I've been working in the field of lutherie since 2007 when I graduated from the Galloup School of Lutherie in Michigan. I remained at the Galloup school as an apprentice, assistant instructor and eventually the main instructor for just under 2 years. At that point I moved to Healdsburgh California for an opportunity to work side by side with the great and powerful archtop guitar maker Tom Ribbecke.
It was with Tom that I really found my passion for the archtop guitar and developed my skills to the point where I could function at a professional level in the trade of lutherie. I became Tom's shop foreman and rand his private shop for a number of years.
In 2013, after 6 years with Tom, I moved to western Pennsylvania to begin my own practice building and repairing instruments. After some time in the city I now build in a small shop on our family farm. These experiences have given me a unique perspective & set of skills which I'm now happy to share here on this channel.
😂 How many times can you shamelessly promote yourself. "I am an arch top builder" he said 7096 times. Your price is off, your review was off and for the most part you are a troll for this guitar. I have MANY guitars, and this exact guitar you are playing sounds better than some of my vintage Gibsons. How much would you charge from ground up to build this guitar, and does it come with a guarantee for full return if it is not to the players liking? Merry Christmas! 😊 If so I'll give you a chance to build one.
If you want me to build you a guitar, trashing me on my youtube channel is not the way. You could throw $30,000 at me and I wouldn't build a guitar from someone like you. Ive learned that folks like you come with a massive headache. I mentioned I build archtops twice in this video and made many more positive comments about the guitar than negative ones. Have a great day
my 70s suzuki has a crack in the heel and this is the first time i've seen how a repair could be done and man that is involved. i don't suppose you know roughly how much a repair like this would cost from a luthier?
the difficulty with a 70's susuki is that the neck is likely glued to the body with an epoxy. this was very common in that era for cheaper asian imports. That would make it a job that a lot of luthiers would likely turn down. If you can find someone worth their salt whos willing to do it you might be looking at $400-750 depending on where you are located. Finish work always adds signifigant cost as well
its also worth noting that its not always possible. even with a lot of skill and willingness. Sometimes manufacturers were more concerned with cost and manufacturing efficiency than they were with the future repairability of their instruments.
aside from looking really awkward it would change the modal movement of the top by shifting the lower hole in towards the active part of the soundboard and the upper hole towards the ridged side egde. What result would that have is hard to say without trying.
@@StuartDayGuitars Thank you. The reason I asked is because ancient violins had C design holes, and at one time the mouth of the C curved outward, and another time it curved inward. Therefore, I just wanted to know if anyone ever tried the acoustics when the F holes were turned around- looking at the violin, put the F holes where the top circles will be facing toward the edges. Anyway. Thanks for your answer.
I thought putting a video on RU-vid was about sharing your experience to help others with how to repair their guitars but this whole video was just about watching you do something we have no idea what you did.
I'm sorry you feel that way. Millions of videos are posted on youtube every year that don't teach anything. It is a platform that was originally built on the back of daily vloggers who just showed their daily lives. I'm not sure why you have the expectation that someone like me should only post videos where I teach you, for free, how to do what I do professionally. BUt there are luthiers on youtube who do just that. Although many of them are not folks I would listen to if I'm honest. It is not easy to run a business like this and provide quality video content for people to enjoy for free... I do my best. But, since you didn't pay me for anything I guess you can just go about your life without being too upset about it
It would have some tonal merit but what concerns me about that design is weakening the structural integrity of the neck joint/tongue area of the top. I have not worked on any personally but I do believe they are notorious for bad settling and really invasive neck sets. probably because of the f hole placement.
Great info ! I have a 1929 SS Stuart 7003 Jumbo Orchestra. It is ladder braced, so the bridge plate runs side to side the entire width of the body. It isn't cracked or loose, but seems like really soft wood, it almost feels like balsa, it's definetly very soft. The string balls have almost dug all the way through it to the point that they must be close to contacting the spruce top. So my question is, would you remove he entire plate and completely replace it with a identical sized riff sawn piece of maple. Or would you just make a thin pad the same width as the brace and maybe a 1/2" longer then the bridge on each side, maybe taper the ends nice and overlay it right over the existing plate ? Although not a extremely valuable guitar, about $1,500 or so, I am kind of trying to maintain the originality of it. The original plate is nicely fit, glued tight and clean and the ends are tapered and tucked under the perfling really nice. I'm just torn up about how to approach it.
Really fantastic to see you making these miters and some of the tips you layout for good handwork. Really is a revelation to me to see how you glue one piece in and work piece by piece, seems now like of course that’s how it’s done but I was never sure how to achieve such a clean job before!
