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There are lots of looths out there who won't allow a single person in the shop watching them working. You have at least 20000 there with you every time, listening to every single explanation, watching every step. And it's free for everyone. I think we and the others owe you more than one beer, Ted. You're a hero, no jokes. 👊🏻
My wife of 53 years gifted me a 1972 Epiphone (in 1972) F150 as a surprise. What a POS. Action was about 3/8ths of the inch at the 12th fret and intonation was only suggested. Zero fret was a negative feature, it could not be played in any sort of tune above the 3rd fret. Guitar sat in the case for over 15 years. When the case was opened the neck, still under string tension, jumped up. The upper brace had deserted it's post and the neck crushed the sound board under it, with the rosette, and tore the block down rupturing the guitar side at the top of the body. I, with the instruction from Master Woodford and others, have restored that inelegant monster and now it is delightful to play. In tune over the fretboard (mostly) with a string relief of just under 3/32's. Thanks to U-tube and Master repair genius's P.S. Anyone at Gibson that thought it would be a good idea to build such an instrument should rot in everlasting Hell!
Thats good to here. I take it, you never told her it was a POS? I recently picked up an 83 Gibson Spirit ii, swrial number dates it to my exact birthdate. Sounds amazing with the Tim Shaw p/u but needs a little love. The guy left it unplayed in the back of a covered, unused Monte Carlo, outside in Toronto for 33yrs. Its fine to play, but theres a few issues that need to be addressed.
Gibson wasn't making Epiphones in 1972. Kalamazoo outsourced Epiphone to countless Asian makers in 1970. There is no telling what country of origin yours was made. Until Gibson settled on Epiphone China builds in the late 90's, they were mostly total crap as you described
Great shout out to Tanya Shpachuk! Along with yourself and that curmudgeon Dave at "Dave's World Of Fun Stuff, she makes up one of my three favourite RU-vid luthiers. On the amp front there's Uncle Doug, Fazio Electric and Psionic Audio that I love as well.
The only thing I really dislike of her is the consistent gluing of the nut with glue underneath the nut. Seeing how much stuff she does really well I figured she wouldn't do that.
"Curmudgeon Dave" is about right 😄 And what a lovely man Uncle Doug is 😊 I've seen Tanya's name pop up but have not yet checked out her channel; Will do! 😉👍
@@jenniferwhitewolf3784, I tried watching Tanya's channel a couple times but it seems she doesn't speak and doesn't explain her process, the what/why/ how of guitar repair, and so I find it a bit dull and not particularly informative.
Also check out the "Vintage Guitar Amp Repair and Online Guitar Teacher" channel from England. Martyn does comprehensive amp repair and modification work, often on oddball amps that we don't see much of in the US, and he is by far the best guitar player of any of the amp repair techs I've watched on RU-vid.
As a guitar player and builder, I can appreciate your skill and experience. You really make it look easy, believe me folks it’s not. To achieve his level of results it takes years of hard work, he’s done it and can repair damage I wouldn’t even consider trying. You sir, are one of the elite, thanks for sharing.
your explanation of leveling the board the way you did was priceless, I've read dozens of posts on the subject and couldn't determine the pros or cons. This is such a great resource for people who want to see what a thousand descriptions in text cannot.
I just rescued a badly-neglected Kasuga Gakki W-160 12-string guitar and it had what I thought was a rusted and ground out screw holding the truss rod cover in position. Turns out, it's a Robertson! Thanks to you, now I know what it's called :)
My 1940 Epiphone Zephyr came to me when a neighbor threw in the trash, in its Lifton case. He inherited it from his dad and some strings were broken. Another neighbor snagged it, cleaned it up, and sold it to me. Not in original shape, with an added Bigsby, but a nice guitar! Sad to see what that brand later became. I loved the 60s Kalamazoo ones!!!
I just drove overnight from Georgia to Minnesota after a post-eclipse visit with family, and look what's waiting! But Ted's voice is so calming - it's like a daddy calmly reading a goodnight story. I keep falling asleep! Three times I've restarted at the halfway point! I'll get it. (Don't wanna go to bed early and mess up my sleep schedule.) I'm really into these ancient, well worn working instruments and the never say die attitude to get them back where they belong - in the hands of the musicians who love them so much they pull a special kind of music outta their fingers. It's all so worth it! Now for restart #4. BTW, a lot of people in my family and circle of friends are really intrigued by my recapitation service t-shirt. It's a conversation starter! 🙂 (So buy one! Or two, like I did. One's going on a hanger in the closet so I'll have one in new condition in 5-10 years when the first one gets a little care-worn.) Long post. Does anyone else get chatty when you're sleep-deprived?
