I was wicked grumpy this morning and then the intro to this video happened. I feel joy instead of grumpy now. Mr. NotALuthier, your videos are fabulous. Thank you for replacing my grumpy with joy.
Dig that neck joint, kinda reminds me of the old Wandres. I like that you can bend it, too. Bonus points for first demoing it with the rudest sound imaginable.
Lady Bugs are well-known in the Animal Kingdom to be amazing guitar players. That is why dogs lay donw in the sun: they think "Here she comes... that show off...". Your videos are pure Art. Thanks and congratulations. Your channel will grow faster day after day. Cheers.
Great video! I've always found aluminum necks to be something that pops up every 30-40 years in guitar construction, only for them to disappear again. Weird stuff. Anyway, I loved the fuzzy demo you did around the 21:30 mark. Everyone's always so scared of feedbacking on jazzboxes and hollowbodies with higher gain but I think it really sounds nice. Thanks!
What an enchanting sound those old DeArmond goil foils have. I get the appeal. Curtis Novak makes some convincing reissues which I put in a strat and adore. Great video!
Great vid, cool guit. You spinning Mike O’Neill gave me chills. Beautiful song and songwriter. Mike is a friend of a friend and hand-delivered the record to me in Halifax back in 2012. Didn’t expect that and was very touched by the gesture. Wild Lines, what a great album, all bangers. You brought me back to some sweet memories of my times in the NS, thanks.
Wow! That Vibing neck is something else! Rudolph Dopyera was on to something with that design imo. Your tip for the bridge posts was a solution I came up with through trail & error for bringing my 1969 Jedson hollow body back to life, & now it's my favourite guitar! Love your channel, it's educational & entertaining in a really nice way, I really look forward to your all your vids. Love from Edinburgh!
The dust & super glue! Hilarious! So true. Thanks for the saddle screw tip - will do that. Have a few old catalog archtops I hobby with. Man is it nice to just move the bridge around and adjust the saddle height with a turn. The lack of downward pressure, however, like a pin bridge, makes them really difficult to make sound well acoustically, in my opinion, without clanging with a pick, not my thing. They look so cool sitting around, I don’t care tho. Great vid - Rockin’ tune to close out.
On the new tailpieces I can take the anchor off of the wire easily. Mine had that part missing and it just un clipped off the wire. Oh sure it looks fun but don't snort the bone dust.
What a great guitar, that is kind of a brilliant way to do a neck, no resets. I have been wanting an old archtop for a couple of years now. I don't feel comfy buying online and locally in New Orleans we mostly see Harmony's and not very often, most of them floated away in hurricanes like Katrina in 2005 when I lost all of my worldly possessions including 8 guitars. Don't weep for me I have 14 guitars now. I have never seen a National brand guitar in person of any sort. I guess because Chicago is way up there by Trudeauland.
every dog ive ever had sun bathes, but im pretty sure the fact they all have been neurotic, anxious basket cases with separation anxiety has nothing to do with the way mammals bask in the sun 😂
Thank you, cool video. I was just given an old Harmony acoustic, that was pretty much done. Anyways I've never worked on or restored a guitar before, so needless to say you definitely would have cringed 😢 but for the condition it was in I thought I had done it some good. LoL you would have to have seen the whole thing start to finish to get the effect. Anyhoot I liked and subscribed. Thanks again
Very cool neck design. Like if Ken Parker was trying his neck strength solutions back in the 60s. He comes up with unique ways to build things on arch tops, a very traditional instrument.
Absolutely. I think national came out with the stylist neck in the late 40 originally. Which makes sense coming out of an era of cast metal lap steels.
People arguing about tonewood when they don't even realize it's about the Tone ladybug in the circuit. I'm partial to a tone dung beetle myself. I find that it imparts a more earthy musty tone than the ice pickiness you'd get from a ladybug
Where on Earth in Canadia do you keep finding these lovely old Nationals? The neck joint is outrageous I tell ya. Put a Bigsby on it? Scandinavian suicide note etc...
