Plastic Bindings on antique guitars

[Lonnie B]

Hi Guys,I'm brand new to the forum. Although I do belong to about 5 others. I am an Amateur Builder and like to restore old guitars. Kind of give them a new life and let them try again to find someone who Loves them enough to take better care of them. In the past year I have brought back to life a Gretsch Acoustic found in a dumpster. A Kay swingmaster off ebay nothing but a neck (no Frets) a body (no electronics). A Kay Jumbo Archtop , circa 1940. All I had was a body that was missing a few things like a neck. Kerfed linings, Bindings,etc. My current project is a Kay? Antique Parlor Guitar(sounds better then just an old guitar don't you think?
About twenty years ago I made three Mandolins from scrap Maple from an old coffee table and a nice straight grained pine?Fence post. Using basically a pocket knife and nail file. Lol Maybe it wasn;t quite that bad.
My dream of course is to make a nice Dreadnaut using quality tonewoods. I do have a shop now and it's a little better equipped then I was twenty years ago.
On the Old Kay Jumbo I used Macassar Ebony to bind it with. Came out very good. I hate to admit this but I used super Glue to install it. Worked fine. However,I am using plastic binding on this old parlor guitar. Superglue didn't work to good. So I ordered out some binding glue from stewmac. Worked great as I bound the new neck I carved from a block of Mahogony. I used blue painters Masking tape to clamp it on. Now this is not viable on the binding on the body as this tape removes the antique finish. So I got some rubberbands from Stewmac.
My problem is I don't have any experience with using rubberbands to clamp binding> Any help you fellows can give in the way of how to get started,etc... I would appreciate your help. I was overjoyed to find this forum. Thank You Lonnie B

[ken cierp]

First --welcome

Second, there is no shame involved is using modern adhesives, chemicals, tools, fixtures what ever -- Orville Gibson and Chris.F. Martin would have used the best too if it were available in their time.

Your concern about preserving the finish is certainly valid. While I am a fan of rubberbands (BTW a luthier supply house is not the place to buy such common products such as glue and rubberbands -- about triple the normal price Weld-on 5oz vs 1.50z only $9.00 elsewhere) we use #64's from Office Max to make them longer just tie them together. I digress -- anyway a better choice would be "twill tape" likely that is the clamping material and method originally used when the instrument was made.

Also -- the others will tell they thrive on pictures of member's project so attach those img. files

[ken cierp]

Using twill tape is the same as using twine -- it just wider

[Lonnie B]

I do hope I am able to post this picture. Please forgive my computer skils as I'm an old fart. this is how my re-build arrived from ebay the 12 of August

[Lonnie B]

Ok this is kinda fuzzy looking but as you can see I'm putting the finshing touches on it. I had never cut a vhannel before so that was a trip. I practiced a little(should have practiced more) but not knowing where to begin on using the rubber bands I thought I would ask someone who had done it before. I thank you for the tips on buying supplies. Sorry for the pic it's not the best but I had it uploaded and couldn't get my I-Phone to post on this website.

[Lonnie B]

After Looking at your picture it looks like good old fashioned twine. Huh,wonder why I never thunk of it. The twiltape threw me for a loop.Lol

[ken cierp]

The twill tape is very strong and can be pulled tight -- becasue its flat it won't put little dents in the bindings.