Plastic Bindings on antique guitars

[Dave Bagwill]

Will glue stick to it?
Also, is it necessary to have an advanced degree in twillology like Somogyi thinks you must have? :-) He's got a serious number of paragraphs devoted to the esoteric technique of winding twill around a guitar body. I can't think it is that meticulous an operation? I don't know?

[ken cierp]

Sure it will stick -- as you move along the squeeze is wiped off before the twill tape is wrapped. Very time consuming. Martin at one time not too long ago paper taped and twilled -- I think they no longer use the twill tape?

[Lonnie B]

Thanks Ken, I went to Amazon and got 18 yards of Twill Tape for a little over 5 Bucks. Dam I gave 27 bucks for the rubberbands with shipping. Shipping was free with the Twill Tape. Now the question is what the hell do I tell my wife that I no longer need these Rubberbands. I guess I'll keep them as xmas presents for some of my forum buddies. Still there's the wife.
Well she was sitting here subtracting the five bucks out of the checking account. She asked me what did you buy for five bucks? Me being the brave man that I am said,"I don't want to tell you". Now this didn't go over so good so I let her read the first paragraph of this posting. She laughed and said "Oh aren't you the brave one? That was it. Now how easy was that :0).

[Tim Benware]

I use twill tape when I do wood bindings but I only wrap the waist area to get a tight fit. I wrap it over the tape and it doesn't stick. On my current build I thought I had the wood bent real tight and dispensed with the twill tape, lo and behold I had two tiny gaps in the waist area. So from now on the twill tape goes on.

[Lonnie B]

Thanks Tim,I don't think I'll use plastic again. It was just an experiment and face it I'm doing it on a rather cheap guitar to begin with. So it's practice that I'm after,not guitars. I have many guitars. I have to redo a Bass I bought at a yardsale for twenty bucks last year because my wife loves Bass. I'll have to play it for her of course. Plus I have a GNX4 workstation so I'll want one for recording. What I'm really looking forward to is building a nice Dreadnaught from scratch. I've built up a pretty good supply of tools maybe could use a couple more,but my shop is a 12'x12' room so space is a consideration. I can't use my power sander,thickness Planer, they throw crap everywhere. Plus I have COPD not to bad but I have to go outside to use those tools. I live in a pretty good neighborhood so I'm going to move the mess makers out to the front porch chain them up and cover with a tarp. I have a propane grill I've owned for four years covered with a tarp and it looks as good as the day I bought it. I would like to ask where I should get started what do I do form the plastic to fit then add glue and strap that sucker down? Thanks Lonnie

[Tim Benware]

You shouldn't have to pre-bend plastic, it should follow the curves fine. I use duco or weld-on 16 depending on what type plastic I'm using. Glue 4-6" at a time. Spread the glue out in the channel, tape it down. I prepare about 100 tape strips first and grab them as I go. Have a cloth of something handy to wipe the glue off you and the guitar as you go.

[Lonnie B]

Thanks Tim, I did that very thing when I bound the headstock and fretboard. They were new wood with no finish on it. I tried a strip of tape on the body and when you take off the tape chunks of the antique finish come with it. Not something I'm going for. I am able to repair spots on it with magic markers and its not too noticeable. However,if you look at the picture you can see I wouldn't want to screw up any more of it then I have to.