Interesting work, as usual. My only concerns are in gluing the cheeks of the neck to the body of the guitar and with filling every available space with glue/sawdust paste (which I realize makes the neck joint stronger). If, 50 or 60 years along the road, the neck needs to be removed again for some reason, the technician who gets that job is going to be a very unhappy fellow.
Nail on the head. Impossible for the next repair person to steam / heat off a dovetail cleanly with the cheeks glued to the body. Also I'm not sure anyone knows how well white (pva?) glue sticks to a glue / wood dust mix. Hopefully they'll see this video to see what they are up against.
Exactly right. There is a reason why next to noone glues (at least wood to wood) on the heel. And why usually there is no contact between the front of the dovetail and the neck cavity. There is no strength in any of those anyway. The strength comes from the sloping angles of the dovetail resting on the slopes of the cavity. That does needs to be matched well. It's typically done with shims (as in this example) and when done correctly, the joint doesn't even need any glue. Well, almost ;) The way this repair is done, the entire cavity might've been just as well simply flooded with epoxy.
Interesting approach. I've used a combination of wood flour and yellow carpenters to fill major neck dings (past the laquer) with very good results. While the repair is obviously visible it seems quite durable and about as hard as the basic neck wood. I'd be surprised if it gave any trouble strucurally, but I too have some qualms about gluing the cheeks to the body.
Ben, for some odd reason I get a lot of neck resets in my shop. Sadly most of them are not even worth the price of a traditional reset. But most have some sort of sentimental value. I created an adjustable neck straight edge that I clamp to the neck and "adjust" the angle with the back removed. (slipping the neck some call it) then refit and bind the back. It's better than half the time of a traditional reset. And, grandpa's guitar is once again playable!
There are weird moments where you go “I hope he doesn’t sneeze with that chisel on the finish” and at the same time you go “but I’m not gonna blink in case he does”. As always, you do amazing work sir
Interesting approach! If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration, Patek Philippe, and twoodford, it’s to always think of the next generation of owners/repairers. I’m concerned you’ve made the job of next person to do a neck reset a lot harder. I have no doubt that this is a solid repair though! So I do all my neck joints with hot hide glue (or just bolt on), even though my instruments are more likely to end up in the landfill than a museum. 😂 Would be fun to see a twoodford reaction video. 😊
@@hydorahI feel the pain for owners of the guitars where he used no more nails to fill fret slots when fretting. It’s going to be like pulling frets out of concrete
Ted recently addressed the question of him reacting or critiquing to other people’s repair videos. I have a feeling that this might be one of those videos. I have to agree with Ted on this one. There many ways to approach and achieve success with a guitar/neck reset/repair. Far be it from me to criticize how someone else gets from point “A” to point “B”. As long as the job is done and the instrument works as it should without any damage. A small footprint I guess. I gotta agree with you that this is an unusual way of doing a neck reset. Not wrong. Just not the usual.
Always love your videos, Ben. And sad when they end. I love the way you are not afraid to experiment during even the most challenging repairs, and not necessarily stick to the “traditional” repair methods. Looking forward to seeing this one finished.
Have to say, that worked really slick. Limited change to the original instrument, defect repaired and looks amazing. Tons of respect and care taken, well done sir!
I found this process in particular more informative and instructional than a lot of the repetitive shape, carve, sand build videos. Brought me back to why I started watching you in the first place when I was pointed at the "Complication" build and the intricacies and skill in that build. Well crafted edit for the entire process. Thank you gentlemen.
Dude......love your vids. What you're doing here is a piece of masterwork. The patient and dedication is superb and you're love for the work is wonderfull to watch. I guess your customer is a very, very happy person. Cheers Ronald (Holland)
Years ago when you first showed that Emmert Pattern makers vice I fell in love instantly and bought one. Loved it. Take care of yours! I recently stupidly broke mine only to find they don't make them any more... :( Now I need to see if I can find a cast iron worker to fix it. Second hand ones are really expensive.
Nice method - it'd be interesting to make a couple of identical (as much as possible) loose neck joints, and "correct" them both, one using shims and one using the wood dust/glue method. Then test them to destruction to see how they compare....
I am wondering why there was no string alignment check before glue up or did you just not film or edit it out? sure suck to have her kicked out one way or the other...
