Dave, I’ve come to the conclusion if you had an old shoebox and broken broomstick, you could string it up and make it sound amazing. great job well done
When I think of all the thousands I've spent on guitars and high end equipment over the decades, and all I had to do was learn how to play better. You've probably done more to inspire young guitarists than anyone else on the tube. Well done Dave.
Same here, I have a Japanese Silver Series Strat, the neck was warped and had to be thrown away as it was too bad to fix. I bought a cheap Chinese neck off ebay, re-did all of the original decals in waterslide (including the serial number), sanded the neck, put in a neck shim, levelled and polished the frets and set up the floating trem. Finally, after a couple of years of tinkering with it, I have got it spot-on, no fret buzz and the action is just where I want it. I love that guitar and won't be parting with it, but I don't mind if it gets bashed about a bit!
Great work on turning this guitar around. The Jams were just epic Dave and even though you said your disconnected from the guitar it sure seemed to play so well in your hands of musical magic.
You really are a gift to this world, Dave. Your joy, energy and enthusiasm (not to mention your phenomenal guitar playing) lift the spirits like nothing else on here. All the best, fella.
I remember someone in the last comments suggesting that, and what a great easy fix. And yes it sounds really nice. But then a box with rubber bands on you could probably make that sing to lol, such talent Dave, all the Trio band are just amazing.
Well done Dave - guitar tech extraordinaire as well as guitar hero extraordinaire, it seems. Well chuffed for you. I'd be interested to see your guitar tech-ing tool kit if you ever feel like sharing it sometime. Glad the saddle flip did the trick for the Grote-sque.
Dave you are a special person. Your love for guitars comes through with this project. You did not give up and that guitar lives now! The tone was in your words, immense!! Great job playing and setting up that guitar.
I started watching you when you had a few hundred subscribers and you have grown leaps and bounds since then. Amazing journey you have been on. Keep your mental health stable because we all love you.
Mr Dave, yet again I find myself taking my hat off to you and at this time of year I’m getting a cold head. The dedication and passion you have for guitars and music is inspiring and I always enjoy seeing a happy Dave. There are two lucky ones in this. The person who has that guitar and the guitar itself is lucky that it came to you to bring it to life. Your C in English massively out qualifies me, I ain’t got no English qualifications at all, nuffin.
I love how you don’t give up. That’s a great result. Like you, it niggles me if something’s off. I get ocd over it. I also appreciate your not a guitar snob. I have high end Strats but I’ve a used Classic vibe on it’s way to me. Even a string on a plank can be in tune. A good job Dave. 👍
For the good of the company...let's assume they send you that guitar because they knew you would fix it? Now it sings! And man, so beautiful! Your smile. Lucky person to whom you give it.
I've been doing this to "rubbish" guitars for decades now. Fix them (practicing my guitar building) then sell them at pocket money prices to kids who can't afford a "decent" instrument. Several have gone on to play in bands, churches, open mic nights. It is very rewarding.
You know what, even a very expensive guitar can need a lot of work. I did a video on my new Eastman T486 which took me a month to get right. That one cost A$2000. I owned a Grote 335 some years ago. That was quite a good guitar too.
Hi Dave 👋 love what you are doing I was looking at the Grote but for just a few more dollars I ended up with a Leo Jaymz Single cut standard out of the box Killer has alnico pickups no problems with the one I received the tuning is great everything about this guitar is sweet only thing is the two tone color I wish that it was either Red or black I have have had it for at least six months no fret sprouts 😊
The intonation problem that you had, is something that I have had to deal with even on more expensive guitars. Swapping the orientation of the saddles helps a lot, and I have even has to remove the little springs to get a bit more adjustment. I think the moral is “ a cheap guitar will often become a great player , but only if you have the knowledge, the time and the tools to fix it”. Super video Dave!