So.....starting up a repair shop here in Bishop. It's been great to watch your progression. Your starting to hit a nice stride. It's fun to watch what works on social media. I still am leaning towards it being horribly evil but there is some goodness..................like this! But it must be morally trying to decide to hook into it to try to put some food on the table?.............cause we might get a message from it to load the rocket to the asteroid belt...............In the meantime…..“It’s easy to bend the neck to give it some vibrato”…………
Yeah it’s definitely tough providing content for a giant corporation. But it also has a certain feeling of independence…really a freelance video maker with hopes google makes enough money off of it to pay me. Definitely a question of scruples. I’ve never been a huge fan of social media, but if I can make a living doing what I enjoy, the compromise may be worth it. The entirety of human existence seems to be filled with similar compromises. Best of luck with the shop!
I’ve seen some rare Nationals built with that particular neck joint affixed to really top-end Gibson-made 17” cutaway archtop bodies. Think 1950’s ES350 and the like. Wacky! Just Elling and commenting for the Al Gore Rhythm.
That tailpiece failure happened to a similar vintage Harmony archtop I helped my wife’s family restore. Exact same model tailpiece. Must be really bad alloy.
I am relatively new to the channel. Ted sent me, I suppose. I don't comment much, though I've been here for a while. I am not the grammar police, but you strike me as the type who'd like to be 'correct'. So, I'm pretty sure the word you were looking for is, "naught".
I'm not a luthier either but won't that tailpiece resting on the front surface of the body wear into it over time? Seems like it should float a little above the surface. It looked like it was rubbing the wood.
If the screw that holds that plate on the neck joint doesn't actually hold anything other than that plate you'd think they could have given it true function by having a strap button there.
@Notaluthier I actually had that thought, that they might crack. And that could be a problem with having a strap button there since people tend to like strap buttons to be tight.
Another winner. The ladybug stole the show. Where are you from originally again? I just watched this in a tent outside Grand Falls, on my way to Digby. And, what's your name, dude?!
@@Notaluthier Pleasure to meet you, Levon. Thanks for all the Scandinavian suicide letters. And the sharing of early guitar history. And the silliness. Chris. Pegcity holla, yo.
Thanks so much! I recorded all of the background music for my videos and the methstang backing track is almost entirely recorded on the methstang. Perhaps I will compile the best tracks for an audio-centric UA-cam video
@@NotaluthierThat'd be cooool! And/or, perhaps, it could be a great reason/excuse to start a second channel. Maybe somethin like: D'Scanavian Anti-Suicide Lullabies in 420
Yes I know you're neither a blacksmith or a metalworker but believe it or not heating up metal makes it maleable and easier to bend. If you had achieved a tighter bend on the plate you would have probably avoided having to plug the holes and re-drilling.
I have a 1939 National Sonora that I'm getting ready to restore back to factory original condition.. The guitar itself is in mint condition, but somebody decided to stain the body an ugly brown color and paint the bindings white.. Apparently, they didn't realize what they had.. The Sonora was the first electric guitar with two pickups, and it was also the most expensive guitar to ever hit the market when it came out.. I've been told by multiple experts that there are less than 10 National Sonoras known to survive.. Mine also has a D prefix in front of the serial number.. Out of all the instruments that the National Guitar company ever made.. Only a handful of them had the D in front of the serial number.. Nobody knows what the D designation means.. My Sonora is only the second one to be discovered with the D serial number.. Unfortunately it's probably going to cost me more to restore the guitar than it will be worth.. I feel like I have to put it back to original condition after learning about the history of the guitar and just how significant it is historically..
