Hide glue in my experience is the best for most joins. I do repairs on instruments. This includes fixing broken pegboxes, shortening necks (moving pegbox back- I do this mostly under protest, but sometimes folks just need a shorter string length), reset necks, take tops off, re-glue bridges, change bridges, re-brace tops, etc.... Anything glue other than hide joins are frankly a real pain to deal with. Redoing a join which has been glued with other glues can be a recipe for problems down the line. Hide glue if properly used is the best and certainly the easiest to repair in my experience and opinion. Of course, there are times and places for other glues, but lutes are high maintenance delicate instruments that need repair often. A lute that is put together properly with hide is a joy to work on. A lute that is improperly put together with hide glue is a nightmare for the owner...
This is purely a note on the practical aspect regardless of HIP and sound reasons. Respectfully, David David Brown, Luthier 3811 Ellerslie Ave. Baltimore, MD 21218 410-366-4865 [email protected] -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