Hello, do you have any tips for cleaning underneath the f hole of a guitar? I purchased a budget guitar and there is a lot of dried glue and sawdust in there, and I'd like to safely remove it all. Btw, I appreciate you speaking to your son normally, and not dumbing things down like a lot of parents do lol
I've watched the series and I wonder why you didn't install ground wire. With electric guitars this is usually done through the bridge. At an arch top, the bridge seems to me the best way. Aren't you afraid that without the strings being grounded you will suffer from humming?
1 - There was no issue with humming when the guitar came to me (with no grounding) so there was the matter of not fixing what wasn't broken. 2 - The reason electric guitar strings need to be grounded is that they usually contact metal bridges. On an archtop with a floating wooden bridge, it's typically less of a problem. 3 - On my custom-commissioned guitars I do ground everything to be safe. But with the floating bridge and tail piece, it can be a bit of a design challenge to figure out exactly how to ground the strings. So in this case, it just didn't seem necessary. Thanks for the comment.
I recently purchased the A 150. I love it. It does have volume and tone pods. Acoustics are good as well. Amplified it’s a little heavy on the bass notes but this is easily fixed by adjusting the pick up. Try out a new one and review it. I think your opinion will be more positive.
Great video! I am about to replace the nut and saddle on my guitar with bone counterparts. I have one question before I attempt to do so. My guitar came with a compensated saddle but the intonation is still imperfect mostly after the 12th fret. When I’ll be carving the bone saddle what should I do to achieve the best possible intonation. Thanks in advance! Much love from Pakistan.
use file or dremel tool to make adjustments on the saddle. If you want more info, just wait a few weeks. I'll have a course on this subject completed soon.
I immediately went out and bought one because of how negative this review was - I figured if this self appointed expert on guitars was to put it down this guitar so hardcore that it must have something good about it and I was right because it’s the best one I’ve ever owned. Thank you for making such a negative ad. What other guitars do you hate so I can go check them out?
Hi thanks for your comment. I don't think I put the guitar down at all, in fact the owner of this guitar shared this video on his own because he thought it was a great review, and he loves the guitar. I didn't say I was an expert... although since I have been a high end formally trained luthier for almost 20 years I suppose it makes sense that I might know a thing or two about guitars. Have a great day!
I just picked up an Epi Broadway and put on a stewmac bridge with adjustable saddles. Though not great acoustically it was a vast improvement with harmonics and breadth of sound.
good review from someone who is an "arch-top guy"- I too was expecting more acoustic tone out of a solid spruce top and, although laminated, maple sides and back. I bought a D'Aquisto New Yorker ( 17") from Jimmy in 1981 ( waited 3 years for the guitar) with a floating mini hum-bucker. When I picked it up it had medium- heavy gauge bronze acoustic strings on it! He said " these are set up strings, play the guitar loud, dig really deep into the strings to get the top moving for about a month- then you can put any gauge strings you want on it. Jim Hall uses .008's--" . When I gasped in disbelief he said " really - I put 8's on his guitars." I am not suggesting that this will make this Guild sound like a D'Aquisto, but there might be something to it.
Super cool review beauty of a guitar!.. and Yes your review aspect is way cooler than the run of the mill "Best New Cheap Guitar" videos.. Thank You .. Keep the Videos Coming!
Thank's my friend, That's exactly what I did, I also changed the PU, for a Rhthm chief 1100 and a tone potentiometer ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Sai2A16ZYU0.html
Hey Stuart, this is precisely the viewpoint I have been looking for. Would you be able to recommend some 17 inch Guitar which sounds reasonable dry too, but with Pickup also? I am on budget around 1500 Euro. I do not mind to buy a used one.
Great review, bro! It would be nice if you explain what you were exactly doing with the frets and bridge, and also what were the reasons this guitar was brought to you in the first place. I saw an article on this model - the reviewer wasn't impressed with the bridge pickup...
Thank you! The guitar was in for a fret dress which is what I was doing with the frets and the bridge was just being adjusted for set up and intonation. You know, its really hard to review pickups simply because there are so many variables and so much personal taste involved. What amp, what strings, is it being played clean or with gain, what style of playing etc... I played this guitar with a little gain through a solid state amp and I thought it was all in all a pretty nice guitar. But its good to know someone who does more reviews than I do had the same feeling about the bridge pickup.
I bought one of these in January, thought it was a bargain at £550 but due to import duty ended up being £700 so around normal price. I love it, it has beautiful lines and the trans black is a sweet finish. I just use it to bang out chords playing with my pals so nothing to in depth, it just sounds good . I only bought it as my Uncle in the States had a Guild 3/4 parlour guitar that he got in the 60s and it was the first proper guitar I got a shot of.