@Notaluthier I ran across that one also while I was researching mine.. It had major buckle rash on the back of it if I remember right.. A guy from Cincinnati owned it.. I actually spoke to him.. Something looks off with his.. It's definitely not the same guitar as mine.. I believe that's why he pulled it from the market after seeing mine.. The shoulders on his don't look right for a Sonora.. They are too wide and flat in the back.. My opinion is that his guitar was a National Princess that someone modified by putting a neck pickup into it.. Mine has been authenticated by two different experts independently, and they both told me the same thing.. The serial number on mine is D303.. The only other Sonora known to exist with the D serial number is D202.. So theres zero doubts mine is a real Sonora.. The neck pickup on mine is missing its guts.. The housing is still in the guitar, so I'm hoping I can find specs for it somewhere and get it rebuilt.. The bridge pickup had also been changed at some point, but I got super lucky and found an original bridge pickup for it at a shop in NYC.. Other than the pickups and the finish, there's not even a scratch on the guitar.. It sat in my uncles closet for almost 60 years untouched before he gave it to me.. His uncle gave it to him when he was a kid.. We aren't really sure where my great uncle got it from.. He did not play the guitar, but he owned a grocery store and used to trade people groceries for stuff when they were short on money.. I've been told that this guitar was far too expensive back in the days for some hobbiest guitar player off the streets to own.. I wish I knew more about the previous ownership of the guitar.. It very well could have belonged to someone important before my uncles got their hands on it.. If you want to see pictures of it.. Look for Mississinewa Mark on insta.. I'm excited to get it put back together the way it should be.. The luthier that I'm working with is backed up for a couple more months.. I'm hoping he has time to fit me in the first of the year..
I was wicked grumpy this morning and then the intro to this video happened. I feel joy instead of grumpy now. Mr. NotALuthier, your videos are fabulous. Thank you for replacing my grumpy with joy.
Good morning and thank you too!
Dig that neck joint, kinda reminds me of the old Wandres. I like that you can bend it, too. Bonus points for first demoing it with the rudest sound imaginable.
Guitar repair and bizarre shots, you're my new favourite youtuber.
🥳
these videos have made it much easier for me to quit smoking. i refuse to elaborate further on this. thanks for being you
Bizarre and wonderful.
Absolutely beautiful instrument well done !!!!
That intro certainly created a lot of tension 🙂
Thanks!
🙏🏼
Lady Bugs are well-known in the Animal Kingdom to be amazing guitar players. That is why dogs lay donw in the sun: they think "Here she comes... that show off...". Your videos are pure Art. Thanks and congratulations. Your channel will grow faster day after day. Cheers.
Thanks a lot
Great video! I've always found aluminum necks to be something that pops up every 30-40 years in guitar construction, only for them to disappear again. Weird stuff. Anyway, I loved the fuzzy demo you did around the 21:30 mark. Everyone's always so scared of feedbacking on jazzboxes and hollowbodies with higher gain but I think it really sounds nice. Thanks!
What an enchanting sound those old DeArmond goil foils have. I get the appeal. Curtis Novak makes some convincing reissues which I put in a strat and adore. Great video!
These are hard pickups to mess up the details on! Glad the Novak one is good
Best one yet!
What a great documentary on pets and Luthery! Love the twirl of the ladybug. Lovely video, as always!
Many thanks!
Great vid, cool guit. You spinning Mike O’Neill gave me chills. Beautiful song and songwriter. Mike is a friend of a friend and hand-delivered the record to me in Halifax back in 2012. Didn’t expect that and was very touched by the gesture. Wild Lines, what a great album, all bangers. You brought me back to some sweet memories of my times in the NS, thanks.
Wow! That Vibing neck is something else! Rudolph Dopyera was on to something with that design imo. Your tip for the bridge posts was a solution I came up with through trail & error for bringing my 1969 Jedson hollow body back to life, & now it's my favourite guitar!
Love your channel, it's educational & entertaining in a really nice way, I really look forward to your all your vids. Love from Edinburgh!
The Dopyera Bros did so many crazy things! Always innovating and striking their own path
The dust & super glue! Hilarious! So true. Thanks for the saddle screw tip - will do that. Have a few old catalog archtops I hobby with. Man is it nice to just move the bridge around and adjust the saddle height with a turn. The lack of downward pressure, however, like a pin bridge, makes them really difficult to make sound well acoustically, in my opinion, without clanging with a pick, not my thing. They look so cool sitting around, I don’t care tho. Great vid - Rockin’ tune to close out.
Gorgeous guitar, lovely video, and your friend Mike sounds more than a little like Paul McCartney, to my ears. A pleasure all 'round. Thanks.
