Hello Howard- At this point I would take it to a luthier rather than fix it myself for two reasons:
1. It's now an old injury- a fresh, new break would provide clean wood surfaces to work with; and now having to deal with old glue in addition to the age factor presents a double contamination issue, compounded by uncertainty of its nature- "probably" hide glue doesn't sound certain enough to me; although that would be the kind of glue that could give way under damp/humid/hot conditions. I would use a non-reversible cyanoacrylate (crazy) or high-strength epoxy, or at least one of the Tite bond glues IF it was a different situation. (I glued the entire pegbox onto the neck of my 13 course Baroque lute that I got from Robert Lundberg back in the 1970's with Titebond II- it has held like a rock for over 30 years) 2. Since it didn't break at a joint, there is also a possible wood integrity issue inherent in the original rider itself- with a good re-gluing, the wood right next to the old break could also fracture from the same tensions that caused the first break. I would want a professional to asses that aspect of the situation. Since we can't post pictures directly on the list, could you put pics on a Photobucket or some other accessible internet page? A look at the thing would certainly help. Meanwhile, I hope you can get that thing looked at- best of luck with it. Dan >As long as the subject has come up, the bass rider on my 13-course >broke off some time ago. It looks as if it didn't come apart at a >glue joint; the wood itself seems to have split. The break was >repaired once before, probably with hide glue, but it didn't hold. >I'm finally getting tired of having an 11-course lute instead of a 13- >course and would like to permanently reattach the rider. Is strong >cyanacrylate a good option, or should I just take it to a professional? > >On Mar 15, 2009, at 11:20 AM, David Tayler wrote: > > > Slowwww set crazy glue--Jet brand. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