Had you chosen to shim the voids, could you have used a hard wood such as ebony without having too much give of compression? As always, a creative solution! Thanks.
That was a great idea to record the rebuild process. We don't get to see real craftsmanship in this day of through away products. Thanks for describing your plan along the way. It was very satisfying to see such gem brought back to life. Cheers bud.
A slurry of wood dust and glue, while it does the job just isn't as professional as some new actual wood shaped as required. Glue and dust seems more suited to bodges. I'm also wondering about the join releasing in the future of the instrument all that stuff will become a goopy mess for the next reset
If you did the dovetail joint right. You didn't have to use that huge clamp from the neck to the end blok.. lots of guitar repairmen don't get that don't know why..
Nicely done, very scary. I bought a cheap Squire Strat a few months ago. It had gaps around the neck joint and shimmied for the neck angle. I fixed it using autobody filler. Clingfilm around the neck heal, filler in the pocket, screwed the neck on tight while the filler was wet. Unscrewed the neck when it was almost dry, cut off any squeezed out filler and painted the pocket. I ended up with a squeaky tight neck joint. Mine was only a £70 guitar, so no fear there. A bit different from your 30k.
It's an interesting approach, my only concerns would be as the first layer of filler was quite "dry" would there be enough cohesion to the neck block? Didn't see if you wetted the joint with glue before applying the dust mix. And as someone else said the next tech who has to take the neck off won't thank you ( unless they've looked up the history of the guitar and found these videos) other than that if it works it works 👍
I think you want a little less cohesion than possible, just to make sure you can still disassemble this thing. The dry layer might just provide a tight fit, but it's not so much for gluing.
@@brixomatic well my thought process is that the filler replaced the shims that would have been glued to the neck block and effectively becoming the neck block, this would mean the neck was glued to something not glued to the block? I also thought that there's normally a gap behind the dovetail for future removal. I might be completely wrong but it's how my joiner's head saw it
@@barrychristian4050 yes, it replaces the shim. Of course the filler is glued to the block, it consists of glue, but I think it does not glue as strongly as it could and that's a good thing for later repairs.
Are you just creating a plastic lined pocket for the dovetail to sit in, also bearing in mind titebond does not glue to titebond, this will hold for a time, perhaps experiments are not for such rare instruments
Great seeing a seasoned Luthier at work. My only concern/question with this is where the neck meets the body there is an up-angle on the neck as it departs from the body (just above the neck pickup under the fretboard). Would it not be sensible to add a shim in there to act as strain relief ? At the end of the day wouldn’t the string tension put a force downwards (a vector force) which would cause stress in your new joint ?
If the joint is ever taken apart again.... well we hope it never needs it but you mentioned that it may need such a thing, I would guess the steam would affect the glue/putty you put in there. However, I guess any neck reset ends up being part repair anyway so probably not an issue.
Does changing the neck angle, which geometry tells us will change the distance between the bridge and the nut, ever change the scale length enough the bridge can no longer compensate and the bridge has to be moved?
This process brings the instrument closer to it's original geometry. Often the other main symptom of a forward tilting neck is the intonation going beyond the adjustable limit. If the body itself was collapsing, the bridge might have to move, but then of course you've got bigger problems
If Gretsch didn't take the nitro off before gluing the neck aren't you changing the sound by taking it off before gluing? Totally understand that it makes way more sense.
Ben Happy Christmas from The USA👍🎸🎼 You always do amazing work, My one question is Why did you not have the body covered with something to protect it during your repair process?? I have done some repairs on very old martins & Gibsons I usually wrap the body’s in cling film & wrap that with low tack tape Jude to keep small particles of glue ect from getting on the body & pickups. Anyway Amazing work👍👍🙏👨🏻🦯👨🏻🦯
Ted Woodford is too well measured to be fuming about this but he will certainly be disappointed. Ben you're a fantastic craftsman, inventive mind and all around good chap, but there's a lot to criticise about your work here. Traditional methods often have good reason to be traditional.
This! And on such a valuable instrument no less. Ben is a great builder, not a seasoned repairman. This repair job is just not up to scratch, especially when it's an old Gretsch. Shims and careful shaping of everything should've done the job, and it would also meant using one clamp as the dovetail is shaped to get stuck on its own.
