There is a subtle poetry in the calm demeanor of a master craftsman talking about his work. The knowledge, the experience, the the wisdom you verse in these videos are a gift for us watching. Thank you for raising the curtain on your work, and allowing us in your workshop.
I was surprised by the sound of that Harmony, knowing that it was not a premium guitar, but it had a great "chimey" sound that I liked. Great work as usual, sir!
I worked on a harmony the other day that had survived a fire and a 2 pack a day smoker, when I finally got all the smoke and nicotine cleaned off and the setup finalized it sounded surprisingly well
Yep. There was another channel I followed for a short time but I started noticing how often he damaged the customer's instrument and other things and determined he wasn't nearly as good as I thought. So I had to unsub.
You think it looks good.....seriously....it looks great! And, thanks for what you do for us; the time you take to put these videos together, the amazing repairs & tips, the history lessons and all a smiling voice!
The new saddle on the arch top looks fantastic! And easing the edges and corners that the player's hand might rub against really makes it look like it simply grew there. You have a good eye for shaping.
The Kalamazoo is a real sweetheart. The X-bracing makes it really special. Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia has an X-braced Kalamazoo in their inventory (it's on hold) and they say it's the only one they've ever seen. They speculated that someone reached into the wrong neck pile back in 1939.
I've learnt a lot from watching you. My 12 string guitar now plays perfectly, certainly didn't realise HOW important perfection is when it comes to the height of the string slots in the nut. Regards from England.
Wow, that saddle looks awesome! Ted, I’m constantly amazed by your attention to detail and high level of craftsmanship. Great job. Also, that Kalamazoo “budget” level guitar is gorgeous. Sounds great too.
Yes my friend we say “ Aluminium “ we also say Out and not ooout 🤣🤣🤣 🇬🇧 Only fooling around my dear chap Love the channel and have subbed some time ago . Cheers Johnny English.😉
That's interesting. I noticed a huge difference too, and I too thought the bone bridge sounded much nicer, but "brighter" would be how I would describe the improvement in tone. Musical adjectives aside, for some weird reason, the aluminum one made the strings sound peaky in the high mids, and the bone replacement rectified that for reasons unknown.
beautiful work on that bridge.learning lots.a friend also gave me an old copy of dan erliwines handbook.saving a few old beauties and gigging with them.thanks for all the info you share.
Danelectro electric guitars had aluminium nuts (inexpertly filed, to say the least, with big wide square bottom slots). This includes some of the Silvertone guitars, the "amp in case" combos that were built by Danelectro. I wonder if Ted has ever worked on any of those.
@@goodun2974 I don't like Danelectros. I dislike Strats, and the only case in which I'd pick up a Strat is if the alternative was a Danelectro. Yeah, on an electric I doubt aluminum would be my saddle material of choice, but I guess I like it on acoustics.
@@IrisGalaxis , I'm more of a Strat and Tele guy, but I think Dano's are way cool. Generally I like weird stuff of any and all categories, and I like the cheese factor of weird guitars and amps. I am a big David Lindley fan, I've heard him play Dano's on a number of occasions. *Not* sounding like a Strat or Gibson thru a Marshall can be both refreshing and advantageous. (Jimmy Page played a Dano for Kashmir, and John Entwistle played a Dano bass for My Generation). The 5 Watt World Channel on UA-cam did a brief history of Danelectro guitars about a month ago.
@@goodun2974 I find playing a Strat or a Dano fun until I plug in a Gibson or something similar and find it way more fun. Now I like weird guitars myself too, I play and own some pretty weird ones myself (the cheese factor matters definitely). But there are weird guitars and weird guitars...all have a thing of their own. Like I like Les Pauls and don't like Strats, I also don't like Danos but do like...for example, Harmonys and stuff. My main electric player currently is a Jolana Galaxis...pretty weird stuff, from the wiring to the finish to the hardware to the woods to the neck profile...but I like it very much. (if you're wondering why it's not a Gibson, I'm financially low at the time but I have played quite a few Gibbies...and Fenders) I do like Teles though. That bridge pickup is sweet.
@@IrisGalaxis, some Harmony, Kay and Airline guitars have yummy Dearmond pickups. I have a late 90s MIM James Burton Tele with paisley-like finish and a laminated basswood body; a very good guitar.