Top marks Dave! Patience and know how can transform! Still feel sadly that someone with far less or zero knowledge could just throw in the towel on learning guitar, blaming themselves for poor sound when the instrument is the weakness. I feel this a lot as set up guitars for my friends shop and at times my heart sinks when tbh the guitar chosen for a beginner (all secondhand gear) can be the worst choice in build quality or level for a novice but they like the colour..... I do my best but some guitars are just beyond help its shameful they sell them. Great vid mate you saved a great guitar
Nice job Dave! I admire your tenacity! Absolutely love LP's. I've had my eye on the purple one of these, it's absolutely gorgeous but I can't afford it right now unfortunately. Currently paying for GCSE tuition for my daughter so she can do well. Don't want her doing as mediocre as I did at that age... because I spent all my time playing guitar 😂. Hindsight right? Loved this video buddy 🤘
It can take time to come up with a simpler fix, but you're right. It's worth taking the time for a less-destructive solution to come to mind. Last year I got a JV Custom SuperStrat type guitar. Really cheap, really, really nice guitar. Excellent except I couldn't intonate the high E (the bridge posts are just a couple of mm too far back I reckon). I ended up searching out and finding bridge posts that fitted the existing threads with smaller heads on them. That moved the bridge forward about a mm and then I ended up hacksawing a chunk out of the block saddle of the high E to allow it to move forward a mm more without catching on the bridge post. It's now perfect.
One of the best sounding guitars I’ve seen/heard you play. What a great tone and I can see you’re very comfortable playing it. It’s a shame you’re letting her go! 😮
I'm not saying; "I have One" But on my Grote LP/SC, the intonation "Fall Aways" (as u refer to it as) ARE already spun around (where as yours were not). WARNING; the "individual adjustment screws are soft/flimsy. I had to slack each string / lift them Out of the slot / adjust and then re-tune. (pain in Butt) sooo, I will be looking foward to a Better A.B.R. (some day) Footnote; the close up view from the strap button device to the Stop Bar is a freak out; High high at the bass E string and low low at the high E. The faux A.B.R. (original) appears as similar? I adjusted the Stop Bar (@ the Bass E up a couple threads to match the string(s) angle from the Stop to the Bridge. The Nut Original; is short on each side as u mentioned. BUT...all the strings are sunk so deep in the nut it is flabbergasting?? SOOO. Eventually a New Nut. The Org. Tuners are pretty damn good. no changes nec. The Org. Frets appear brassey colored Not pitted but a tad noisey. I run through a GT 100 and added a Boss single Loop Station. AMP; Fender Frontman 10G (lol) AUDIO TECHNICA Head Set (almost the top of the line... I do love it... it weighs a ton. Blood Red Flamed not at all "Flamey" like the advert.. Oh Yeah...out of the box, the truss rod was slack, I was able to address the org action with 3/4 of a turn. THOUGHTS; the strings tend to rise up off the fret board as they travel towards the bridge? No Likey! But, as you stated, this puppy needs a lot of tweaking. In my view, I would not do a re-fret (SS) cause $$$. not worth it. Electronics...same, no way not worth it. It seems like The Tech Dept @ Grote Are Not All On The Same Page? AND SO...because your experience is dramatically different but equally disturbing as mine, I won't be buying another. Signed OCB Guy and great vid, I ate them both up
A labour of love, i take my hat off to you for your determation to not let a bad guitar win. I must admit that i did the same with a very bad sample of a Donner DST-200 Strat that i bought in Amazon's new year sale, i didn't have time to return it, but did have enough good parts to turn a bad guitar into a reasonable one. It's biggest issue that i could not do anything about was the way too thin fretwire, if i had leveled the frets as they should have been, there would have been nothing left. It realy needed a refret, but the price i paid (£106) it was not worth it. So i rebuilt it and made it playable with a slightly high action, then gave it to the local charity shop, so hopefully someone gave it a good home, as it is no longer in the shop. I hope whoever gets your guitar Dave appreciates all your efforts that turned a sows ear into silk purse.
Plenty of fantastic guitars in this price range without the hassle. Obvious choice are the harley benton lps, of which I have 3. Waiting on an artist lp coming into stock. Specs are outrageous for the money!
Dave reveals lore about himself so much so that the wiki article that proceeds his future success will be long, tedious and interesting for whoever has to write it.
Great work Dave! Such a shame you got a bad one. Here in America grote delivers straight from Amazon and al 3 grote I have purchased have been great. Apart from minor work here and there they're all great guitars. I have 2 335 clones but one with p90s and a third hollow body that I eventually gave to a friend.