@@PelleKuipersagree and all that glue on the heel and body joint where he scraped off the nitro was just wrong. Only the sides of the dovetail needs gluing
It's always easier to cut away the bad, put in new, and call it "better." In this case, however, being able to keep things as original as possible will help maintain the existing tone profile of the guitar, thereby maintaining the significance and value of the instrument. Well done.
I don't understand why you don't use any tool to check the angles before you glue the neck. Nobody wants a 27k guitar with the neck crooked. Think about it the next time...
Interesting work, as usual. My only concerns are in gluing the cheeks of the neck to the body of the guitar and with filling every available space with glue/sawdust paste (which I realize makes the neck joint stronger). If, 50 or 60 years along the road, the neck needs to be removed again for some reason, the technician who gets that job is going to be a very unhappy fellow.
Nail on the head. Impossible for the next repair person to steam / heat off a dovetail cleanly with the cheeks glued to the body. Also I'm not sure anyone knows how well white (pva?) glue sticks to a glue / wood dust mix. Hopefully they'll see this video to see what they are up against.
Exactly right. There is a reason why next to noone glues (at least wood to wood) on the heel. And why usually there is no contact between the front of the dovetail and the neck cavity. There is no strength in any of those anyway. The strength comes from the sloping angles of the dovetail resting on the slopes of the cavity. That does needs to be matched well. It's typically done with shims (as in this example) and when done correctly, the joint doesn't even need any glue. Well, almost ;)
The way this repair is done, the entire cavity might've been just as well simply flooded with epoxy.
Interesting approach. I've used a combination of wood flour and yellow carpenters to fill major neck dings (past the laquer) with very good results. While the repair is obviously visible it seems quite durable and about as hard as the basic neck wood. I'd be surprised if it gave any trouble strucurally, but I too have some qualms about gluing the cheeks to the body.
Ben, for some odd reason I get a lot of neck resets in my shop. Sadly most of them are not even worth the price of a traditional reset. But most have some sort of sentimental value. I created an adjustable neck straight edge that I clamp to the neck and "adjust" the angle with the back removed. (slipping the neck some call it) then refit and bind the back. It's better than half the time of a traditional reset. And, grandpa's guitar is once again playable!
Always fun, to sit down with a beer on a Saturday and watch Ben Crowe work his magic!
Should have given it to @twoodfrd
There are weird moments where you go “I hope he doesn’t sneeze with that chisel on the finish” and at the same time you go “but I’m not gonna blink in case he does”.
As always, you do amazing work sir
Happy Holidays, Ben. Thank You so much for Your enthusiasm through yet another year 🙂
My pleasure! Happy New Year
Interesting approach! If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration, Patek Philippe, and twoodford, it’s to always think of the next generation of owners/repairers. I’m concerned you’ve made the job of next person to do a neck reset a lot harder. I have no doubt that this is a solid repair though! So I do all my neck joints with hot hide glue (or just bolt on), even though my instruments are more likely to end up in the landfill than a museum. 😂 Would be fun to see a twoodford reaction video. 😊
Well done for speaking up. I agree, this is not the way
@@hydorahI feel the pain for owners of the guitars where he used no more nails to fill fret slots when fretting. It’s going to be like pulling frets out of concrete
Ted recently addressed the question of him reacting or critiquing to other people’s repair videos. I have a feeling that this might be one of those videos. I have to agree with Ted on this one. There many ways to approach and achieve success with a guitar/neck reset/repair. Far be it from me to criticize how someone else gets from point “A” to point “B”. As long as the job is done and the instrument works as it should without any damage. A small footprint I guess. I gotta agree with you that this is an unusual way of doing a neck reset. Not wrong. Just not the usual.
@@timothycormier3494 Yeah, I saw that video of Ted’s right after I watched this one. 😂 Agree - second guessing is the way to madness. 😄
Always love your videos, Ben. And sad when they end. I love the way you are not afraid to experiment during even the most challenging repairs, and not necessarily stick to the “traditional” repair methods. Looking forward to seeing this one finished.
Thank you!
What a careful, thoughtful and respectful repair! Such an instrument deserves nothing less.
Merry Christmas Ben - just to let you know I love watching you & your vids keep well and be strong
Have to say, that worked really slick. Limited change to the original instrument, defect repaired and looks amazing. Tons of respect and care taken, well done sir!