I run a grounding wire from the collar of the output jack to the metal ball end of one of the strings through the sound hole (a little fiddly to do). Then, up at the headstock, I leave one of the string ends long and weave it through the other five strings to complete the circuit and bingo bango the strings are grounded.
Great work, as always, Ted. I am by the Ebony bridge saddle that you made, it is very beautiful and functional. Thank you your knowledge and expertise with us, time and time again, we are better custodians of our instruments, when we do the things that you instruct us to do.
through the intertubes the sound difference between the aluminum saddle and the bone saddle unplugged was dramatic! the aluminum was much crisper and brighter. i couldn't tell any volume difference on this end, but that's my usual knock on metal saddles or even pins on an acoustic, that they make the sound brighter but quieter from the increased mass slowing down the top. (if string grounding is actually necessary i guess one could install a "platemate" type thing on the bridgeplate and ground that) if anybody cares about actually using a P-90 style acoustic pickup with bronze strings, a trick i found is to unscrew the B polepiece screw entirely, just remove it and stash it somewhere safe. raise up the G screw and drop the hi E screw and it takes the pickup from sounding awful with its way loud B string (like that one did) to sounding sort of OK. that kalamazoo was super cool! if it eventually needs frets _and_ has too much upbow, would a compression refret be a viable path to fix both problems?
Ok. 2 minutes notice. Now on to the vid 😁 Edit: all done. Yes that was a lot of fun. And thank you for the fine little nugget played on the Gibson as the outro. Beautiful, and what a fine hand.
I think if you look closely, you’ll see that Harmony is solid wood pressed into shape, not plywood. Harmony only used plywood during their final few years in the 1970s. Some models even had carved tops. Thank you for sharing these awesome videos!
To my ear, and high quality headphones, the aluminum bridge saddle sounded brighter, almost tinty if that’s a word. I preferred the bone saddle. By the way, my first “real” guitar was a Yamaha FG 160 (not the “E” model) made in Taiwan in 1972. I still have it and love it. The bridge you made for the Harmony looks fantastic.
@@TheRockinDonkey Oh the fret wire one has it place. Definitely not appropriate for this guitar...but for some cheapo crappo it'd be quite useful to be able to set the intonation like that. I've got a guitar with impossible intonation...definitely not good or expensive enough to have a custom bridge made. That thing would do just fine.
In the 60s I got a shock from my Watkins Circuit4 (which had earthed strings), plugged into a non-earthed amp, when I picked up a microphone plugged into an earthed PA amp. My elbow flexed up, the mic touched the strings, there was a flash and a bang and two strings melted
If that last guitar you played was the Kalamazoo it sounded wonderful . You never cease to amaze me with the work you do . Dave seems like a hack when you watch yours and his videos side by side .
Love that new bridge top on the arch top guitar. Very elegant. The proposed replacement bridge with the slots is interesting. Tim Sway had a recent video fixing up a 70’s Russian guitar with the same type of bridge, first time I’d ever seen such a thing.
One thing you may not have considered is that the grounded aluminum bridge on the acoustic-electric Yamaha could be helpful, at least in the customer's perception, in suppressing 60-cycle hum in some situations he plays in that maybe are not so evident in your shop. I have a P90-equipped electric that gets a little noisier sometimes in places with deficient wiring and/or flourescent or neon lights. TVs and computer monitors can also be a source of extraneous EMI that is read as signal by single-coil pickups, which are effective radio receivers. An adequate continuous ground can help moderate the effect. You get the picture, I'm sure.
That Kalamazoo is super nice. I have only ever seen photos from outside, it’s nice to see one on the inside. I heard people claim, that replacing the frets with some, with a wider tang, could correct the upbow. The idea being that you “stretch” the fretboard into a backbow, putting pressure on the neck. Although hammering wide tanged frets, into a narrow slot, sounds like asking for trouble to me, I was wondering if anybody else heard about this, or even tried it?
Guitar learning friend of mine freaked when I started tuning his guitar, he'd just paid a shop $45 to tune it for him. He thought it was like a car and you had it tuned about once a year..........
