I am all for you doing maintenance work on your guitars. Those of you who have met me must recall the list of dos and don’ts that I have postered and which I insist that you take a photograph of and follow.
The aim of the #lucknowguitargarage – the workshop as well as the blog – is to acquaint you with every part of your guitar and help you ‘Mend, Maintain & Modify’ your guitars by your own hand. However, there are a few things that I insist that you don’t undertake. These include reglueing headstock/neck breaks and lifting bridges.
It’s like this: Not all of you have an idea about glues and which glue would be best suited for a job. Yes, Super Glue is a great glue for things that don’t have to move all the time, but certainly not for things like glueing bridges to tops of guitars. Thing is that Super Glue is a strong but a brittle glue and the bridge will never ‘stay on’. When it does begin to come off, it would have remnants of the glue on the top and on the underside of the bridge which is very, very difficult to clean. More often than not, if ample amount of glue has been used, it will seep into the wood and then you can keep digging into the wood to get to the last of the glue.
With wood glue – even though it can be cleaned with water – broken headstocks and necks once joined (wrongly) will never be able to be corrected because the glue has got in between the wood fibers and getting all of it out is near impossible.
The fun part is that unless every bit of the old glue is removed, the new glue will not hold and the break will come apart again.
If you do not wish to spend the money and get the job done properly, or, if you have that unsatiable urge to do it yourself, COME TO ME…we will have a talk and I will guide you on how to go about a particular job, what glue to use, and how long to leave the break under clamp pressure.
Just a little rant in the hope that I do not have to face a situation where I am left cleaning dried glue from breaks for days!
Next week a longer, better, and a more wholesome post!
