The raffle has now ENDED! The winner will be announced soon. raffall.com/306031/enter-raffle-to-win-hofner-galaxie-guitar-hosted-by-crimson-guitars The next raffles will be starting very soon and will include a PRS as the next Restoration Raffle and the custom scratch built Bass guitar, that Ben built during a series of livestreams, and which will also be our next video series.
Well poop. I just started watching these episodes. Missed the raffle 😢 I will definitely be in the next one! I have to say Ben this is a brilliant idea! Loving this! Also, I’m one of those who are really interested in the finish process. I like the sanding and spraying, buffing etc. It’s really one of the most important stages in my opinion. Keep up the the great work! Thank you for sharing your knowledge I have learned so much from your channel! Love it!
Call me Scrooge but I will never enter a 'Raffall' raffle. Even if all proceeds are going to a registered charity they they withhold 10% of the ticket price for their profit. e.g. Ben has limited this raffle to 1500 tickets at £2 each; Ben gets £2,700 and Raffall get £300 for merely providing an automated website. If Ben failed to deliver the prize, for whatever reason, he gets nothing, Raffall retain 25%, £750! You are better off stupidly losing your money in a Betting Shop or Casino. In the early days of the World Wide Web (~1995) I was a Web Designer and programmer looking for a profitable Web Enterprise. Unfortunately, I could not believe that anyone would pay 50p for a 'Ringtone' let alone 10% for a raffle ticket!
This video format is great. I've loved this restoration/repair series, more please! And the fact that you could actually win this guitar at a raffle is just great. Thank you!
I'm all for Ben trying to find the gnarliest, awful crap he can find and then going waaaaay overboard on them. But the real treat to me (aside from Ben's wit and persona) are his workarounds, improvisations, all that jazz. Whichever formats allows him to go most bananas is my vote.
How About releasing your own guitar scratch removal kit. A mild abrasive to remove swirl and scratches, a polish to bring up the shine and a couple of different cololour cloths for application ?
Would have been interesting if you had upgraded the pickup switches, changed them out for center off slide switches to allow for reverse polarity option, like on Brian May's Red Special.
Greco did the same thing for Jeff Beck stratocaster when he toured Japan. Instead of a 5 way it has 3 on-off-on toggles. Up is on down is out of phase. 18 positions. He never played the guitar in concert, But you can find a few pics of him posing with one.
This series is fantastic Ben keep it up!! I've recently started setting up, modifying and restoring old guitars myself so it's refreshing to see it being done on here to! And if anything Il learn a few handy tricks 🤘🙏😁
You did right by this guitar brother. It deserves more life! I hope the new owner appreciates how much better this guitar actually is than a standard 90's model Galaxy! Excellent Ben. ✌️
The guitar was pretty nice (apart from the frets) before you started, but now it's something very special. I hope the new owner is pleased with it. More of this, please!
Ey up buddy, hope all is well with you and the family, and you are all still staying safe down there. Just a quickie on the nut holding thing. I have always used pva to to hold the nut in place as I cut the slots. The string tension holds down an end nut as you cut the other slots, and the glue is enough to stop it moving backwards and forwards, and the 1/8" nuts hold themselves in place with a well cut nut anyway, so I've never had a problem. Hope this helps some of the followers of the channel, and I've done it this way for 35 years, and has never let me down. Take care buddy, and love to all at Crimson. Quo @ Quo Guitars
I love the raffle idea. Some of us cannot afford really nice guitars but have no problem dropping a few bucks trying win one. I am currently building myself a guitar inspired by Ben I'm sure I can do it.
Very cool guitar. Loving this kind of project. What about the Teisco type of weird guitars - lots of odd models, crap components, but lots of cool....... More please. Thank you.
For this kind of application the straight flute step drill is easier to control than the spiral flute step drill, which wants to feed itself through the material tearing out along the way, whether you want it to or not.