Thank You, RESPECT! It is so WEIRD that you post videos from the Vintage to elderly guitars in my shop. Such As The Gibson acoustic with Low impedance pickups from my Great Uncle Doyle heritage, or the 1890 Washburn Parlor with superb Brazilian Rosewood ...now this. I am working on a Roy Smeck Epiphone with bout dimensions as you describe I thought it was a Harmony, Perhaps mail order. It says Roy Smeck, but the craftsmanship is Superlative! I need to do more homework before I dig in to re glue the back replace all the rotting binding. WOW, Thank You Ted
Great job! I haven’t actually seen any of Tania’s videos but I would agree with her on this business of using solder to remove frets. But probably for a different reason than most people. Using solder forces you to keep the tip of your iron tinned, and they’re probably going to last a lot longer. I know tips are pretty cheap, but I don’t want to add even a few dollars to my too-high Amazon tab.
I am just realizing that your videos have zero ads. I bought a 'if it ain't broke, don't break it " shirt but I want to pay you directly for the work you do. I also don't want to add to your stress
Many of the videos I watch seem to have more and longer ads before the video beginning, and popping up at several points in the middle, then used to be the case.
I had a buzz driving me crazy on a new guitar £500 classic vibe strat with a replaced Wilkinson big block trem and £300 worth of Seymour Duncan singlecoil sized humbuckers installed a 59/n , a duckbucker/m, a Custom/Custom b, it sounded AMAZING, rhey were splitteable too! the 5 way switch removed and 3 mini togle switches on/off/on! the buzz was whenever I played the open A string, not through an amp though! the neck pickup was vibrating in sympathy with the A string!, so a strip of sponge was doublestick tape placed under each pickup! buzzes gone!
The point about the hotdog fret ends came to light for me after dressing a fretboard on a bass of my own, i spent ages getting it looking perfect and after all that effort it felt worse than it was beforehand
Thank you Ted, beautiful work as always. Watching and listening to you working luthiery magic is both calming and inspiring. Looking forward to the remainder of this project 😁🐿️❤️
If I remember correctly, tinning (adding solder) the soldering iron tip usually makes the tip last longer. But doesn't really make a difference in this situation. The tip could be tinned afterward and it may last a little longer than not tinning it.
I appreciate the view of the file on the edge of the fretboard showing the light between the file and board edge. I’ve never seen anyone give us that view before….
This is the finest git fiddle repairmen in the business Do yourself a favor & watch & listen ,& learn from his methods,& his instrument history of the instrument he’s working on alone is worth paying for ! Keep up the great work my friend !
Sir - you are a poet, a narrator extraordinaire and a Master-craftsman! You are a worthy candidate for a Koala stamp of excellence! Your inventiveness, ingenuity and meticulous language and manual skills make all of your presentations pure joy! Thankyou so much!
We have one of the ones from the, modern, Masterbuilt collection, also an Olympic. Solid spruce top, laminated maple back and sides. Ebony fret board and bridge. I know a lot of people put the newer Epiphone guitars down, including myself at times, but the guitars coming out of the Masterbuilt and Inspired by Gibson groups are very high quality guitars. Some all solid back and sides too. Another great video, sorry for the long comment.
I love watching you work and hearing you speak. I have learnt so much and have been very entertained in the bargain. I finished the mandolin you inspired me to build.
Another great video!!! You’re explanation of it via using a “neck jig” finally makes sense to me…thanks! I use a little water via a Qtip, and keep the soldering iron tip well tinned…it transfers the heat quicker me thinks…
A word of some experience with semi-hemispherical frets as a hobby luthier- they make a lot of sense, when you're working with stainless steel frets and you prepare them before pressing/hammering them in. There's a great video about this proces here on RU-vid, it makes the entire process sooo much easier
The solder thing has to do with thermodynamics. The heat transfer occurs faster if there is a bit of liquid medium between the two hard metals. Let's think that doing the same concept, but more expensive, would be to solder with cpu heatsink paste. This type of trick was taught to engineer in the old time of relay and vacuum computers. But I absolutely agree that is only necessary for certain scenarios, some might be the type of soldering iron, type of glue, luthier technique, etc.