How can they get so much right and mess up on something basic like bridge placement? I don't imagine they individually measure the scale length on each one, surely they have a pre-prepared template. Maybe it's got something to do with the wonky neck join.
PS. I Failed my GCSE English but managed a grade one Cse. Which was equivalent. 😆Our teachers made us do gcse and cse as we were the 11 plus failers at secondary moderns. Glad they did! 😁
Some LP's are like that with the bridge/saddles. There's always what James Taylor tunes his acoustics to. He tunes the open strings flat for the strings that aren't both open & intonated (fretted) chords. The EAD strings are anywhere from 12-8 cents flat for open play, but intonated they always seem to drop dead on. That tuning method is the James Taylor Tuning Method. What's weird with that, even the GBE have to open tune flat 6-2 cents flat to intonate dead on. If one can hear the low E flat by 12 cents, maybe 10 cents there. Another tuning flat is to split the difference. That is if the low E has the 12 cent difference, tune it open for 6 cents flat so that the intonated ends up 6 cents sharp. That way the worst offender strings are in a range that even if the audience could hear it, it's not terribly flat or sharp. And that guitar is more of a live audience & stage player than it is a precise studio guitar that one would want the guitar to be dead on open & intonated. There are times for me, I simply get lazy for tuning the guitar & as long as the strings fall out of tune flat as the entire set, I can work with that. Could the entire set of strings fall 20-30 cents flat, even as much as 1/4 step to the note lower as open and still sound good . Alternate tunings are 1/2 & full steps from Standard E anyway. guitargear.org/2017/02/10/ill-be-damned-james-taylorss-tuning-works/
I'm the opposite, when I fix something & made it better to perfect, that misfit becomes the instrument I connect with more because it now has a part of my soul in it for the additional time put into it for that level of guitar. I don't chase pickups, not if I can add wax pot to eliminate microphonics. When I get a guitar that another has deemed cheap garbage & get it to play, the reversed saddles wouldn't bother me one bit. There's zero inferiority complex about a $ 100-200 Chinese guitar that tunes & intonates, even with ceramic magnet pickups. When I look at the price of modding a ceramic pickup (Strats) for pole pieces, the Alnico magnets aren't that much more expensive, it's the labor I guess to swap the magnets I guess. I end up just leaving the pickups original. The Squier Bullet has ceramic pickups, a 2005, they DCR spec to the same K Ohms as they did brand new, 18 years old that they are. That tells me the pickup was made well & nothing happened to it to alter it to need to be replaced. Besides, if a buyer sees the shim or whatever else had to be done, do they want to pay you what you have invested into it, original purchase price & blood, sweat & tears to make it right. I figure that 2005 Bullet is mine for life, the $ 25 guitar that plays like it's brand new, decades later. It's my Willie Nelson Trigger guitar, patched together with toothpicks & glue, even 1/16 shim that fixed neck pocket sag to level it to proper level. That guitar, it's funny, it's like a Fender Custom Shop on a budget at this point, "repair relic'ed & road worn" is what I'll call it. That old Bullet is tuning stable with any legendary tuning stable Telecaster I've ever had. And similar to the headstock repair that doesn't bother someone that falls in love with a rescued & saved Gibson LP headstock crack repair. Those I call "cracked scarf joint necks". It's a guitar I'll pick up & play every session, just because I know what it's been thru, the voice it has speaks to me. Like a vocalists voice, some love, others hate.
Well done Dave... The story and guitar has a Happy Ending ! Yes... You have turned it into a genuine musical instrument... Am thinking 'Grote' should gift you another of your choice or money refund... That would be the BEST Happy Ending ! Mmmm ? Please don't forget about a Stagg L400-TS 'HH' (LP) demo ... (Belgium made) and I would be keenly interested to know and understand what a skilful guitarist can do with 'same' and opinions of Pick-ups etc...🤠
Just a note. Back when I was building guitars, I built a guitar for a friend using my favorite brand & gauge of strings. He immediately removed my strings & replaced them with his favorite brand & gauge of strings& it suddenly wouldn’t intonate. I ended up building a custom bridge for it & all was good. So, it might just be that the gauge & brand of strings you use, don’t work with that guitar.
They have to be the way round that works, that's the point of the tunomatic bridge, so you can turn the saddles round to intonate. I realised this truth in 1970.