Great video! Wonderful old guitar with interesting neck construction and attachment method.
Thank you
magnesium, stylist neck. love national! love yer channel!
Thanks!
I love it!!!
Sweet project
Nice use of the ladybug to smooth out the binding.
It took decades but it worked
On the new tailpieces I can take the anchor off of the wire easily. Mine had that part missing and it just un clipped off the wire. Oh sure it looks fun but don't snort the bone dust.
The reward on the wanted poster 😊
Excellent. Ladybird rush hour.🎉
What a great guitar, that is kind of a brilliant way to do a neck, no resets. I have been wanting an old archtop for a couple of years now. I don't feel comfy buying online and locally in New Orleans we mostly see Harmony's and not very often, most of them floated away in hurricanes like Katrina in 2005 when I lost all of my worldly possessions including 8 guitars. Don't weep for me I have 14 guitars now. I have never seen a National brand guitar in person of any sort. I guess because Chicago is way up there by Trudeauland.
A most excellent guitar video. I await the newly suggested song, No Bone For Buggy.
I fucking love this content, a variaté of guitar geekery!
And very useful tips and tricks along with extremely funny skits, what's not to like!
That was really cool man an your friends song was great 👍😊
Fresh air to watch your videos! Really like it! All the Best for you 😊
Thanks so much!
That opening sequence was such a stressful thing to watch!
every dog ive ever had sun bathes, but im pretty sure the fact they all have been neurotic, anxious basket cases with separation anxiety has nothing to do with the way mammals bask in the sun 😂
Thank you, cool video. I was just given an old Harmony acoustic, that was pretty much done. Anyways I've never worked on or restored a guitar before, so needless to say you definitely would have cringed 😢 but for the condition it was in I thought I had done it some good. LoL you would have to have seen the whole thing start to finish to get the effect. Anyhoot I liked and subscribed. Thanks again
Cool, thanks!
Dude this is awesome
Hey, thanks!
Fkin a, i missed this one. 👋✌️
Also, promoing your bud was a sweet touch.
Love your vids man. Thanks
Good mornig!
Very cool neck design. Like if Ken Parker was trying his neck strength solutions back in the 60s. He comes up with unique ways to build things on arch tops, a very traditional instrument.
Absolutely. I think national came out with the stylist neck in the late 40 originally. Which makes sense coming out of an era of cast metal lap steels.
I would have to say this video was all three from the title. But mostly fun.
Nice tie. I donated it to Goodwill last week. That was quick.
People arguing about tonewood when they don't even realize it's about the Tone ladybug in the circuit. I'm partial to a tone dung beetle myself. I find that it imparts a more earthy musty tone than the ice pickiness you'd get from a ladybug
The Midnight Society approves this intro
I actually really like this guitar!
How many ladybugs did you have to pick through to find one of the appropriate matching hue?
How do you get them to eat through a resonator cover in the exact shape of their bodies?
Where on Earth in Canadia do you keep finding these lovely old Nationals? The neck joint is outrageous I tell ya. Put a Bigsby on it? Scandinavian suicide note etc...
Sillyness masterclass.
So.....starting up a repair shop here in Bishop. It's been great to watch your progression. Your starting to hit a nice stride. It's fun to watch what works on social media. I still am leaning towards it being horribly evil but there is some goodness..................like this! But it must be morally trying to decide to hook into it to try to put some food on the table?.............cause we might get a message from it to load the rocket to the asteroid belt...............In the meantime…..“It’s easy to bend the neck to give it some vibrato”…………
Yeah it’s definitely tough providing content for a giant corporation. But it also has a certain feeling of independence…really a freelance video maker with hopes google makes enough money off of it to pay me. Definitely a question of scruples. I’ve never been a huge fan of social media, but if I can make a living doing what I enjoy, the compromise may be worth it. The entirety of human existence seems to be filled with similar compromises.
Best of luck with the shop!
I bought the Mike O'Neil album and have been enjoying it. Checking out Sofia Wolfson as well.
Awesome!
This channel is becoming the Firesign Theater of guitar repair YouYube. 👍👍
I appreciate the obscure reference!