$45 to tune a guitar??? 1) Should be done for free, 2) the teaching for how to should also be free, 3) educating that tuning is a daily plus thing also free, and 4) then the shop is free to sell the most expensive tuner they have without guilt to make their money. Without 1), 2), and 3), that shop is full of db's.
@@Three_Eyed_Willy Tig weld will be cleaner . No slag left behind. I cant laugh, though. When I was first starting to play guitar I didn't realize about the G string half step back at 4 fret to make B for the next progression. My goodness the F chord sounded bad for so long. Finally an older gent showed my error to me.
I had to slot behind the saddle on my Yamaha many years ago due to break angle. These Yamahas have an under rated sound to me. Love learning as I'm enjoying a video. Thanks.
Lack of humidity is not a problem where I live. Brisbane Australia. Winter gets a little dry but not much to worry about. Excessive humidity in summer is wild.
That bridge you made for the Harmony didn't look just OK. It looked AMAZING.
Came here to say this. Another work of art from Ted.
Much better than stock.
@@ronmarkell4436 it's too good for the guitar.
@@neilbarnwell it sounds real nice however.
My thoughts exactly. More master craftsman work that is truly amazing.
The bridge on that Harmony was real purdy
"I think that looks okay."
WHADYAMEAN IT LOOKS OKAY, IT LOOKS FUCKING AMAZING!
That is word for word what I said
There is a subtle poetry in the calm demeanor of a master craftsman talking about his work. The knowledge, the experience, the the wisdom you verse in these videos are a gift for us watching. Thank you for raising the curtain on your work, and allowing us in your workshop.
And with a Perfect "put a bird on it" joke...
That’s beautifully said. But if you keep on, you’ll have to change your online moniker.
@@garywhitt98 you are too kind😁
Yep, well said. And fully agree
Very well said.
"They put a bird on it". Nothing brightens up a good craft as much as putting a bird on it.
PRS knows that best.
Portlandia represent!!!
@@IrisGalaxis if only they were affordable...
I was surprised by the sound of that Harmony, knowing that it was not a premium guitar, but it had a great "chimey" sound that I liked. Great work as usual, sir!
Same here! It sounded really good
Yep, I love the way he says, It looks ok, when it was freaking perfect.
I worked on a harmony the other day that had survived a fire and a 2 pack a day smoker, when I finally got all the smoke and nicotine cleaned off and the setup finalized it sounded surprisingly well
Me, too. It’s hard to believe the owner bought it as a wall hanger.
Easily the most entertaining luthier to follow
Yep. There was another channel I followed for a short time but I started noticing how often he damaged the customer's instrument and other things and determined he wasn't nearly as good as I thought. So I had to unsub.
@@blazer6248 Did he likes Roses?
@@Wizardofgosz I believe I know what you're saying. And that'd be him. 👍
@@blazer6248 yup
@@blazer6248 who was he?
You think it looks good.....seriously....it looks great! And, thanks for what you do for us; the time you take to put these videos together, the amazing repairs & tips, the history lessons and all a smiling voice!
Started to an interesting Yamaha. These repairs/setup videos are always great!
The new saddle on the arch top looks fantastic! And easing the edges and corners that the player's hand might rub against really makes it look like it simply grew there. You have a good eye for shaping.
That Harmony has a very articulate, bright sweetness to it. Very classy job with the new bridge, too.
Hello, HOORAY! What a fine day, for the Eton Rifles....
Hello Nigel.
The Kalamazoo is a real sweetheart. The X-bracing makes it really special. Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia has an X-braced Kalamazoo in their inventory (it's on hold) and they say it's the only one they've ever seen. They speculated that someone reached into the wrong neck pile back in 1939.
I live about a mile from there. What an amazing place.
@@catbutler1343 I can only imagine. I have to get by with the website. I'd probably faint if I ever set foot in there.
adam savage said you inspired him to ue thin crazy glue in his last video
@Andres Fargo ua-cam.com/video/jfUL73pRYq4/v-deo.html
Nothing better than waking up on Sunday morning, making coffee and watching my favorite you tuber. Thank you.
That new Harmony bridge is beautiful. And it sounds fantastic.
I've learnt a lot from watching you. My 12 string guitar now plays perfectly, certainly didn't realise HOW important perfection is when it comes to the height of the string slots in the nut. Regards from England.