Hi Ben. Love the series, and that guitar is boss. Those pickups are superb; you should get Mr Hook to build some replicas as there just arent enough wierd pickups in the world
Yes, more like this, please. Very inspiring. I like the idea of not just settling for factory, if you can tinker a bit yourself. Bought tickets. Didn't win :( Must be because you have an even nicer project in store. :) Keep them coming!
using a nozzle on the electronics cleaning fluid can ..spray into the hole on the back of the guitars pots will actually get fluid way better inside onto the contact wipers better lol
I bought a Hofner 68' Galaxie Deluxe 176, they are ridiculously affordable for a vintage instrument usually under $1600.00 works perfectly fine and near mint other than some buckle rash on the back and then bought another for $800 for extra parts when the body and neck were real bad but the hardware was flawless. I use it like a baritone(even though its not) as the pickups are really bass profiled and it really is great when you need that profile, just be careful not to step on your bassist toes. Or have the bass guitarist use it and run 2 rhythm guitars and a lead
The premise is solid. I'd watch another guitar recovered from the doldrums. The question is which guitar is next? A Burns? A Hohner? A Wal or Warwick bass? Wouldn't it be delicious to have Brian May's Little Red Special on Ben's bench? Wouldn't it be divine to have Mary Spender's Epiphone archtop restored to glory? But my ambitions outpace the intent. It's almost too much to ask to find a truly trashed Jazzmaster so it could receive this treatment. For starters: I'm curious to see if Crimson would make an offset body guitar after Ben's gone through one. What would Crimson Jazzmaster's be wired like?
This series has brought up, I think, an interesting point. I'm a repair person, mostly do set ups refrets etc work. If someone brought this guitar in for a clean up and 'restoration' it's very unlikely they would be willing to part with the amount of money it would take to get it to the standard you have got it to. Likely I would have to compromise on how good the fret work is gonna be, and they'll have to live with the marks on the neck. Obviously the option is always there for someone looking for perfection. The point it raises for me is where do you stop on a job like this. If a customer came to me with this and said how much to make it play well, that's a surprisingly difficult question to answer. I can do a set up and it'll play 'better' or i could refret it, make a new nut, refin the neck, etc, and I'm sure it would play beautifully. I suppose really, and I know this already from my work! But repairs, set ups, and resto's are not always as simple as they first seem.
I don't think your customer would be too chuffed if you raffled off their guitar to recoup the renovation cost either. 😜 In that sense this series isn't a realistic "what would a repair person do". The TH-cam ad revenue and raffle proceeds cover (hopefully lol) the labour.
Superb mini-series Ben... and this from a bassist! One question tho, if I may; would you recommend use of overall-screened twin core wires throughout the control cavity? My next project is a Peavey Milestone III bass, which has a pair of noisy, single-coil Jazz pups. Copper foil the cavity too, etc.!
Termites have invaded my home studio... They destroyed the joists under the floor and caused some major issues with the structure. All my good wood has been removed and treated. Now to jack the building back up to level and replace the 2X12 joists... Damn! I just want to build guitars.
Looking much better. Why do you use cordless tools when working at a bench? How many cordless drills and batteries will end up in a landfill in the 20+ years you get out of a good quality corded drill?
Really interesting to watch this project. I wonder if it would be worth it to try and turn "trash into treasure", ie take a relatively "bad" guitar and see if it's possible to make it even close to "good". Given a mediocre body and neck, can you replace enough hardware to make it enjoyable to play? I'm not a guitar guy, so maybe this is a naive idea. Anyway, thanks for sharing!
Hello! Is it ok to use an NGR penetrating wood stain on an acoustic guitar? I have bought one online but I'm worried it could muffle my guitar or something. The plan is to stain both fretboard and body and then apply clear lacquer top coat on the body. Got a pretty old spruce top, mahogany back and side Stafford here
#Crismon custom guitars I oiled neck with 13 coats with borma wachs oil, neck is curred and very very glossy but it feels sticky, what i should to do, sand with 2k water paper?