I found this process in particular more informative and instructional than a lot of the repetitive shape, carve, sand build videos. Brought me back to why I started watching you in the first place when I was pointed at the "Complication" build and the intricacies and skill in that build. Well crafted edit for the entire process. Thank you gentlemen.
Happy Christmas Ben and all at Crimson 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you - and best wishes for 2024 to you
Dude......love your vids.
What you're doing here is a piece of masterwork.
The patient and dedication is superb and you're love for the work is wonderfull to watch.
I guess your customer is a very, very happy person.
Cheers Ronald
(Holland)
Hapy Christmas to You and your family Ben, and to the Crimson team. Thanks for the past year of great content and hope 2024 is good for you all.
Thank you for good wishes and the same to you!
Years ago when you first showed that Emmert Pattern makers vice I fell in love instantly and bought one. Loved it.
Take care of yours! I recently stupidly broke mine only to find they don't make them any more... :(
Now I need to see if I can find a cast iron worker to fix it. Second hand ones are really expensive.
Thanks for the heads up.
Yes man
I'd learned so much.....
Thanks for that!
The best for you mate❤❤❤❤❤
Happy to hear that!
Nice method - it'd be interesting to make a couple of identical (as much as possible) loose neck joints, and "correct" them both, one using shims and one using the wood dust/glue method. Then test them to destruction to see how they compare....
I am wondering why there was no string alignment check before glue up or did you just not film or edit it out? sure suck to have her kicked out one way or the other...
Had you chosen to shim the voids, could you have used a hard wood such as ebony without having too much give of compression? As always, a creative solution! Thanks.
That was a great idea to record the rebuild process. We don't get to see real craftsmanship in this day of through away products. Thanks for describing your plan along the way. It was very satisfying to see such gem brought back to life. Cheers bud.
Nerve racking, to say the least, but loads of tips in this repair! Cheers Ben! 😂😂🎸🎸🥰🥰
Lmao when Ben blows dust away I have already blown in to my screen I need more meds he he fab work as ever Ben.
Lovely work Ben. 👍.
Love Chet Atkins
A slurry of wood dust and glue, while it does the job just isn't as professional as some new actual wood shaped as required. Glue and dust seems more suited to bodges. I'm also wondering about the join releasing in the future of the instrument all that stuff will become a goopy mess for the next reset
I'm suprised that this aproach was even considered on this guitar. Complete hack job.
Ben that is a great technique if it works !
Merry Christmas
Happy holidays!
If you did the dovetail joint right. You didn't have to use that huge clamp from the neck to the end blok.. lots of guitar repairmen don't get that don't know why..
Nicely done, very scary. I bought a cheap Squire Strat a few months ago. It had gaps around the neck joint and shimmied for the neck angle. I fixed it using autobody filler. Clingfilm around the neck heal, filler in the pocket, screwed the neck on tight while the filler was wet. Unscrewed the neck when it was almost dry, cut off any squeezed out filler and painted the pocket. I ended up with a squeaky tight neck joint. Mine was only a £70 guitar, so no fear there. A bit different from your 30k.
As I said in the last video, balls of steel!
It's an interesting approach, my only concerns would be as the first layer of filler was quite "dry" would there be enough cohesion to the neck block? Didn't see if you wetted the joint with glue before applying the dust mix.
And as someone else said the next tech who has to take the neck off won't thank you ( unless they've looked up the history of the guitar and found these videos) other than that if it works it works 👍
I think you want a little less cohesion than possible, just to make sure you can still disassemble this thing.
The dry layer might just provide a tight fit, but it's not so much for gluing.
@@brixomatic well my thought process is that the filler replaced the shims that would have been glued to the neck block and effectively becoming the neck block, this would mean the neck was glued to something not glued to the block?
I also thought that there's normally a gap behind the dovetail for future removal.
I might be completely wrong but it's how my joiner's head saw it
@@barrychristian4050 yes, it replaces the shim. Of course the filler is glued to the block, it consists of glue, but I think it does not glue as strongly as it could and that's a good thing for later repairs.
Are you just creating a plastic lined pocket for the dovetail to sit in, also bearing in mind titebond does not glue to titebond, this will hold for a time, perhaps experiments are not for such rare instruments
the fight me in the comments logo didn`t pop up... I love that thing!
Holy Bigballs, Batman. Better you than I.
wood shims come on!
I was scared during this. Great vid.
