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I have a 63 Martin parlor on my bench. It has a crack that was "repaired" forever ago and the repair was done by smearing glue all over the crack and the surrounding area without any cleats. I'd like to add some cleats and clean the area up as well as fix the broken brace.

Besides hot water on a cloth any other tips? I'm fairly sure that it's hide glue that was used, but I could be wrong?

Hi Dan,
I use vinegar to remove old glue. It works as well as the speciality products they sell for removing glue. I can't say it is better than all of them since I have not tried all of them.

If you check out my thread "Gibson CF-100 Restore" about half way down the first page I show how I do it.


Hope this helps,

Cheers,
Bob

I'll check that out, thanks Bob!

+1 on the vinegar. I'd like to add that when heated it works even better. I simply put a jar of it in my glue pot. Think I read this trick in an old GAL red book.

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The vinegar will also curdle titebond so you may want to be careful not to lossen any factory glue joints.

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So apparently this was not hide glue, I don't know what it is but it did not come off easily.

The vinegar was applied hot (thanks for that tip!) and it did nothing after 12 modest applications. I ended up having to sand and scrape the mystery stuff until I had a decent wood surface to apply my cleats to.

I guess it's some type of epoxy?

Sounds and looks like some sort of epoxy.
I love it when they use the "pour and shake" method of glue application.

Hi Dan,

Glad you sorted your mystery glue out!

If you're a DIY kinda guy and find another crack in your guitar then we make some great products for that. Let me know if you're interested and we can send over a sample or two! Here's a quick demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Uax3xHIpo