Hey, I went to buy a ticket but the page said the raffle was drawn today and Phillippe Philip AKA Mr Fakename was listed as the winner?? Edit: is it finished or can I still buy some tickets?
Sorry, the raffle has in fact ended. We set a limit to the number of tickets available, not realising how popular this guitar would be. When the limit was reached Raffall ended the raffle and the winner was chosen. The next Restoration Raffle will be a PRS guitar, so keep an eye out for that video and Ben's latest scratch built Bass will also be raffled soon. We are going to be doing these more regularly because this has proved so popular.
Just did not understand a thing you did . Its not even a real Galaxie , merely a cheap repro . My own 6 Galaxies 175 and 6's sound awesome with the original "Staple" and "Hofner Super" pick ups and my own custom made 173 with pick ups rewound by "Project Guitar" is the stuff that a Strat owner can only dream of .
33:10 Common myth and misunderstanding: "Dry sound does not matter, it is an electric guitar!". NO! An electric guitar which sounds unplugged ("dry") bad, will not sound better when plugged in. Fact.
The raffle has now ENDED! The winner will be announced soon.
raffall.com/306031/enter-raffle-to-win-hofner-galaxie-guitar-hosted-by-crimson-guitars
The next raffles will be starting very soon and will include a PRS as the next Restoration Raffle and the custom scratch built Bass guitar, that Ben built during a series of livestreams, and which will also be our next video series.
Well it wasn't me that won. I guess raffall are saving my win for the bass!
Well poop. I just started watching these episodes. Missed the raffle 😢 I will definitely be in the next one!
I have to say Ben this is a brilliant idea! Loving this! Also, I’m one of those who are really interested in the finish process. I like the sanding and spraying, buffing etc. It’s really one of the most important stages in my opinion. Keep up the the great work! Thank you for sharing your knowledge I have learned so much from your channel! Love it!
Call me Scrooge but I will never enter a 'Raffall' raffle. Even if all proceeds are going to a registered charity they they withhold 10% of the ticket price for their profit. e.g. Ben has limited this raffle to 1500 tickets at £2 each; Ben gets £2,700 and Raffall get £300 for merely providing an automated website. If Ben failed to deliver the prize, for whatever reason, he gets nothing, Raffall retain 25%, £750! You are better off stupidly losing your money in a Betting Shop or Casino.
In the early days of the World Wide Web (~1995) I was a Web Designer and programmer looking for a profitable Web Enterprise. Unfortunately, I could not believe that anyone would pay 50p for a 'Ringtone' let alone 10% for a raffle ticket!
I wish I hadn’t missed the raffle, Bummer 🥺
Yes. I would like to see you do more restoration , and definitely more "hot-rodding" projects on older instruments!
I would love to see more of you fixing up existing guitars.
Cheers..
This video format is great. I've loved this restoration/repair series, more please!
And the fact that you could actually win this guitar at a raffle is just great. Thank you!
I'm all for Ben trying to find the gnarliest, awful crap he can find and then going waaaaay overboard on them.
But the real treat to me (aside from Ben's wit and persona) are his workarounds, improvisations, all that jazz. Whichever formats allows him to go most bananas is my vote.
You mentioned something earlier in this series about doing this like cars, kind of a restomod thing, which this turned out to be. Yes, more please.
Motion seconded, motion carried
New string trees and knobs and it’s perfection. Always got be someone to say something. Excellent work that looks awesome!
I've honestly never seen someone string up a guitar like that,
learn something new every day
You’re allowed to go anything Ben. Never doubt yourself!!
Brilliant series. Would love to see more like this.
Great job Ben...yes I too would like to see more restorations
How About releasing your own guitar scratch removal kit. A mild abrasive to remove swirl and scratches, a polish to bring up the shine and a couple of different cololour cloths for application ?
You tuned up my guitar real good, Ben... Now I just have to win it
that is a game changing way of changing strings! thanks
Beautiful Craftsmanship, sad to have missed the raffle but enjoyed Your video Man 👍😃
Would have been interesting if you had upgraded the pickup switches, changed them out for center off slide switches to allow for reverse polarity option, like on Brian May's Red Special.
