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Check out this from Taylor Guitar on the use of fish glue in their newly designed 800 Series.

https://www.taylorguitars.com/content/8 ... abs#tabs-3

Looks like fish glue for the bracing and HHG for the bridges.

Is this really necessary? JFrench, David Collins, and especially John Hall should get the blame, at least for the OLF stuff.

If you insist - Joshua French mentioned fish as a luthiery glue in early 2005, and I think I read that post shortly after joining. I got out the little vial of the stuff that I had been using with the LV chip-raising chisel (use chisel to lift a chip, nail in a tack, glue down the chip with high-tack fish glue)...maybe the stuff was old (had been in the shop since 1993 or so), but seemed to take forever to tack up and never really dried ll that well. I think I may have PM'd French about it and he (or maybe John Mayes...can't recall) suggested getting a fresh bottle from LV, which I did. Played with it a bit and forgot I had it until Collins mentioned it in one of his first posts after joining OLF in Jan 2006 (might have been December...was around holidays or right after because I used it on #06003 for linings and a few other things).

When Sylvan set up the first Mid-Atlantic Open House in early 2007, I took a fresh gallon to the get -together (Chris and Mark Joy rode up with me - you have not met Mark yet - good guy) and gave anyone that brought a container as much as they would take - John Hall took a pint or so, and gave me his mini-die grinder inlay jig and an Enco die grinder in exchange. Not a good idea to try to refuse John, he is stubborn and generous in equal parts - you need to make the next Mid-Atlantic shindig and meet him.

Not sure who else got glue - I think Filippo and Terry grabbed some, and Joy, but John was fascinated with the stuff and really got into it for building in lieu of Titebond. I used it for some jobs early on, but had gotten good enough with hide that I no longer needed the open time, so stopped using it for primary structure.

We don't use fish for primary structure because it's picky about clamping and takes 3-4 times longer than 315g to set for bridges; otherwise, lots of folks use it for just about everything.

Recap: French, Collins, and especially John Hall had a hand in popularizing the stuff, plus some of the guys over on MIMF and a few on UMGF.

About ten years ago on the OLF the one who started talking about Fish glue first and introduced us all to it was Dave Collins. He had high hopes and as a Pro repair guy was using it with a frequency that we don't see from builders typically.

Woodie, I'm not sure what the point of your post was, exactly. If Hesh says he and Dave introduced fish glue to the OLF, I don't doubt him for a country moment.

Andy

Made mistake of mentioning thread to boss, who is a nut for credit where due. From the exchange:





So there you go!

Woodie, I'm not sure what the point of your post was, exactly. If Hesh says he and Dave introduced fish glue to the OLF, I don't doubt him for a country moment.

Shelf life, according to manufacturers, might be like maximum load, according to engineering. If it is rated for 10,000lbs, it will carry double that. Always best to err on the side of caution, from a manufacturing standpoint. Any glue that I have for over a year gets used for jigs and non critical projects.

Alex

The only point that is important to me is to get the information out here that we had fish failures with bridges lifting and as such caution for this application might be a consideration. That's all that matters to me and now I've said it so I'm good.

I cannot have a man who is afraid of everything, I don't have the time to soothe insecurities and fears, I cannot have a man who is standing on a stone by a creek, watching for the fish to swim by and every time he sees a fish he says "Oh look, this fish scares me, I wonder what this fish means, this fish might mean- this, or this fish might mean- that" for God's sake, they are just fish, and they don't mean anything! Such a sad thing, so many fine, strong men standing on top of little stones, pointing at fish all the time! Such a waste! Such a waste of time! I can only have a man who will leap into the water, not minding the dang fish and whatever other little things that scare him. I need to have someone who is braver than me; if I am a pirate, he has to be the pirate Captain, if I am a pirate Captain he has to be the flying dragon.”

― C. JoyBell