This 1930's Hensel Artist guitar made for the R.S. Williams company is being converted for left handed play. It needs new tuners, and the bridge was originally glued in the wrong location.
While I'll never repair a guitar, your instructional videos are a delight. I'm a writer. I notice how people express themselves. You speak calmly but with precision (good qualities in a repairman working on fine instruments). You see things with great clarity.
15:07 Not only were the old tuners on Backwards but these are actually Mandolin Tuners that have been cut down to 3 on a plate Tuners w/ an extra tight spacing of like only 35mm.
I am often amazed at the work that people have done to their instruments, and accept the craptacular as the way it should be done. I did my degree in repairing viola da gamba, violin, and acoustic instruments after working for my HND in electric guitars for 4 years, and the things that customers bring in make your mind boggle at times. Great videos mate, and nice to see another luthier that is as particular as I am with my work. All the best Ted from all of us (3) at Quo Guitars in the UK.
Loving the hensel coverage, I have 3 Hensel's (a restored minerva, a restored artist, and an archtop that needs some work). Great guitars, glad to see them getting more attention online.
When we hire a craftsman to do a difficult job for us, we hope he is professional and has high standards. Ted is something beyond that. I want to say he is ethical, bringing considerations of value and integrity to his work.
I noticed that when I watched the Stew Mac video's, he used a drill bit to round the barrel of the new buttons as to increase the surface area to prevent future slipping. I love these video's and how each has their own way. Great work!
I have been watching a lot of your videos lately, and I am a fairly talented craftsman, and I can tell for a fact you don’t charge nearly enough for your services. Great work!
Another great repair. Thanks for your intelligent and thoughtful videos. Another location to get oxalis acid is bee supply stores. Bee keepers use it for treating their bees to get rid of varroa mites.
I must admire your attention to correcting the rubbish work others leave behind, I am sure you are kept very busy with repairs. Would be nice if all so called luthier’s were as meticulous as you. Greetings from Ireland.👍👍
never seen your videos before, the insight it takes to live in a world of your own while existing in a world with others, leads men to find when you put the two together it makes a little Christmas tree.
Vintage guitars alive always a surprise when they wake up to all of you who question the effort the value and is it worth it these are the most valuable to us luthiers it is the hours of trial and error spent seeing what others attempted that we perfect on these gems of the That gives me the skills the knowledge and confidence to tackle and restore the very valuable. Restorations The privilege to dismantle and bring back a the high end stuff is priceless
Remarkable. These vids are a library of best-practices. The temp fillers for re-drilling the headstock are the sort of thing even a good guitar store tech would not think of doing, or would not have the bits of this or that available in order to do it...so you’d get wood filler (or nothing ) in the tear-out and would be told “best we could do ...sorry”
You Sir are a master! Love your videos. Your delivery, your editing, your skill is impeccable. Of all the luthiers I watch on RU-vid, I would have you work on my guitars! You should have 10 times the subscribers you have now. Thanks for all you do.
I realize this is over a year old, and you may not even see this. Dry oxalic acid granules can be bought from beekeeping supply stores, online, and in person. Quantities vary, but you can get pretty small amounts that last forever. Mix with distilled water. Or ask a beekeeping buddy for a tablespoon worth.
I know this is an old video, but have to comment that I've used BKF for years for various cleaning and lightening purposes. Oxalic acid is great. Great tip using a paint filter for this type of application.
You are very talented. One thing I've learned by proxy of building and repairing guitars is how to loosely play left handed haha. I noticed you can fake it till you make it as well. What I appreciate most about your technique is you have a very steady hand and a lot of patience, though I'm a fairly new viewer I've seen quite a few of your videos and never a corner cut.
I use Oxalic acid all the time on log home restoration spraying gallons of it a day. As I get older I find the tightening of the skin on my face from the overspray makes me look younger and it tingles. Oxalic is great for removing black iron stains from wood, steel filings will turn wood with tannins, pine, fir, spruce, black.
Great work. A lot of it for a guitar that didn’t have the bridge glued on correctly, OR in the right spot. I used to have one that my friend restored, and it sure went out of tune easily.
You might want to check out Jerry's method for saddle placement on Rosa's String Works. Basically it's a trapeze style jig that allows him to temporarily install the high and low E strings. Surely it must be better than the best measurement.
There's enough width in the saddle to push individual strings back or forward to achieve good intonation. These are all compromises, btw - having the 12th fret octave ring true doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the board will sound good, especially in these old guitars where fret position is kind of loose.
I used to sell ounce bottles of oxalic acid, in my pharmacy, to remove rust and lime scale in dishwashers. Its also the main ingredient in some boat hull cleaners to remove water line discoloration.
That is true , however , using a harder wood will assure that the tip does not cause any damage upon exiting. PEACE OF MIND IN TECHNIQUE IS PARAMOUNT HERE.
Another great video, just curious though, heat would cause the metal to expand when replacing those tuner knobs. Wouldn't it be better to use a lube that would evaporate? As an ex downhill mountain biker we used to use Windex to slide our grips on, once dry they would have to be cut off.
Oxalic acid is also used as automotive cooling system flush, in a small bottle ., and its in solution already.. Pretty much any auto parts store has it , and yes it is fairly potent.. You will have to check the actual chemical composition, and is commonly used to remove corrosion from cooling system aluminum, cast iron , and ethyglycol antifreeze.. and of course all the automotive engine contaminants .
Hello, great work as usual. Is there a reason to make the new bridge the same size of the old one and not make it bigger to cover the old bridge placement?
I have 4 old Silvertone Parlor guitars painted black. They were sold by Sears and Roebuck. They have a faux tiger burst finish. 2 are near perfect but 2 have neck bow. I use those for Slide guitar. Is it possible to fix the neck bow from the strings sitting for 60 years? Thanks for your repair videos. I am a Classical guitarist and play electric and I love old parlor guitars. The first guitar I touched was the old 15 Dollar silvertone. So I go back to those for a special tone that I really like.
It would be great to know how much you are charging for these procedures. I understand why you wouldn't want to but I'd love to know. Thanks for your great videos!
I'm enjoying watching your precision. May I recommend Thomas Johnson Antique furniture restoration videos. Many of his vids are about ungluing, removing stains with oxalic acid, etc.