I was just thinking that the guitar looked a lot like Brian May's 😂 reverse polarity would have been a nice twist. Definitely a missed opportunity.
Greco did the same thing for Jeff Beck stratocaster when he toured Japan. Instead of a 5 way it has 3 on-off-on toggles. Up is on down is out of phase. 18 positions. He never played the guitar in concert, But you can find a few pics of him posing with one.
Fender did it with the Mustang as well. I wonder who did it first, Fender, or May?
This series is fantastic Ben keep it up!! I've recently started setting up, modifying and restoring old guitars myself so it's refreshing to see it being done on here to! And if anything Il learn a few handy tricks 🤘🙏😁
I wish I could send one of my guitars in for the Crimson treatment. That would be an absolute dream!
You did right by this guitar brother. It deserves more life! I hope the new owner appreciates how much better this guitar actually is than a standard 90's model Galaxy! Excellent Ben. ✌️
Wonderful Craftsmanship Man 😃👍
Congrats to the winner! Hope to see more of these videos in the future, Ben!
Loved this short series. More please. 👍🏻
The guitar was pretty nice (apart from the frets) before you started, but now it's something very special. I hope the new owner is pleased with it.
More of this, please!
Ey up buddy, hope all is well with you and the family, and you are all still staying safe down there. Just a quickie on the nut holding thing. I have always used pva to to hold the nut in place as I cut the slots. The string tension holds down an end nut as you cut the other slots, and the glue is enough to stop it moving backwards and forwards, and the 1/8" nuts hold themselves in place with a well cut nut anyway, so I've never had a problem. Hope this helps some of the followers of the channel, and I've done it this way for 35 years, and has never let me down. Take care buddy, and love to all at Crimson. Quo @ Quo Guitars
I love the raffle idea. Some of us cannot afford really nice guitars but have no problem dropping a few bucks trying win one. I am currently building myself a guitar inspired by Ben I'm sure I can do it.
Way to go. You made a keeper out of it!
Definitely enjoyed this type of content. Helps people who want to improve what they have versus building from scratch.
I use pure tone jacks. I never had a problem with a jack again since I've started to use them. Well worth the price for them. Might check into them.
Basically a Jazzmaster trem system.
Ben, your attention to detail much reminds me of myself.
the whole it has to be right and you can't leave it alone.
love it 😅
Really nice work on this one -- greatly enjoyable with grand result
Always have fun watching your videos. Keep up the goodness.
Made it look easy 👌 And yes, more customisation!
I'd *really* like to see you restore/ basically rebuild a left-handed guitar. I'd have a reason to enter the raffle then!
Very cool guitar. Loving this kind of project. What about the Teisco type of weird guitars - lots of odd models, crap components, but lots of cool....... More please. Thank you.
I was thinking exactly that!
yes got us more of this kind of video.
Will do!
It’s all about the neck!! I’ve bought some cheap guitars in the past and the neck is always the problem.
36:34 - Mr. Beck has entered the building.
That tremolo is just an oddly shaped Jazzmaster trem. Don’t love collets with nothing to tension the bar, but I do love a good Jazzmaster trem.
I'd love to see you have a contest/ raffle to have a viewers guitar redone by you.
The winner is Philippe Phil
Congrats!
Would love to see Ben take a new Squier Bullet an turn it into a Full Custom Shop Guitar
The shellac makes sense, pallet stones in watches are set with shellac.
For this kind of application the straight flute step drill is easier to control than the spiral flute step drill, which wants to feed itself through the material tearing out along the way, whether you want it to or not.
Your videos are amazing. Cheers.
Wanna see you build a guitar that is an absolute hell-raiser. One that screams metal from the look to the sound.
