Official Luthiers Forum!

I have always really liked this as a binding material. I get the sense that it's considered low-end, but I just like it. Anyway, it's crazy expensive to order from LMI because of the handling charge. It's made of the same stuff as old movie film which is so explosively flammable it used to be illegal to carry on streetcars (back when there were streetcars).

Anyway - does anyone know of a source or variant that doesn't have the $25 special handling charge? It would be worth it if I bought 200 pieces (since the charge is the same for one piece or 1,000). Of course, 200 pieces would last me through this life and the next.

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

Martin doesn't charge the extra handling fee...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I've tried a few different suppliers and I like Martin the best. Another benefit, as Steve said, they don't charge an additional fee for shipping.

This is what the Martin binding looks like:

Check out ebay. Search for celluloid binding... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid= ... g&_sacat=0

Lots of colors and even pearloid available. I wonder how a MOTS binding job would look

Back the tortoise binding with white to brighten the color of the binding. Back with black to be more subtle.

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Pilgrims projects has it as well.

I have seen that on electrics and it looked like you'd think it would, very cheap. At least to me. Think there was a trans blue Uke at Woodstock last year bound in it as well, same impression.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Hmm - I have it on two of my collings guitars and like the look of it, but they are dark wood and it's a subtle effect. One is mahogany, the other is hormigo. To me it doesn't look cheap at all, but I have seen some telecasters with it that looked...well, not so great.

Thanks for the sources, everyone!

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Registered Architect (Texas, New York)
LEED AP

I have ukuleles built with select koa and really like the looks. But as with anything the components need to work together.

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

The main reason I think it looks cheap is that I have seen it on hundreds of Kay and other cheap guitars from the 1950's and 1960's.
The crazy ruling on shipping celluloid says that raw materials must use the hazardous shipping protocol, while finished materials do not. In other words, a pickguard that is shaped is exempt, while a 4 X 7 rectangular sheet is not.
If you are buying from a lesser-known source, just make sure it is celluloid, and not some other plastic that is not as workable.
The scramble to find substitutes that are not flammable means that there are some plastic bindings on the market now that are hard to glue, brittle, or nearly impossible to sand without smearing.

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John

Well, I was going to direct you to Axiom (http://www.axinc.net/) but I just looked at their site and the top line says "UPS just raised Hazardous Fees to $27.50".
Oh well.....

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Hank Mauel

Hmm - I have it on two of my collings guitars and like the look of it, but they are dark wood and it's a subtle effect. One is mahogany, the other is hormigo. To me it doesn't look cheap at all, but I have seen some telecasters with it that looked...well, not so great.


Methinks he was commenting on MOTS(Mother Of Toilet Seat), not tortoise binding.

For those of us north of the 49th, Heinl in Toronto carries nice TS bindings. No silly hazmat shipping fees, either.

I recently ordered some tortoise shell plastic binding from both CF Martin and Axiom. The stuff from Martin is superior for color variance which I like a lot, whereas the Axiom stuff really doesn't have much, being mostly dark. I ordered the 3/16" wide stuff for my purposes, but they also have it in 1/4" wide. The Martin stuff is fairly red in color as well, and is going to look fantastic on the redwood/black acacia terz I'm building. No hazardous materials fee from Martin either.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."