ALL the early Epiphones used high grade materials, and as far as I know, ALL of them had carved tops. The Olympic, certainly near the bottom of line, was no exception. That guitar has a very nice looking top. Epiphone had a lot of guitars in their catalog clustered around the low end. But during most of that time for every Emperor that was sold there were probably 100 Blackstones, Olympics and half a dozen others. My brother had a great condition 1966 Zenith that had an absolutely delightful electric-guitar neck and was a joy to play. He hated it because it had the goofy 66-67 headstock, I never cared, it was an exceptional great playing guitar.
That take on rounded fret ends is really interesting. I've been super impressed by them like everyone else (fret ends on Millimetric guitars anyone? Amazing). But it makes total sense what Ted says. I play with a thumb over and I can totally imagine now that I'd regret having frets finished like that.
I have an identical 1959 guitar except it says COMMANDER on the headstock and was made by Harmony, which I think was also Kay? Amazing how close they are to each other. Same f-holes, tailpiece, pickguard, bridge and cantilevered fretboard
My grandfather had a Kalamazoo guitar that looked exactly like that epiphone. My grandparents bought it used on their first wedding anniversary, so around 1950, and it was $5 My uncle broke the back of it when he was a kid, so it was repaired and painted burgundy burst. I learned to play guitar on it and was hoping to inherit it but one of my cousins grabbed it 😢
"safe edge" files left some pretty clear ruts in the fingerboard! I'd recommend a lighter touch. personally I use a needle file that is blade shaped, so the edges are very thin minimizing the contact with the board while dressing fret ends
I bought an Epiphone Olympic reissue a few years ago. I loved it acoustic or plugged in. I sold it within 2 years. I felt it was a “one trick pony”, it did only one thing very well.
Even though I live in the US, not Canada, I have loosened/tightened many a Robertson screw, but since I only use replaceable hex-drive bits that fit into a magnetic nut-driver handle, and don't own a set of dedicated molded-handle Robertson screwdrivers, I was unaware that they had a sizing color code! Most folks in the US have only seen Robertson screws used for interior wood trim and for building decks, but as a retired electronics tech I've seen them used on Canadian built electronics and hifi. A superior design over Philips screws, for sure.
No im pretty sure you are always right Ted. Specially on subjects like gluing the nut only to the end grain to prevent tear out on the next replacement.
Phillips heads limit applied torque while Robertson, Allen and Torx head let you give 'er 'till it pops. Each type has its use and skill required to use successfully. All part of the fun!
My Olympic looks different. My says "masterbilt" on the headstock and the bridge looks to be made of ebony. I was going to send it up to you to get restored but this guy beat me to it.
Appreciate the ninja level videography, Ted! Although far from required, and very annoying if overdone, it's kinda jaw-dropping when done right. Hat's off, and greetings from Sweden
Ooh, that's rough. Makes me wonder why people don't freaking ask for an example of a modification to test, before they dip in head first. I would never get something without testing it. When i made my own keyboard, i bought the tester package that gives you all the switches ever made. It cost me a bit, sure, but i have every switch ever made, i know exactly which one i like without spending hundreds of dollars more to experiment and get disappointed. Sheesh.
16:25 for the first time I understand the meaning of the term "fretsaw"! Of course the tool I knew by that name doesn't look like what you're using. But still.
The only reason other than the mentioned for using solder on the frets (I have seen Tanya doing it) is to improve thermal transfer from tip to fret to be removed!
I actually prefer Robertson screws over Torx but both are very good. If anything, it's harder for a ham-fisted cordless screwdriver operator to strip out a Robertson head then to strip out a Torx, and the Robertson screw, even if chewed up, can often still be removed by using a properly sized flatblade screwdriver inserted corner to corner in the square socket of the screw. As for Philips type screws, I'd rather see Pozidrive screws being used instead, but most people haven't learned to recognize the diffence, and if somebody tries to remove a Pozidrive screw with an ordinary Philips screwdriver then they usually strip out and ruin the screwhead.
Completely rounded fret ends are a really bad idea for wide string spacing with strings close to the edge -- just a little accidental bend and the string slips off the fretboard, and you can't feel where the proper crown ends and the slippery slope starts. On the upside, I learned to watch out for accidental bending of strings while fretting notes.
