, just prepare the joint fresh by whatever method.

Yeah, I always weigh my bridges. I was hesitant to use Coco for that reason but I made one and it came in right where I wanted it. I learned that from a great builder. I've heard that tag line from him a few times also.

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It will probably be alright.

I wanted to report that the Cocobolo bridge glue went well. I am of the "contour, scuff, and clean with Acetone" school of thought and this is how I approached this bridge glue-up. So far, excellent result. Thanks for the feedback.

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It will probably be alright.

CA is the only glue I ever had a problem using when gluing cocbolo. LMI glue new and old and tite bond has worked great. I do scrape the surface before gluing.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

It makes sense that you'd want to use a strong solvent to deplete surface oils. I have 6 to do and I fully intend to go the solvent route

I agree Mike. There are some who feel that using a stripper simply distributes the oil over the gluing surface, and this may be the case if done lightly. But a thorough cleaning makes sense to me and my Coco surfaces definitely look dry and much more glue-friendly after a deep cleaning with Acetone.

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It will probably be alright.

I had one coco fb that failed , it was not cleaned ,it was at least 22yrold stock and the FB warped badly I used titebond and the coco was not 1/4sawn