Well done Dave. I just knew you were too invested in that guitar not to have a tinker. Been there myself on a few occasions. Often investing more money in the repair than the guitar would ever be worth! Such is the effect these lumps of wood and metal can have on us. As you say, you lucked out on the old saddle swap trick. Had that not worked out, the alternative would have meant some serious re-engineering. The wonky neck issue was my main concern and would have been the deal breaker for me, so it's great to hear that it's not having a detrimental effect on playability. It would still bug the hell out of my OCD about these things though, so I guess ,like you, I'd struggle to fully bond with it knowing it had that issue. Congrats on sticking with it though and keeping us advised, warts and all. Overall, it sounds like, with a bit more care and attention to detail at the factory,, these could be serious contenders in the affordable end of the market. 👍
I thought the main issue was the neck (fingerboard) was slanting sideways? Nice sustain, should work well on an Alright Now solo! Your playing has come along leaps and bounds Dave, keep at it, and as I said to you once before don’t let any buggers grind you down.
I would have thought the CNC machine would do the bridge holes too (I know some do, but I guess you can still screw it up) so the chances of this going wrong would be slim but I guess not.
Dave, Im going to pick one of these up or do you know if there is a better one by someone else at about the same price? Im not looking for a heavy one also.
Great video as always dave. Will you be doing an Antiquity range video that PMT are selling ? They do telecasters Stratocasters and an ES range. they feel fantastic I’ve not played one just saw one hanging up in PMT Birmingham And they are roughly around £179.
Also Dave if you don't mind i need abit of advice, I'm slowly doing up an old Kay guitar and I've never seen pickups like these, nor how the Tremolo looks, but there's a small ware on one of the pickups and I'm really not sure if i should touch it, the material is a kind of leather or something i don't know, but want to bring it back to life. I'm a learning guitarist and learning everything i can about guitar set ups, as you'll see it needs alot of work, so abit of advice would be cool. Obviously you're a busy man so not hurrying you as this will take me time. Thankyou. ✌️
At least it was a budget guitar Dave. I have owned one or two expensive cars in my day that were not right from new that played up and spoilt the experience resulting in a big loss on resale after just a few months. The things you do when you are young lol. Older and wiser I now buy second hand as cheaply as possible knowing that there is not much left to depreciate. If only I had been able to learn to play even half as well as you ! I guess I never got hit with the music stick.
sweet "riffin" mate! what era were the "speedknobs" on the les pauls? i aquired 3...yes...3 IYV ILS-300 in emerald green at stupidly good deals! 2 of them needed just a bit of leveling on a couple o frets...havent spent enuff time with number1 to catch any funnybizz yet lol! even tho the pups are the "same" in all 3...1 and 3 sounds a bit better than number2...ill fix up number2 as a "greenie-moore" style....even with a flipped magnet neck pup....plus the mismatched knobs! ill call her "greenie-maye"....
Magical playing there Dave, you made it sing, may be now worth a few shekels , not grotes , weird name for a guitar, but in certainly sounds excellent in your hands.
Hello Dave , what backing tracks are you using it's Awsome, along with your video of the Guitar awsome set up. I have been enjoying your vids I've learned alot , thanks for sharing and hope all is really well in your part of the world, I'm in Michigan 🇺🇸.
Technically the saddles on a tune o native should all have the sloping face pointing to the back of the guitar. However, the reason they usually have 3 each way is to give more range to intonate. It's a flaw with the original tune o native design not giving enough movement, often made worse by Gibson just putting bridges in the wrong place. The saddles are the reverse of the nut which of course slopes down towards the headstock.
Here's a question for Dave (or anyone else really) Why is it I have a guitar that's the same scale length, same string gauge as another, but the strings feel "tight" (I'm not sure of how else to describe it) I have two tele-like guitars - but one I can string bend easily, the other feels at least a string gauge tighter. they are both ok as far as the nut and intonation goes - I just can't figure it out.
Disagree this is worth it because someone on a lower budget ( that’s a lot of us ) won’t have the knowledge to sort it’s problems out. A set up costs £100+ these days so should be taken into consideration.
What did you expect from a guitar named Grote? Sounds like something one would use to hold bricks together. But thank you for your insight so I would never buy one of those.