I can help scratch that itch
Hi Ben. Love the series, and that guitar is boss. Those pickups are superb; you should get Mr Hook to build some replicas as there just arent enough wierd pickups in the world
"... just the lightest of feather touches... "
Reminded me of "only one waffer-thin mint Mr. Creosote"
Yes, more like this, please. Very inspiring. I like the idea of not just settling for factory, if you can tinker a bit yourself.
Bought tickets. Didn't win :( Must be because you have an even nicer project in store. :)
Keep them coming!
"Crimson Sheilding paint: Protects your back cavity!"
You knoew EXACTLY how that would sound, Ben! 🤣
using a nozzle on the electronics cleaning fluid can ..spray into the hole on the back of the guitars pots will actually get fluid way better inside onto the contact wipers better lol
I bought a Hofner 68' Galaxie Deluxe 176, they are ridiculously affordable for a vintage instrument usually under $1600.00 works perfectly fine and near mint other than some buckle rash on the back and then bought another for $800 for extra parts when the body and neck were real bad but the hardware was flawless.
I use it like a baritone(even though its not) as the pickups are really bass profiled and it really is great when you need that profile, just be careful not to step on your bassist toes. Or have the bass guitarist use it and run 2 rhythm guitars and a lead
Ben's new 1 day build starts, 1 month later Ben is still doing his 1 day build. BUT it's always worth coming back week in week out.
More please.
It's got a sweet look. Would have preferred the ebonized fretboard. The Piezo Bridge is like $60 Evil Bay
The Ben-ultimate episode coming next when Ben installs a piezo bridge on the Hofner, lol
Shellac under the nut? Hmm. I really like Titebond's "hide" glue that comes in a brown bottle for the nut.
The tool for expanding jack holes is a taper reamer.
Yes, do it! 👍
The premise is solid. I'd watch another guitar recovered from the doldrums. The question is which guitar is next?
A Burns? A Hohner? A Wal or Warwick bass? Wouldn't it be delicious to have Brian May's Little Red Special on Ben's bench? Wouldn't it be divine to have Mary Spender's Epiphone archtop restored to glory? But my ambitions outpace the intent.
It's almost too much to ask to find a truly trashed Jazzmaster so it could receive this treatment. For starters: I'm curious to see if Crimson would make an offset body guitar after Ben's gone through one. What would Crimson Jazzmaster's be wired like?
This series has brought up, I think, an interesting point. I'm a repair person, mostly do set ups refrets etc work. If someone brought this guitar in for a clean up and 'restoration' it's very unlikely they would be willing to part with the amount of money it would take to get it to the standard you have got it to. Likely I would have to compromise on how good the fret work is gonna be, and they'll have to live with the marks on the neck. Obviously the option is always there for someone looking for perfection. The point it raises for me is where do you stop on a job like this. If a customer came to me with this and said how much to make it play well, that's a surprisingly difficult question to answer. I can do a set up and it'll play 'better' or i could refret it, make a new nut, refin the neck, etc, and I'm sure it would play beautifully. I suppose really, and I know this already from my work! But repairs, set ups, and resto's are not always as simple as they first seem.
I don't think your customer would be too chuffed if you raffled off their guitar to recoup the renovation cost either. 😜
In that sense this series isn't a realistic "what would a repair person do". The TH-cam ad revenue and raffle proceeds cover (hopefully lol) the labour.
Superb mini-series Ben... and this from a bassist! One question tho, if I may; would you recommend use of overall-screened twin core wires throughout the control cavity? My next project is a Peavey Milestone III bass, which has a pair of noisy, single-coil Jazz pups. Copper foil the cavity too, etc.!
Would have been good to get the guys at Crimson headquarters to create templates from it.
I for one would have bought a set.
Termites have invaded my home studio... They destroyed the joists under the floor and caused some major issues with the structure. All my good wood has been removed and treated. Now to jack the building back up to level and replace the 2X12 joists... Damn! I just want to build guitars.
Looking much better. Why do you use cordless tools when working at a bench? How many cordless drills and batteries will end up in a landfill in the 20+ years you get out of a good quality corded drill?
gorgeous
Id like to see you make a guitar all by hand no power tools!!!!