I reckon you earned your next cup of coffee ☕! Phew..
Great seeing a seasoned Luthier at work. My only concern/question with this is where the neck meets the body there is an up-angle on the neck as it departs from the body (just above the neck pickup under the fretboard). Would it not be sensible to add a shim in there to act as strain relief ? At the end of the day wouldn’t the string tension put a force downwards (a vector force) which would cause stress in your new joint ?
Loved your comment at 15:30 😁
12:22 theres that SG you were making! Whats happening with that?
great
Unintentional Guitar building innuendos quote #56: "Sometimes you just have to stick your finger in there!"
"I don't want too much of this to spurt out..."
@@Forest_Fifer what she said 🤣
Great seeing you do this stuff Ben your now the south African Ted Woodford! Great stuff as always brother! Have a great Christmas!
Thanks! You too!
Christmas greetings from a fellow Crowe.
And a prosperous New Year
If the joint is ever taken apart again.... well we hope it never needs it but you mentioned that it may need such a thing, I would guess the steam would affect the glue/putty you put in there. However, I guess any neck reset ends up being part repair anyway so probably not an issue.
Does changing the neck angle, which geometry tells us will change the distance between the bridge and the nut, ever change the scale length enough the bridge can no longer compensate and the bridge has to be moved?
This process brings the instrument closer to it's original geometry. Often the other main symptom of a forward tilting neck is the intonation going beyond the adjustable limit. If the body itself was collapsing, the bridge might have to move, but then of course you've got bigger problems
If Gretsch didn't take the nitro off before gluing the neck aren't you changing the sound by taking it off before gluing? Totally understand that it makes way more sense.
There is no need to glue that part of the heel. All that needs gluing is the dovetail joint. This was a poor repair imho.
We all have our vices....Ben's is Sam
Ben Happy Christmas from The USA👍🎸🎼 You always do amazing work, My one question is Why did you not have the body covered with something to protect it during your repair process?? I have done some repairs on very old martins & Gibsons I usually wrap the body’s in cling film & wrap that with low tack tape Jude to keep small particles of glue ect from getting on the body & pickups. Anyway Amazing work👍👍🙏👨🏻🦯👨🏻🦯
Happy new year! And thank you for the comments
Curious what the number (61 or 19) signifies that is stamped onto the body?
Part of the model number, 6120. It looks chipped off the body but is visible on the underside of the fretboard extension.
What kind of glue are you using?
Please finish the fence post acoustic.
Ted Woodford is too well measured to be fuming about this but he will certainly be disappointed. Ben you're a fantastic craftsman, inventive mind and all around good chap, but there's a lot to criticise about your work here. Traditional methods often have good reason to be traditional.
This! And on such a valuable instrument no less. Ben is a great builder, not a seasoned repairman. This repair job is just not up to scratch, especially when it's an old Gretsch.
Shims and careful shaping of everything should've done the job, and it would also meant using one clamp as the dovetail is shaped to get stuck on its own.
@@PelleKuipersagree and all that glue on the heel and body joint where he scraped off the nitro was just wrong. Only the sides of the dovetail needs gluing
Are you sure it's a 54'? Wouldn't that be a 6120 prototype?
Bodge job on a 27 grand guitar, i hope the owner isnt watching! 😳
Looking lean Ben
What's happened to Josh? Not seen him in ages
Josh has moved on to pastures new.
It's always easier to cut away the bad, put in new, and call it "better."
In this case, however, being able to keep things as original as possible will help maintain the existing tone profile of the guitar, thereby maintaining the significance and value of the instrument.
Well done.
Pins and needles over here.
You essentially bedded the joint. Nothing wrong with that.
Are you Australian? Or a New Zealander?
Born in Zimbabwe when it was still Rhodesia.
@@CrimsonCustomGuitars oh. Haha. Sounds sorta Australian.
Naughty sounds so naughty.
I don't understand why you don't use any tool to check the angles before you glue the neck. Nobody wants a 27k guitar with the neck crooked. Think about it the next time...
Not everything is filmed, and of the content filmed, not everything makes it into the final video for UA-cam.
She's about all i can handle. Too much for my brain. Got me under pressure.
Butt clenching that was. 🧐
When youtuber start placing money in video header it is a clear symptom of channel death
Don’t scratch your eyebrow with a chisel in your hand !!!