Neck Reset on a Pre-War Martin 0-15 from 1941 

great guitar congratulations :) i would love get my hands on one old martin like that.. i have the young brother got myself one 000 15 sm :)

Did you cringe as much as I did every time he demonstrated the resonance of the body by banging it against the bench and T-tracks? I know it sounded a lot worse than it was, but I kept mentally screaming "Why aren't you using one of those $50 StewMac bench pads (or a towel)?". :D

@@jefft7968 I thought the very same thing. I've never seen a luthier work on a guitar without some sort of padding underneath. Don't think I would send mine to him for work.

@@retiredlife848 yeah that was painful. I always set down a towel before I work on my guitars for a basic setup.

Is that tortoise shell on the headstock original?

Man.. you ain't fuckin lying! If Bob Ross and Bob Vila had a son, it would be Ted. I was disappointed that he didn't upload a video this week. 😂 The driftwood fellas aren't too shabby either.

Omg u hit the nail on the head. His channel is therapy for me.

​@@rjpike75 Check again - he uploaded on Tuesday (keeping us hanging on!) He's got 3 1940s Gibson acoustics that are going to be a series. Part 1 is now available!

@@rjpike75 He did upload...made a comment that he had been busy passing a kidney stone. Ouch.

@@beak85 yeah. That's gotta be rough. Can't wait for part2 tho.

Ted is fun to watch. I also watch StringTech Workstations who also does guitar repair at the same caliber.

Yes he's awesome. His voice is so soothing he's like the big uncle telling your a story at the camp fire while he's fixing your guitar.

Yeah and the T tracks make me cringe.

Came looking for this comment, yet he makes fun of Martin owners complaining about stuff that doesn’t matter…..I think every guitar owner wouldn’t like their guitar dinged around like that lol

@@TheBigDean18 Cringe worthy to me!

Yes, very surprised about that. It seems like he’s scratching the shit out of that old guitar.

My EXACT thoughts! I was cringing the entire video at that..

I’ve never reset a Martin neck that didn’t have a shim in it.

@@DriftwoodGuitars I was skeptical even then.

They did say it's pre-War 'for the Americans '

That’s very kind to say! Thanks for that. We honestly get a lot of misunderstanding from those videos, but it always comes from folks that just haven’t spent time to understand what we’re about.

Why not use a glue that does the job, and has zero side affects as far as tone reduction or longevity? I just don’t see why that matters for glueing a shim on. Maybe I missed something?

@@DriftwoodGuitars name of the game is reversibility. in the future when someone goes to take that apart they're expecting to be dealing with hide glue. cleaning up superglue is a pain. using the yellow glue on the dovetail is also not right either. hide glue is very strong but joints can be easily disassembled with a bit of heat n moisture. ive made plenty of poor decisions over the years fixing guitars and ive had to come to terms with that whenever ive fallen short. its ok nothing but love. these old martin/gibsons that havent been messed up with poor repair choices deserve a higher level of approach. we must use hide glue and keep certain instrument repairs historically correct whenever possible. if its a fine guitar and clean, assembled with hhg then the dovetail, extension, and shims deserve hhg. its just the right thing to do. im only talking neck resets here not other repairs, sometimes you gotta use yellow glue for braces ect. if you don't have confidence in using hhg then doing a neck set on a reasonably clean 41 martin is not a job you should be doing. that neck had never been off and could of gone back on with hhg. someone who has put the time in being comfortable with hhg should be doing it and getting paid for working on that level. we are stewards of these old guitars and should be taking care in how we are fixing them. always being concerned about future repairs and how easy it'll be done the road on another luthiers bench. you shouldn't be in a hurry during a neck reset it should be a calm calculated repair cause in theory that set is gonna be in place for 20-30 years. practice neck resets on old harmony/kay bangers, if you can dial one of those in then move on to the finer guitars. i won't be upset if you use yellow glue on an old dime store banger. nothing but love fellas but there's a standard to maintain and i hope yall can hear what im saying and improve. this is a self motivating business only you can figure out how to improve going forward. keep going keep improving start using hhg everywhere you have an opportunity to. you'll be happy about it in the long run. again nothing but love.

@@DriftwoodGuitars im shooting you straight and not trying to be mean. the world is mean enough. it seems clear to me that you don't understand how to fit a dovetail joint properly(hell im still working on that too!) and maybe you should get a couple bangers and the stewmac neck set dvd and practice a few. you may wanna swallow your pride, show humility, be humbled and pop that neck off and clean up the CA and yellow glue and get back down to wood. and when you're ready glue it on with hhg and rectify this situation. you may wanna delete this video and all these comments too. we don't need bad information in the world like this and you don't want it connected to you in the long run man. i know this may be tough to hear and you think ima dick but i promise you im acting in love and respect. that guitar deserves it. werd up.

You’re literally the only person that’s had something negative to say about my glue choice, including from the owner of the guitar. I’ve worked on dozens of prewar martins In my career, and it sounds like you and me just have different repair philosophies. Neither one is wrong. Im just not of the school of thought that we should use historically accurate glue on a vintage instrument, when modern blues are just as good, or even better, and still offer the repairability of HHG. On top of that, this guitar is FAR from pristine and original. It has a non nitro satin overspray, cheap aftermarket tuning machines, a few repairs on the inside, and no case, so I really don’t think using non HHG on the neck joint is going to hurt the value of the guitar. I’d be in agreement with you if this was a classic like a D-18, 28, 45, or some other pillar of the martin lineup, and was still in original condition, but this guitar is just not even close to that. I’m not sure where you’re coming from when you say I need to swallow my pride, as I’m an open book and literally shared my entire process for everyone to see, and even said , this is just the way that I do this, and im not the authority on the subject. I’m FAR from the guy you take a guitar to if you’re a vintage guitar nut, but that should be obvious I would think.

I dont use HHG at all in my shop, and I personally can’t stand the stuff. I once built an OM45 replica for a customer and he insisted that I use it, so I did. Literally made zero difference and only made it harder to build. My guitars sell for prices similar to many prewar martins, and I have a multi year wait list for one of my instruments, yet no one ever assumes that my guitars sound better or worse based on my glue choices. I’ve spent decades experimenting with different glues for different applications and I’ve landed on my choices based on my past experiences. Every glue has unique physical and sonic properties, and I use each type when most appropriate for a given application. Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t make it wrong. Believe it or not, you can accomplish the same goal using many different methods.

The purpose of hide glue is not that it has tonal properties.

@@frankwebster9110 it’s ok if you don’t hear it but I do. It’s obvious to me and it helps give part of that vintage tone that I enjoy but if you don’t hear it or care then that’s totally fine. I’ve replaced bridges on guitars that had been glued with tite bond and even that one glue joint using hot hide glue made a big difference in the sound. To me. To each their own though.

@@jeb419 I really didn't think it was a tone thing. My bad. I thought it was a relic from the past that is superior in that it doesn't damage the wood or change it adversely as well as being easier to remove in case of repair. I guess it makes sense that the transfer of vibration could be dulled by a plastic type glue or epoxy. Thanks for the correction.

seems like an A1 luthier but that always gets my nerves going...on a quality guitar I'd be scared of getting scratches and dings on the guitar !

Attention to detail separates the masters from the rest.

Tremendous sense of desert sand paper dry humor Ted has.