I love the music you're playing in the background. Isn't that from the Roland Stoves' legendary album, "Egg Salad on Main Street?"
CAVEMAN CARPENTER
I wish we had some sun for my dog Bertie to lay in but we live in the cold north of England and winter is coming
the abject horror of that bridge peeling open
Really like your pal's outro tune!
Puts me a little in mind of Andy Schauf
Oooh! Never heard of Andy before, something to check out!
@@Notaluthier and dis....
ua-cam.com/video/QcGs8rBynL0/v-deo.htmlsi=7-OSaZN4uXW30P72
@@Notaluthier and finally my face
ua-cam.com/video/ndlb4fic-eQ/v-deo.htmlsi=e76a5IWHN7EmcooZ
I just got to the part where you tried out a Bigsby...I see what your problem is.
Gah! It's one of those Japanese beetles, invasive species... Smash it! 😖
Great tune st the end.. Really dug it!
I’ve seen some rare Nationals built with that particular neck joint affixed to really top-end Gibson-made 17” cutaway archtop bodies. Think 1950’s ES350 and the like. Wacky!
Just Elling and commenting for the Al Gore Rhythm.
It’s the national stylist neck on the Gibson flattops that I’d like to get my hands on
I thought I heard some fret bugs 🐞🐞🐞🤪
i feel like would be a good cool uncle
Not sure if this was a repair video or a short indie masterpiece. Guess both!
😌
That tailpiece failure happened to a similar vintage Harmony archtop I helped my wife’s family restore. Exact same model tailpiece. Must be really bad alloy.
Yeah it’s not my first of this brand to break either
@@Notaluthier Gibson used these as well. Whoever was supplying to CMI was making some real crap!
I am relatively new to the channel. Ted sent me, I suppose. I don't comment much, though I've been here for a while.
I am not the grammar police, but you strike me as the type who'd like to be 'correct'. So, I'm pretty sure the word you were looking for is, "naught".
It’s not naught for nothing! Whoops
Another fantastic meditation in guitar love. Peace brother 🙏
Thanks so much!
Weirdly in England we call them Ladybirds...!?🐞
The British. So strange, so strange.
The one tale piece that wasn't original but the holes lined up. Unbend the it and use the old one and make a new one.
At the end of the video I thought you had pizza sitting on the guitar. Didn’t realize it was the pick guard
New channel:, I taste pizza off of different guitars
If your dog lies in the sun it is obviously a baked potato, you're clearly sour cream.
You know, I’ve read that!
Also not a metal worker, I see...
But I still love the videos.
I had a torch at the ready…if that helps 😅
To me it sounded best acoustic, recorded through a mic!
Needs a TV-tron...
I'm not a luthier either but won't that tailpiece resting on the front surface of the body wear into it over time? Seems like it should float a little above the surface. It looked like it was rubbing the wood.
If the screw that holds that plate on the neck joint doesn't actually hold anything other than that plate you'd think they could have given it true function by having a strap button there.
Some of them do, HOWEVER, it is indeed a design flaw, because the modesty plate, or cover, can crack if over torqued
@Notaluthier
I actually had that thought, that they might crack. And that could be a problem with having a strap button there since people tend to like strap buttons to be tight.
Another winner. The ladybug stole the show.
Where are you from originally again?
I just watched this in a tent outside Grand Falls, on my way to Digby.
And, what's your name, dude?!
Levon is my name. I’m originally from wolfville 🎉
@@Notaluthier Pleasure to meet you, Levon. Thanks for all the Scandinavian suicide letters. And the sharing of early guitar history. And the silliness. Chris. Pegcity holla, yo.
Man I’m begging you, can you PLEASE upload background music from methstang video or say where you got it from?
I really like it
Love your videos!
Thanks so much! I recorded all of the background music for my videos and the methstang backing track is almost entirely recorded on the methstang. Perhaps I will compile the best tracks for an audio-centric UA-cam video
@@NotaluthierThat'd be cooool! And/or, perhaps, it could be a great reason/excuse to start a second channel. Maybe somethin like: D'Scanavian Anti-Suicide Lullabies in 420
Yes I know you're neither a blacksmith or a metalworker but believe it or not heating up metal makes it maleable and easier to bend. If you had achieved a tighter bend on the plate you would have probably avoided having to plug the holes and re-drilling.
