glue for Martin "Laminate" guitars

[Greg Steil]

What kind of glue should be used to re-glue a loose bridge on a laminate top Martin guitar?

[Brian Evans]

I didn't think that the HPL guitars had laminate (as opposed to plywood laminate) tops, I thought they had solid spruce with "Richlite" composite bridges. The richlite is an epoxy resin/paper moulded product, from the Martin adverts. It's that bridge that would worry me... I have never glued to an epoxy based surface with anything other than epoxy, but that just seems wrong somehow. The thing with gluing to epoxy is getting the surface prep correct, you need an 80 grit rough surface so the epoxy can get a mechanical bond. Just looked it up - the manufacturer of Richlite recommends epoxy for any kind of binding requirement, so there you go.

[Mark Swanson]

Yes, some of the HPL Martins have tops made of that stuff as well. My opinion is they are some of the worst acoustic guitars I have even seen sold, much less from Martin. On top of that, every one I have ever seen had top failure.
Anyway, I agree with Brian, use epoxy. I think they used CA glue as well.