Njaal,
There is an excellent forum for guitar builders you might wish to look at. mimf.com below are a few quotes from the forum pertaining to your question. If you find this helpful, there is over 10 years of accumulated knowledge in the two libraries they maintain on the site Faulk, Stephen - 06/10/2011.14:46:54 What do you think the guys in the 19th century used? They glued them down with hide glue right to the finish. They usually used maple veneer as a tap plate. You can also glue Mylar to French polish or lacquer with white glue or hide glue. Here's the way I explained it once before. I would not choose that glue again however, just use plain Elmers white glue with drop of water in it: http://www.mimf.com/library/faulk_golpeadore.htm Today many people will use the self adhesive products, but there are many makers who will not and use white glue. If you're doing a clear tap plate, white glue was the go to glue for many years. Usually if you do opaque tap plates, like some people like the mid century look of white tap plates hide glue works great, if you can work fast. White glue looks strange at first under the clear plastic, it takes about week to dry, but once it's dry if there are no bubbles it will last a long time. Then to remove it, water is the solvent. I think it's just a difference in convention between steel string construction and classical/nylon string construction and repair. both ways work. The problem with gluing a tap plate or pick guard onto a flamenco or classical guitar before the instrument is finished is that it makes it very difficult to change the tap plate when it wears out and then it has to go back in the same place. Often when a guitar changes hands the new owner will ask for a repair person to change the top plate to a size that suits them better, if it had been glued to bare wood, then the choice of size and placement is taken away. Flamenco guitarists would probably not touch an instrument that you don't have that choice to make. The other thing with white glue is that if a tap plate decides to shrink it usually peels up before it does any damage to the instrument. If the top is finished it usually stays pretty flat and the old plate can be peeled up. It's not like a pick guard on a steel string guitar, where you see them so shrunken they have gaps around the perimeter with bare wood showing. The most traditional method I know of is to use hide glue to adhere an opaque plastic tap plate to a guitar. Many older flamenco guitars are or were done this way. Hide glue can be used to adhere a clear tap plate as well but it is tricky to do because the hide glue jells quickly. I have a small patch of plastic on my own working guitar that is an extension to the main tap plate and it is glued with hide glue. It has been on this working guitar for over 4 years of constant use. The other glue used frequently in adhering a golpeador is plain Elmers white glue. Some use it at full strength and some hit it with a few drops of water. I tend to favor this method as it is the time tested way and it is the easiest to reverse. The Elmers glue will dry over a period of a few days to a week or so depending on the weather conditions. While the glue is drying it's best to periodically inspect to see that the edges do not pull up. Adhesive backed plastics are used a great deal on commercially made flamenco guitars. The basic method for removal is to test to see whether it is a water based glue. If it is not water based you can pretty much bet it's a self adhesive backed plastic. Judicious use of heat from a light bulb or hair dryer will soften the bond of the glue and in some cases naptha will dissolve this organic based glue. My sources for this information are several consultations with Chris Berkov, a fine Northern California guitar maker and through direct study with Eugene Clark. The information on using Naptha as a solvent for this type of organic glue was double checked with Mel Wong a noted professional lute maker who is a professional biochemist. To my present knowledge this information is tried and true. I understand there are other methods, but I have not used them or experimented with them. In the case of the man who trapped water under the tap plate, I said that it might be possible for that water to evaporate and for the french polish to turn back to it's original color based on the understanding that Elmers glue trapped under a tap plate will dry and will not damage a shellac surface. I advocated being patient for a few days while monitoring the progress of the drying process to see if it would clear. Apparently it did not. I think he had a success in the end by removing the plastic and doing it over. By far the most treacherous thing one can do with a gopeador, is to remove one that is made from self adhesive backed material. If not done properly it could result in removing wood and finish from the top of the guitar. It needs to be done slowly and carefully. I do like the maple tap plates. I've done that a couple times. I only do it if they ask over and over and won't have it any other way for it because they don't procect the guitar enough from aggressive playing. People who play dance accompaniment want big sheets of plastic, you can tear up a guitar unless you have more protection. Randy Roberts -----Original Message----- From: NjAYENl Bendixen <nj...@operamail.com> To: lute-builder <lute-builder@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Thu, Apr 9, 2015 3:50 pm Subject: [LUTE-BUILDER] Early flamenco guitars Dear Lute Makers Does anyone know the answer to this: Modern flamenco guitars have a golpeador attached to the front of the instrument. It is a piece of self adheasive plactic glued on to the varish of the front, wich is of course french polished. Traditional flamenco guitars have a rosewood golpeador, which is unvarnished. The front is french polised. My question is, is the front varnished under the golpeador, or is the golpeador glued on to the bare wood of the front? Kind regards, Njaal Bendixen -- NjAYENl Bendixen [1]nj...@operamail.com -- [2]http://www.fastmail.com - Accessible with your email software or over the web -- To get on or off this list see list information at [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:nj...@operamail.com 2. http://www.fastmail.com/ 3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