There needed to be zero excess material at the edge of the body to actually fit…possible maybe
that was a premature tuning stringasm!
I have a 1939 National Sonora that I'm getting ready to restore back to factory original condition.. The guitar itself is in mint condition, but somebody decided to stain the body an ugly brown color and paint the bindings white.. Apparently, they didn't realize what they had.. The Sonora was the first electric guitar with two pickups, and it was also the most expensive guitar to ever hit the market when it came out.. I've been told by multiple experts that there are less than 10 National Sonoras known to survive.. Mine also has a D prefix in front of the serial number.. Out of all the instruments that the National Guitar company ever made.. Only a handful of them had the D in front of the serial number.. Nobody knows what the D designation means.. My Sonora is only the second one to be discovered with the D serial number.. Unfortunately it's probably going to cost me more to restore the guitar than it will be worth.. I feel like I have to put it back to original condition after learning about the history of the guitar and just how significant it is historically..
Omg I saw one of these for sale not long ago on reverb or eBay and was seriously tempted! Such a beauty! And I lcan be the mismatched pickups
@Notaluthier I ran across that one also while I was researching mine.. It had major buckle rash on the back of it if I remember right.. A guy from Cincinnati owned it.. I actually spoke to him.. Something looks off with his.. It's definitely not the same guitar as mine.. I believe that's why he pulled it from the market after seeing mine.. The shoulders on his don't look right for a Sonora.. They are too wide and flat in the back.. My opinion is that his guitar was a National Princess that someone modified by putting a neck pickup into it.. Mine has been authenticated by two different experts independently, and they both told me the same thing.. The serial number on mine is D303.. The only other Sonora known to exist with the D serial number is D202.. So theres zero doubts mine is a real Sonora.. The neck pickup on mine is missing its guts.. The housing is still in the guitar, so I'm hoping I can find specs for it somewhere and get it rebuilt.. The bridge pickup had also been changed at some point, but I got super lucky and found an original bridge pickup for it at a shop in NYC.. Other than the pickups and the finish, there's not even a scratch on the guitar.. It sat in my uncles closet for almost 60 years untouched before he gave it to me.. His uncle gave it to him when he was a kid.. We aren't really sure where my great uncle got it from.. He did not play the guitar, but he owned a grocery store and used to trade people groceries for stuff when they were short on money.. I've been told that this guitar was far too expensive back in the days for some hobbiest guitar player off the streets to own.. I wish I knew more about the previous ownership of the guitar.. It very well could have belonged to someone important before my uncles got their hands on it.. If you want to see pictures of it.. Look for Mississinewa Mark on insta.. I'm excited to get it put back together the way it should be.. The luthier that I'm working with is backed up for a couple more months.. I'm hoping he has time to fit me in the first of the year..
very Fallout!!
I think you should wear the suit to repair guitars in. That will solence the haters. Be for serious.
Is that neck joint cover ceramic?
Nah, plastic
What was burning?
holly shitt your friends band sounds like tom petty
If it failed once- isnt it safe to assume it will fail again?
Magnesium? I take it every day.
LOL. Good one.
At 21:48 i started coughing for no reason besides seeing ur "nag champa" getting out of control
It was quite smooth incense!
In most cases, there are two nuts: one on the guitar neck, and another playing the guitar.
🤡🎸
You'd think you might have learned the lesson after the Gourd Banjo but nooooo...
😬
pickup sounds amazing. great choice not to put it back to original
These videos give me the confidence to, potentially, wreck my own guitars.
Whooooops!
I don't get it ? 😠. Why would you intentionally try to break a National guitar ?
It was just a “creative” way of removing an already broken tailpiece
@@Notaluthier oh 😳. OK 👍
Did you have to shave your beard off at the end though?
Yeah, but it was worth it for the $16 of ad revenue i’m gonna make 😅