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Hello again. I have my body assembled and ready to bind. I haven't cut the channels yet. I was wondering, what is the purpose of the binding other than cosmetics? Is the purfling even necessary? It is my first guitar and I was hoping to cut a binding channel front and back. Approx .060 " thick and forget the purfling. What kinds of glue are recommended for binding the body also? I'm using plastic binding.

hello: i'm going out on a limb here and saying; besides the aesthetics of fine binding/purfling i would say it also is a display of workmanship.

the only guitar i recall with no binding or purfling was an old cheap Stella that just had a white paint strip.

The binding, typically a durable/hard material, offers protection to the edges so it serves a useful purpose. I see no structural use for the purfling, although it certainly adds to the aesthetics of the instrument. Binding/purfling installation can be finicky, but I'd encourage you to do it.

I used Duco cement to install the purfling and ivoroid (nitrocellulose plastic) binding on my guitar. I like it better than CA glue because I don't need to worry about accidentally gluing myself to the guitar.

binding is simply a protective layer for the corners. I am a duco fan also. CA can stain spruces and on some hardwoods like maple and mahogany can wick into the grain leaving a glue footprint when finishing

On a violin, the purfling (no binding) is set in a bit from the edges. It was designed, if I am not mistaken, to prevent cracks and splits in the delicate curves of the sides. The rosette on a guitar also serves to reinforce this area. I have a friend who just built a viola on commission, and she installed an extra piece of purfling at the heel that is not traditionally included to help prevent splits that normally occur where the cord for the tailpiece crosses the top. It is the curved piece in the picture.:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... ed-public/

Perhaps the binding was there to protect the edges on the guitar, but the purfling was added to emulate the violin family.

Ed

That is interesting. I think I may leave out the purfling, just because I'm doing all of this for the first time. I hate to use a router more than I have to on something I have spent a long time already constructing. I ordered some more binding from Stewmac. .060" .25 inch. I was hoping I could get some 3/16 inch binding but they didn't have any. Is .25 inch binding too long for the sides? Whats the best way to trim the binding to the size needed uniformly? And once again I appreciate any and all information. Very grateful for all the knowledge. Lots of learning for me.

Depending on how you did your top braces, you may need the full 1/4" width. I notched the top braces into the sides, and discovered that the binding I had bought originally wasn't wide enough to fully cover the notches. You may not have that problem though.

Probably the easiest way to trim the binding is to install it with the excess above the top, then plane it off with a sharp block plane. You'll want to leave it a little high, anyway, for trimming to final height. Just leave it a lot high, if you want a narrow binding.

No harm in omitting the purfling. Doing so will simplify your life somewhat.

When you cut the recess for the binding, aim for flush to ever-so-slightly deep. It's better to sand down the side to the level of the binding than to sand down the binding to the level of the side. Doing the latter leaves you with binding of uneven thickness, which is visible (though unless it's truly egregious, nobody will notice).

I notched my kerfing not the sides. So I have no bracing showing on the outside of the guitar. So I won't use the .25 x .060. I do have some 3/16 X .060 binding that appears to be two pieces glued together. (.020 and .040) Its my only piece too. I do have some .040 as well. I have heard using the smaller binding is more difficult to fit. Is that so? I may end up using the .040 x 3/16 on the other side if I can't cut the .060 x .25 I have coming in the mail.
(Or just install the .25 x .060 and shave it off like you said.) good idea.

Just have it wide enough so there is a reasonable amount of overlap of the top-to-side joint. Since your top is probably about 0.1' thick, 3/16" wide (0.1875") binding ought to be fine.

The binding is done. I used the 1/4 inch stewmac plastic white binding. It went alright. The only problem I had with the plastic binding was the fact the cement made it swell. So the plastic did overlap a little on the top binding. On the rear binding I used a .070" bearing for the .060" binding and it seemed to do better. I also didn't cut the binding exactly straight. I bought a binding jig on ebay. It was a piece of lexan glass with a router on it that would move vertically on a set of ball bearing slides. It came with a body holder that looked almost exactly like the Stewmac version. So basically you just moved the body into the router to cut the channel. The only downfall was the fact that the lexan flexes as it sits on the body with the weight of the router on it. So no 90 degree. cut. I had to MacGyver it to cut perpendicular to the sides. Anyway, It just didn't seem to cut "perfectly". But it did the job. It doesn't look terrible, nor does it look great. But hey, I learned stuff.

(Another thought),
What do you think about binding and overall guitar tone effect? Something doesn't seem so right about cutting a good chunk of contact wood all the way around the top of a guitar and then replacing it with plastic. Wouldn't sound transfer better through the original chunk of wood? Or maybe even wood binding? Just me overthinking again.

Thanks,
Sam