Great work again Ben... but I'm not too sure about the pink Oysterflex strap on the submariner! Maybe black is the way to go! 😜
Lol, I think someone asked on stream. I think he said the strap was a joke/dare gift from someone at crimson.
Lovely looking guitar ,it's going to look a lot better lol
Really interesting to watch this project. I wonder if it would be worth it to try and turn "trash into treasure", ie take a relatively "bad" guitar and see if it's possible to make it even close to "good". Given a mediocre body and neck, can you replace enough hardware to make it enjoyable to play? I'm not a guitar guy, so maybe this is a naive idea. Anyway, thanks for sharing!
One day you should do a build using only tools and materials from a hardware/home-centre store. You might even need to resort to steel wool.
Two by Two hands of blue....
Hello! Is it ok to use an NGR penetrating wood stain on an acoustic guitar? I have bought one online but I'm worried it could muffle my guitar or something. The plan is to stain both fretboard and body and then apply clear lacquer top coat on the body. Got a pretty old spruce top, mahogany back and side Stafford here
"This is not the hand tool only build"... neither is the hand tool only build! 🤪
Why add screening paint in the cavity? The wiring is already screened, and anyway you didn't paint the back of the pickguard.
“Welcome to stream X of 1”, where X is seldom actually 1… 😁
Never change Ben…
can you use the ultra versatile polish on frets?
Did you earth the shielding paint?
2:10 it’s never a good idea to have too much blood in your caffeine stream! ☕️
Is the finishing oil similar to Tru-oil?
#Crismon custom guitars I oiled neck with 13 coats with borma wachs oil, neck is curred and very very glossy but it feels sticky, what i should to do, sand with 2k water paper?
I'm surprised that Hofner has such a strat-like peghead and neck on it like that.
Tried the raffle a few days ago...the site wouldn't take any of my USA cards.
Hello Ben, what's the problem with a cheap jackpot? Less output? And is there a difference in wire
thickness? And have a nice day :)
Reliability I think. The cheap ones twist loose and break sooner than more substantial jacks.
Four score and seven streams ago...
I wish i could win a guitar made by this man .
Alas , in the words of a wise man , "In terms of money , we have no money" .
cool content
I’m not saying I am Steve Vai !! But have you ever seen Steve Vai & I in the same room?
Hey, I went to buy a ticket but the page said the raffle was drawn today and Phillippe Philip AKA Mr Fakename was listed as the winner??
Edit: is it finished or can I still buy some tickets?
Sorry, the raffle has in fact ended. We set a limit to the number of tickets available, not realising how popular this guitar would be. When the limit was reached Raffall ended the raffle and the winner was chosen. The next Restoration Raffle will be a PRS guitar, so keep an eye out for that video and Ben's latest scratch built Bass will also be raffled soon. We are going to be doing these more regularly because this has proved so popular.
@@CrimsonCustomGuitars ah I thought because it said the raffle ended on the 8th I’d be able to get one. Never mind
When you pay more to service the guitar then it's worth 😵💫
🤘💙👍
oooo, Ben be careful with those pickups they tend to die with the slightest touch.
they are very unreliable
I once had an early 70s Galaxie, the pickups were fine, the switchgear was execrable, absolutely unreliable crap.
Lol day 125 of a 1 day build 😜
Love the concept of renovation of guitars but to my ears that hofner sounded boxy and lifeless.
Just did not understand a thing you did . Its not even a real Galaxie , merely a cheap repro . My own 6 Galaxies 175 and 6's sound awesome with the original "Staple" and "Hofner Super" pick ups and my own custom made 173 with pick ups rewound by "Project Guitar" is the stuff that a Strat owner can only dream of .
33:10 Common myth and misunderstanding: "Dry sound does not matter, it is an electric guitar!". NO! An electric guitar which sounds unplugged ("dry") bad, will not sound better when plugged in. Fact.