New build question

**sunburst** · May-11-2012, 10:33pm

Whenever I take something apart that was glued with Titebond (or other AR glue), I wish some of my customers could see just how easy it is to heat the stuff loose. Maybe they would take me more seriously when I tell them to not let their instruments get too hot. Maybe your glue was old and bad, but maybe not, Titebond releases very easily with heat or steam.

**James Sanford** · Jun-06-2012, 6:06pm

OK, here is an update of the "great glue goof".

As noted in a post above I ordered a glue pot and have totally converted to HHG. I cleaned and refitted the neck and back and re-glued using HHG. Every thing is holding in place and the mando plays very well and sounds good.

It is strange how things work out sometimes. I have never worked on fiddles prior to getting my glue pot. Not that I was looking to repair fiddles but not 2 days after I got the glue pot a friend had an old Stainer copy fiddle which did not even have a neck in it. So....
I took it and the neck and the rest of the parts home and reset the neck ( which was not the neck that went with the fiddle) and reassembled it and carried it back to him. He was happy and in fact sent a Paulus home with me to work on.

At almost the same time another friend had a Salzard fiddle which the neck had fallen out of due to failure of the button. I took the back off, rebuilt the button area and reset the neck and it is now back together. And I have rehaired 3 bows.

Now I said all of this to say the following:

I posted some of this regarding fiddles on Fiddlehangout and Maestronet with several questions I had and got mostly ridicule and was severely berated about the head,neck and shoulders for having the audacity to work on a fiddle without 20 years experience.

Thank you Mandolin cafe for being the best site of this type anywhere.

PS..The Stainer copy and the Paulus belongs to a professional bluegrass player who played with Jim and Jesse, Bill Monroe and various other groups on the Grand Ole Opry for 20 years.

**belbein** · Jun-06-2012, 6:32pm

James: I thought your comment about the flaming on another site was pretty interesting. Back in my younger days, I had just bought a used 30' sailboat. During the first year or two I owned it, I was making my way through the systems, performing maintenance and replacing or repairing as I went--and as I went, I was asking questions. I was constantly on the listserve for this boat, reading and soaking in knowledge and asking questions. Then one day I had the audacity to ask about a bit of terminology I didn't understand. I can't remember now what it is; something about a through-hull. But boy do I remember the flames. The one that particulary sticks in my craw, what? 15 years later?--is this: "If you have to ask a question like this, you don't deserve to own a ______ 30." I was embarrased, chagrined, hurt, and eventually pissed. It took me a while to realize that the guy was just a jerk. But that was the end for me and the listserve: I never asked another question, so people who are the silent lurkers didn't get the benefit of the experienced owners' advice on whatever I would have asked.

There's very little of that here. There's a little bit--I was reading one of the posts where some kid got pilloried for asking a question and then expressing his own opinion about why a few of the experts were wrong. Some people basically told him to sit down and shut up. What's interesting is that other people later in the thread took up for his right to ask even a snotty question .

It is not the norm on Mandolin Cafe. I should know, because I ask the absolutely stupidist questions and get (usually) serious, well-mannered answers from people who are better than I will ever, ever be. I don't know to whom the credit should go to this community attitude, but it's pretty impressive.