Wow, that saddle looks awesome! Ted, I’m constantly amazed by your attention to detail and high level of craftsmanship. Great job.
Also, that Kalamazoo “budget” level guitar is gorgeous. Sounds great too.
Yes my friend we say “ Aluminium “ we also say Out and not ooout 🤣🤣🤣 🇬🇧
Only fooling around my dear chap
Love the channel and have subbed some time ago .
Cheers Johnny English.😉
@@redcuillin
Ok mate 👍🏻 i stand corrected but we get the same results after all it’s only spelling my friend.
That Yamaha definitely sounded brighter to the point of being brittle to my ears with the aluminium (Nigel) bridge. Another great video thanks.
That's interesting. I noticed a huge difference too, and I too thought the bone bridge sounded much nicer, but "brighter" would be how I would describe the improvement in tone. Musical adjectives aside, for some weird reason, the aluminum one made the strings sound peaky in the high mids, and the bone replacement rectified that for reasons unknown.
I always look forward to your videos thank you for sharing you skills, wit and humor with us.
yes, I love your videos in the morning, at lunch or in evening. Thank you.
That Kalamazoo sure sounds sweet.
And it looks beautiful. Hard to believe it was ever considered just a budget guitar.
@@bruwin And then people say "budget guitars today are much better than before"
Loved the playing demos in this video!!
As per usual, just hit the like button then watch the video. Love your work sir. From a fan from "downunder".
Your work is so good. Thank you for sharing.
A real pleasure watching this craftsman do his thing. Exemplary work sir.
“They put a bird on it” 😂
The Harmony saddle that you made was beautiful. Absolute perfection.
Absolutely great videos; I could watch them all day!
As always, thank you for your videos!
This Harmony rings like a bell. Nice job
The Bridge saddle you made for the Harmony is just gorgeous!
That bridge is beautiful!
The finish on the harmony is beautiful, regardless👌
I’m starting to feel that St. Peter will greet me with “Hey there gang!” I love Ted’s videos.
beautiful work on that bridge.learning lots.a friend also gave me an old copy of dan erliwines handbook.saving a few old beauties and gigging with them.thanks for all the info you share.
The bridge work that you did on the Harmony is amazing! Thanks! 🌞😎✌️🎸
Bridge piece was very nice!
That saddle you made is beautiful!
I look forward to these every week
Really really love your videos. I've learned so much since I started watching. Thank you.
Some are here for the sand paper pull technique and neck resetting. I’m here for the spotted towel!
Instructional and enjoyable 👍👍👍
I liked the sound of the aluminum saddle honestly.
Danelectro electric guitars had aluminium nuts (inexpertly filed, to say the least, with big wide square bottom slots). This includes some of the Silvertone guitars, the "amp in case" combos that were built by Danelectro. I wonder if Ted has ever worked on any of those.
@@goodun2974 I don't like Danelectros. I dislike Strats, and the only case in which I'd pick up a Strat is if the alternative was a Danelectro.
Yeah, on an electric I doubt aluminum would be my saddle material of choice, but I guess I like it on acoustics.
@@IrisGalaxis , I'm more of a Strat and Tele guy, but I think Dano's are way cool. Generally I like weird stuff of any and all categories, and I like the cheese factor of weird guitars and amps. I am a big David Lindley fan, I've heard him play Dano's on a number of occasions. *Not* sounding like a Strat or Gibson thru a Marshall can be both refreshing and advantageous. (Jimmy Page played a Dano for Kashmir, and John Entwistle played a Dano bass for My Generation). The 5 Watt World Channel on UA-cam did a brief history of Danelectro guitars about a month ago.
@@goodun2974 I find playing a Strat or a Dano fun until I plug in a Gibson or something similar and find it way more fun. Now I like weird guitars myself too, I play and own some pretty weird ones myself (the cheese factor matters definitely). But there are weird guitars and weird guitars...all have a thing of their own. Like I like Les Pauls and don't like Strats, I also don't like Danos but do like...for example, Harmonys and stuff. My main electric player currently is a Jolana Galaxis...pretty weird stuff, from the wiring to the finish to the hardware to the woods to the neck profile...but I like it very much. (if you're wondering why it's not a Gibson, I'm financially low at the time but I have played quite a few Gibbies...and Fenders)
I do like Teles though. That bridge pickup is sweet.
