Reattach binding

[beoliver]

A friend gave me his Martin D-35 to reattach a portion of the white binding on the fingerboard that has come loose.  What's the best type of glue to use for this purpose?

[Sean Gilbert]

For wood bindings on a guitar body, I have always used titebond original. CA glue can stain sitka if you aren't careful with how it is used and I haven't wanted to risk it. I haven't done bindings fretboards.

On Thu, Sep 11, 2025 at 11:07 AM beoliver <brianol...@gmail.com> wrote:

A friend gave me his Martin D-35 to reattach a portion of the white binding on the fingerboard that has come loose.  What's the best type of glue to use for this purpose?

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[Tony R]

Hi Brian - Martin mostly used plastic bindings so they are famous for coming loose due to differential shrinkage between plastic and the wood fretboard.  Fish glue, CA or StewMac's Bind-All is the preferred repair glue.

Tony R

 

[Elaine Seat]

I did this same chore for a friend. I used fish glue and taped it up tight with yellow tape. The glue job was perfect and the tape damaged the finish where the glue ran under the tape. The guitar was sort of road worn, so I escaped an even bigger problem as the owner didn’t care. But most people would care.

I’m not sure what the proper tape would be, but wanted to warn you that it could be a problem.

Elaine

[Charles Tauber]

Not sure what type of tape "yellow" is. Masking tape comes in a variety of colours for different purposes each with different amounts of adherence: some are much more tenacious than others. For gluing the binding on the edge of a straight fingerboard, regular masking tape works well. 

I sometimes use fish glue for adhering binding and purfling to guitar bodies. Sometimes I use masking tape to hold the bindings while the glue dries. Fish glue dries very hard and trying to remove masking tape that is glued to a guitar top can easily pull fibres from the top. Using a wash coat of shellac helps considerably for that situation - not so much for the situation you describe unless you want to shellac the existing finish. If the tape/glue dries on an older or brittle finish, I can easily see how removing the glued-on tape could peel the finish. The good news is that fish glue softens pretty easily with hot water. If you use a damp cloth with hot water to loosen the glue under the tape, the tape will peel off without damaging the finish - assuming that the finish is not so old/compromised that the damp cloth doesn't damage it. It is helpful to assess the finish prior to the repair. If the finish is severely compromised, use clamps instead of tape, if possible.

Also, try to optimize the amount of glue used to have minimal squeeze out under the tape.

[Elaine Seat]

I get most of my tape from the local automotive refinishing store and have had great success with the 3m green tape. This product does not have a number on it and is banned from my shop. Sometimes it sticks, and sometimes it doesn’t. It seems to be very pick about whatever it is stuck too.

It’s is banned from my shop now. I won’t even use it on my CNC when holding down with CA.

Elaine

[Barry Oren]

Good info Elaine. Thank you.

In His Name -

Barry 

On Sep 13, 2025, at 7:18 PM, Elaine Seat <elain...@gmail.com> wrote:

I get most of my tape from the local automotive refinishing store and have had great success with the 3m green tape. This product does not have a number on it and is banned from my shop. Sometimes it sticks, and sometimes it doesn’t. It seems to be very pick about whatever it is stuck too.

It’s is banned from my shop now. I won’t even use it on my CNC when holding down with CA.

Elaine

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On Friday, September 12, 2025 at 10:42:56 PM UTC-4 charle...@yahoo.ca wrote:

Not sure what type of tape "yellow" is. Masking tape comes in a variety of colours for different purposes each with different amounts of adherence: some are much more tenacious than others. For gluing the binding on the edge of a straight fingerboard, regular masking tape works well. 

I sometimes use fish glue for adhering binding and purfling to guitar bodies. Sometimes I use masking tape to hold the bindings while the glue dries. Fish glue dries very hard and trying to remove masking tape that is glued to a guitar top can easily pull fibres from the top. Using a wash coat of shellac helps considerably for that situation - not so much for the situation you describe unless you want to shellac the existing finish. If the tape/glue dries on an older or brittle finish, I can easily see how removing the glued-on tape could peel the finish. The good news is that fish glue softens pretty easily with hot water. If you use a damp cloth with hot water to loosen the glue under the tape, the tape will peel off without damaging the finish - assuming that the finish is not so old/compromised that the damp cloth doesn't damage it. It is helpful to assess the finish prior to the repair. If the finish is severely compromised, use clamps instead of tape, if possible.

Also, try to optimize the amount of glue used to have minimal squeeze out under the tape.

 

On Friday, September 12, 2025 at 5:18:04 PM UTC-4 Elaine Seat wrote:

I did this same chore for a friend. I used fish glue and taped it up tight with yellow tape. The glue job was perfect and the tape damaged the finish where the glue ran under the tape. The guitar was sort of road worn, so I escaped an even bigger problem as the owner didn’t care. But most people would care.

I’m not sure what the proper tape would be, but wanted to warn you that it could be a problem.

Elaine

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<IMG_0216.jpeg>

[Charles Tauber]

Based on 3M's description of it, https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40067123/, it doesn't sound like the best application for it to clamp bindings in place. By contrast, many people successfully use 3M's binding tape for that purpose. 

[Joe Shuter]

I use brown binding tape from All Parts on all of my binding projects. As has been mentioned use a wash coat of shellac on Spruce or any other species to cut down the possibility of pulling  grains off. Scooter 

On Sat, Sep 13, 2025, 8:39 PM 'Charles Tauber' via Robert O'Brien Guitar Building Forum <obrien...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Based on 3M's description of it, https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40067123/, it doesn't sound like the best application for it to clamp bindings in place. By contrast, many people successfully use 3M's binding tape for that purpose. 

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[Elaine Seat]

I was not clear in my tape explanation. 

First, I actually have a few rolls of the LMI binding tape that I use to install bindings.

On my Martin binding repair, I heated the loose plastic binding until it readily went back in place.

Since it fit without effort, I used the light tack yellow tape so that I wouldn’t have the residue left by the brown binding tape, or damage the lacquer prying it off the side/body.

The yellow tape held my fish glued binding in place and I used a caul with a clamp across the waist to ensure a tight joint.

All was expected except where the yellow tape and the excess fish glue from the joint were together. 

And I wanted to warn others about my experience with the yellow tape.