SJ neck set....

Tonight I spent my time getting the neck ready for final gluing and glued it up using hot hide glue. This was the first time I used HHG for a neck set and it really went pretty well. I pre-heated the neck and the neck block with a heat gun, had everything set up and ready to go, and then went to work with the glue. For those who don't know what hot hide glue is, it is a glue made from animal hides which is dissolved in water and then heated. It is applied hot, between 140 and 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and it has a fast set time. Typically I get around 45 seconds to have the glue applied, the piece set, and all clamps on. The glue will gel over after that time and once that happens, it is too late to clamp. Pre-heating the gluing surfaces will give a bit more working time but not a lot. I had about a minute for this neck. It seems like a lot of hassle, but there are some very good reasons to use HHG. First, it is reversible. If a glue-up goes wrong, it can be un-done using heat and steam. That is the main reason furniture restorers like to use it. Of course, they also use it to be historically correct in their repairs. When it comes to guitars, any future repairs or the inevitable neck-reset will be significantly easier because of the use of HHG. Repair people love the stuff. Next it is incredibly strong, stronger than alphaic resin type glues and just a touch less strong than epoxy. Third, it dries rock hard which is a great thing for tone transfer in a musical instrument. Forth, clean up is a breeze. A little bit of warm water completely removes and squeeze out. The final reason I like it is that it makes a very quick 'tack' which holds the glued pieces together while clamping. Regular white glue or Titebond type glues do not do this and trying to clamp some things together can be very frustrating as the pieces want to slip and slide out of position. I just started using HHG on this SJ and so far I have only used it on braces and this neck joint. I am going to also glue the bridge with it. Once I get more comfortable using it, I will try and use it for most of the building process.

Anyways, that is probably a lot more about glue than you ever wanted to know. Here is a picture of the neck clamped up. Not very exciting but it shows that the end is very near for this guitar.

The neck all glued up and clamped down. The bridge will be done tomorrow. Hopefully I will have it all strung up this weekend.