The Collings Forum

I reached out to Mark at Collings and asked him about the adhesive being used. He said :

Hi Paul,

Thanks for reaching out about this.
Yes its true - we have discontinued using animal protein glue across the board on our Traditional series.
Our head luthier conducted a few experiments, and concluded that the standard titebond 1000 adhesive we use
didn't sound appreciably different than animal protein glue, and he finds the titebond to be nicer to work with
in our production setting.

Hope this helps!
Mark

thanks for posting! makes sense to me.

Thanks Paul. Interesting and understandable. I always wondered how much difference the glue really impacted tone to begin with.

Same as above...

Did Collings say when they implemented the change? A date or serial number?
Some folks might have a strong preference for one type of glue over another.

They didn’t. I didn’t ask if buyers can still custom order with protein glue, but I’m guessing it might be possible.

Haasome wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 2:05 pm They didn’t. I didn’t ask if buyers can still custom order with protein glue, but I’m guessing it might be possible.

Paul,

I'm guessing this won't be a custom option. Collings clearly gains by getting rid of the extra time and space required for the protein glue. And at the moment with custom orders stretching out, from what I understand, to something like a year or more, I wonder if it will be just too much trouble to add the protein glue as an option.

Now it begins:
a desire for used Pre-2020 AP glue(edited 4/14) Traditonals...

Im fine with whatever Collings feels best. Anything they make is always incredible. Only company I would buy a new guitar from sight unseen.

Animal glue, fish glue, Gorilla glue, super glue....lol, ill take whatever i can get from them

All my Traditonals are AP glue, and I'm not at all disappointed with that. If I had two pick between the two glues, (given the choice) i would have to take the AP version, just cause people seem to prefer that and have strong desire for that glue construction method?

There probably will be two groups of people on this, one group exclusively preferring the AP glue T's, and the others just being fine with the new glue.

Maybe in the coming later years we can judge more and see how the glues have aged, and see if it make a difference

I agree. I’ve owned many Collings and none have had hide or animal protein glue, and they have all been spectacular. I take whatever the builder feels most comfortable with. I own 11 guitars and only 2 have hide glue.

Great point. Moreover, This change illustrates why Collings is the leader in guitar development - never afraid to make changes to improve the process.

Bill would be proud!!!