@@IrisGalaxis, some Harmony, Kay and Airline guitars have yummy Dearmond pickups. I have a late 90s MIM James Burton Tele with paisley-like finish and a laminated basswood body; a very good guitar.
During this depressing lockdown I reach for my laptop and watch your tutorials. Great therapy.
Love your craftmanship, and your video’s.
I'm envious of Your skills and knowledge🧐! GREAT Video (s), really enjoyed the journey! Thanks again ! 🙏
I run a grounding wire from the collar of the output jack to the metal ball end of one of the strings through the sound hole (a little fiddly to do). Then, up at the headstock, I leave one of the string ends long and weave it through the other five strings to complete the circuit and bingo bango the strings are grounded.
That ebony saddle was really cool!
Really like that bridge top piece.
Awesome 👍
I look forward to these videos every Saturday:)
Oh my aloooooominum saddle... Three guitars fixed! With not a single bit of 'soddering' required! :-P
I really enjoy these videos. I doubt if I'll ever attempt any of the work but it's relaxing to watch a master craftsman work
Great job on that saddle!
Came for the thumbnail, stayed for.... all of it
The Harmony sounds really nice! Great job as usual.
As usual, well done, demonstrated and clearly explained. 🤘
Great work, as always, Ted. I am by the Ebony bridge saddle that you made, it is very beautiful and functional. Thank you your knowledge and expertise with us, time and time again, we are better custodians of our instruments, when we do the things that you instruct us to do.
Nice video on the guitar set-up. Have a good day.
Wow that's a nice Kalamazoo! I'd be proud to show that budget catalog guitar to anyone 👍
Thank you for making videos very informative. 🙏
Great work and information as always thank you
Beautiful new bridge on the Harmony.
Fantastic job routing that saddle and a Portlandia reference to boot.
The Kalamazoo sounded terrific.
"Poor boy twangs the rhythm out on his Kalamazoo."
It was a long time before I knew what that line meant.
Then I saw a Kalamazoo. Oh... now I get it.
Very informative and slightly intimidating. Beautiful work.
Loved this one!
through the intertubes the sound difference between the aluminum saddle and the bone saddle unplugged was dramatic! the aluminum was much crisper and brighter. i couldn't tell any volume difference on this end, but that's my usual knock on metal saddles or even pins on an acoustic, that they make the sound brighter but quieter from the increased mass slowing down the top. (if string grounding is actually necessary i guess one could install a "platemate" type thing on the bridgeplate and ground that)
if anybody cares about actually using a P-90 style acoustic pickup with bronze strings, a trick i found is to unscrew the B polepiece screw entirely, just remove it and stash it somewhere safe.
raise up the G screw and drop the hi E screw and it takes the pickup from sounding awful with its way loud B string (like that one did) to sounding sort of OK.
that kalamazoo was super cool! if it eventually needs frets _and_ has too much upbow, would a compression refret be a viable path to fix both problems?
very nice job on the archtop bridge saddle
Ok. 2 minutes notice. Now on to the vid 😁
Edit: all done. Yes that was a lot of fun. And thank you for the fine little nugget played on the Gibson as the outro. Beautiful, and what a fine hand.
Stunning Kalamazoo sound. I particularly liked the ebony bridge you made. Very cool looking . Cheers from Alberta Dave
I think if you look closely, you’ll see that Harmony is solid wood pressed into shape, not plywood. Harmony only used plywood during their final few years in the 1970s. Some models even had carved tops. Thank you for sharing these awesome videos!
Great Monterey Harmony new saddle!
Great looking saddle on the Harmony.
You're "I think it looks okay" is my "Holy shit I could never do that!"
Hmm, I might have considered sticking some copper tape under the bridge plate, and grounding the strings that way. Thoughts?
You and Dave are my UA-cam Guitar Channel heroes.
To my ear, and high quality headphones, the aluminum bridge saddle sounded brighter, almost tinty if that’s a word. I preferred the bone saddle. By the way, my first “real” guitar was a Yamaha FG 160 (not the “E” model) made in Taiwan in 1972. I still have it and love it. The bridge you made for the Harmony looks fantastic.
