Luthier videos that soothe the soul during these weird times...

[PorkyPrimeCut]

So, I briefly mentioned this earlier today in someone else's thread but I figured I'd start a thread on it as I think it's fascinating.

A little background (TLDR) ...I've always been pretty good with my hands but, back in my middle school, you either studied "Design & Communication" which was designing & drawing out ideas, or "Design & Realisation" where you designed & physically constructed them. The latter would obviously lead you down the line to things like woodwork, metalwork, etc... I chose the former & ended up, much later in life, becoming an illustrator. I often wonder where I'd be now if I'd studied Graphic Design instead of Animation (which was ultimately useless to me).

Anyway, it must have been my Jazzmaster restoration (and this forum) that got me interested in luthier work. Seeing the guy working so carefully & closely to original techniques really opened my mind to the detail & dedication involved in guitar work. There was me using crappy chrome screws from Homebase to hold my pickguard in place. He quickly threw them away & rifled through dozens of spares until he had 11 matching "vintage" screws. Just like the neck plate, pickup mounting & rhythm circuit screws, he could spot the difference. Such a little thing but I was instantly in awe of the guy.

This led to my following all the restoration threads on here more than any other areas of the forum. I can lose days reading & watching & reading & watching. The new builds are almost as good but there's obviously something about bringing old beauties back to life that resonates with me.

An old forumite, theworkoffire, helped restore another couple of my guitars &, again, I got to watch close by as he tinkered away. His large shed/workshop was full of tools, machines, stencils, parts boxes & offcuts. Like an Aladdin's Cave in some ways. Just a fascinating place to be, while someone skilled in their craft works away in front of you.

And I guess this brings me to the point of the thread & my own predicament. Firstly, I've discovered a number of videos recently that really highlight the commitment, passion & process of guitar restoration, most recently on the YouTube Channel of Woodfordinstruments. The guy is a joy to watch and to listen to. His calming voice is eloquent, straight to the point & down to earth.

It's also worth putting up the video of the guy building a 335 out of a shelf. While he's not restoring anything, it's still an absolute pleasure to watch him at work.

Lastly, I think I'll be looking through more of Lars Dalin's videos. His restoration of a Martin D-28 was great.

My predicament? I own a vintage Jazzmaster that I want refinished (again) & a vintage Guild D50 that will need a neck reset. I have a basement now that, if ventilated properly, could be a good spot for the refin. Because I'm reasonably comfortable with spray paints & have access to nitrocellulose aerosols I might just do it this winter (did I say that last winter?). The D50 though, that'll take some work &, while I'd love to develop the skill to do it, I'd need time, money & energy that I don't necessarily have a huge amount of.
I left London a couple of years ago, moving far away from a great & accomplished luthier a short distance from where I lived. Here in Germany I'm clueless who's around & worry that the language barrier may be a hinderance. So, yeah, these are my first world problems that I'll have to live with. Maybe I'm better off making do with what I've got & be happy for it. Instead I'll just let the hours & days pass by watching true genuine craftsmen a work.

Anybody else got videos they'd care to suggest?

[jvin248]

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Find the Crimson Guitars channel and dig through all the build video submissions, especially the non-official ones, made over the last few months of their build competition. Early Ben Crowe videos on that channel are good, when he was building in his original garden shed starting the channel.

bigdguitars
texas toast
highline guitars
twoodfrd
stewmac

guitar setup focused
daves world of fun stuff
sam deeks
frudua

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[ohm-men]

This is a video I greatly enjoyed. Although I think you might of seen it already.
But still one of the best restoration/conservation video's out there (with the true respect for a vintage instrument). It's so relaxing and the luthier's skill are amazing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bga0UPM61cc

[gishuk]

Familiar with quite a lot of those channels already and I've another to add.

https://www.youtube.com/c/RosaStringWorks

He builds and works on acoustic guitars and mandolins and the videos are very interesting and quite relaxing to watch.

[countertext]

Ian Davlin is like many luthiers in that guitar repair has given him a touch of the nihilism, but his infrequent posts are very informative and sometimes hilarious. Plus, Dan Erlewine shows up from time to time.

Ragh Guitar has done some cool stuff.

I’ll second or third twoodfrd for calm and enlightening videos. Rosa String Works has cool instruments and great work, but sometimes he drags on a bit. There have been several channels that I enjoyed... right up until the last two minutes of a long video when they drop some nuclear maga shit on you. I won’t bother naming them, hopefully you won’t run across them.

[zhivago]

This is my kinda thread, like you Mark, I la-la-love these sort of videos!

Another vote for Rosa Stringworks...Jerry handles lots of different repairs, and also build instruments from scratch as mentioned above. Alongside Twoodfrd they are probably the two best channels.

Dr Nitro has some cool stuff too:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnxssu ... ZRT3RLGXyg

Ed Dowling's video quality isn't always great, but he does tackle some interesting old guitars:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPh6w0 ... AXWYWTSsSw

O'Brien Guitars is a great channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdnXN ... TJBXMD9QIA

Ad van Kuijk's channel hasn't been active for a while, but some real nice stuff to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/user/advankuijk/videos

Also not active anymore, but some cool stuff at Alexander James Guitars:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNsYTb ... LvQ/videos

Andy bass & guitar is good, but not much talking...probably good as I wouldn't understand the language:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5GRJg ... 26SLHvxKqA

Bert van der Meij isn't active either, but he has a couple of cool build videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/meij008/videos

Boudreau Guitars is cool, although not very active lately...
https://www.youtube.com/c/BoudreauGuitars/videos

Chubbuck Guitars...same story...not active anymore, but lots of old videos to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/c/Chubbuckguitarsshop/videos

Dane Nichols is great...lot's of videos, and he posts frequently...
https://www.youtube.com/user/jonahguitarguy/videos

Flame Guitars is cool:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSQqqI ... DdQ/videos

FreddysFrets has a few nice build videos:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FreddysFrets/videos

Some great stuff at Glenn LaSalle:
https://www.youtube.com/user/glasalle/videos

Jim Kozel has some nice repairs:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo1-lU ... C6_Mg9ZOHA

Jonathan Krogh has a few cool things, including restoring an old ES345:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2agHE ... VsA/videos



If you are into amps as well, Uncle Doug's channel is great!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuR4hQ ... ozLxwPzEjQ

D-Lab is great too:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRs15W ... 4kXxOz0hSQ

phew! that's a lot of links!