Sweet sound from the Kalamazoo. Reminds me a bit of my old 00-18 Martin. Soft yet bright, somehow. Thanks, Ted!
Bridge looks great
Nice job on that saddle, looks great!
I agree. It's an improvement on the original and way better than that fret-wire monstrosity the owner provided.
@@TheRockinDonkey Oh the fret wire one has it place. Definitely not appropriate for this guitar...but for some cheapo crappo it'd be quite useful to be able to set the intonation like that. I've got a guitar with impossible intonation...definitely not good or expensive enough to have a custom bridge made. That thing would do just fine.
Good tips and reminders again.
the new bridge top for the second guitar is beautiful!
In the 60s I got a shock from my Watkins Circuit4 (which had earthed strings), plugged into a non-earthed amp, when I picked up a microphone plugged into an earthed PA amp. My elbow flexed up, the mic touched the strings, there was a flash and a bang and two strings melted
My ears are pretty damn good I heard a difference with the bone plug and unplug
If that last guitar you played was the Kalamazoo it sounded wonderful . You never cease to amaze me with the work you do . Dave seems like a hack when you watch yours and his videos side by side .
They put a bird on it! :-)
Love that new bridge top on the arch top guitar. Very elegant. The proposed replacement bridge with the slots is interesting. Tim
Sway had a recent video fixing up a 70’s Russian guitar with the same type of bridge, first time I’d ever seen such a thing.
One thing you may not have considered is that the grounded aluminum bridge on the acoustic-electric Yamaha could be helpful, at least in the customer's perception, in suppressing 60-cycle hum in some situations he plays in that maybe are not so evident in your shop. I have a P90-equipped electric that gets a little noisier sometimes in places with deficient wiring and/or flourescent or neon lights. TVs and computer monitors can also be a source of extraneous EMI that is read as signal by single-coil pickups, which are effective radio receivers. An adequate continuous ground can help moderate the effect. You get the picture, I'm sure.
That Kalamazoo is super nice. I have only ever seen photos from outside, it’s nice to see one on the inside. I heard people claim, that replacing the frets with some, with a wider tang, could correct the upbow. The idea being that you “stretch” the fretboard into a backbow, putting pressure on the neck. Although hammering wide tanged frets, into a narrow slot, sounds like asking for trouble to me, I was wondering if anybody else heard about this, or even tried it?
Perhaps clamping/squeezing the frets into the slots would be a better way.....
Clamping the neck to hold it in back bow while fitting the wider tanged frets might help them go in easier, but it's not something I've tried.
Guitar learning friend of mine freaked when I started tuning his guitar, he'd just paid a shop $45 to tune it for him. He thought it was like a car and you had it tuned about once a year..........
Poor fellow
Hey, didn't the folks at the music store tune it when I bought it four years ago ?
$45 to tune a guitar??? 1) Should be done for free, 2) the teaching for how to should also be free, 3) educating that tuning is a daily plus thing also free, and 4) then the shop is free to sell the most expensive tuner they have without guilt to make their money. Without 1), 2), and 3), that shop is full of db's.
@@paullanier8280 He should have had it welded, once it was in tune.
@@Three_Eyed_Willy Tig weld will be cleaner . No slag left behind.
I cant laugh, though. When I was first starting to play guitar I didn't realize about the G string half step back at 4 fret to make B for the next progression. My goodness the F chord sounded bad for so long. Finally an older gent showed my error to me.
It may sound odd, but the aluminum saddle makes it sound more like a harpsichord, especially on the first example
Very nice.
I know it's going to be a good day when I see you drop a video.
Kalamazoo is Gibson(!)? I love my old Kalamazoo, Thanks for learning me...again (smile)
I had to slot behind the saddle on my Yamaha many years ago due to break angle. These Yamahas have an under rated sound to me. Love learning as I'm enjoying a video. Thanks.
Oh yeah, what kind of pick and grin time do you take everyday? Your musical repertoire is insane. Some of everything. Very nice!
Lack of humidity is not a problem where I live. Brisbane Australia. Winter gets a little dry but not much to worry about. Excessive humidity in summer is wild.
From 14:08 - 14:40, was that by someone else? I have listened to that piece back over and over.. I love it. Great video (: