Can I share a trick I learned from Dan Erlewine years ago in one of his books? When you're trying to get glue under a sliver of wood like you had in the neck pocket, run a piece of paper - wax paper works well - under the crack with some hanging out one side. Then load that overhanging piece of the paper with glue and pull the paper through/under the sliver and out the other side. You'll drag glue all over the interior surface of the piece you're trying to glue down. It's a very handy technique and less messy than trying to work glue in hydraulically.
I know you from you work with Jerry and I started following you for that reason. This is the first long video of yours that I've watched. Now I know I've been missing out on some good guitar repair videos. I like how a young guy believes in and does high quality work. Your narration is good too. Keep up the good work!
Enjoying your videos. One thing to be careful is removing tape from nitro finishes. I've had a section of finish come off a nice Martin once that I had to repair. It's easier to do than you'd think.
You might want to look at Ted Woodford's channel, twoodfrd. He has started to use foam cutting wire probes. Less chance of finish damage, as there is no water. Seems to work for him quite well.
I've watched over 100 of Jerry's vids, and more than a dozen of yours, and I'm surprised to see that neither of you appear to buy guitar strings in bulk. I'm only an amateur luthier, mainly working on guitars I buy from people unwilling to put hundreds of dollars of work into them. When finished, I usually sell them, but might keep one occasionally, as I also perform. Anyway, I've been buying 10-set packs of Martin phosphor-bronze lights for $30 or less - that's $3 or less per set. I can't imagine this wouldn't save you a bunch of money, especially over time. Great vid!
You did a real nice job doing that neck reset. If all necks would come out that easy, many more would get done that way. I know everyone thinks that the plane of the neck should go over the top of the bridge, and most of the time that is true, but not always. My son's Martin the plane does not make it over, in fact it looked similar to that one. I was able to adjust the truss rod and lower the saddle till it was perfect action. It still has enough brake angle on the strings and still have enough saddle to take more off if needed. That guitar is like a d - 41, It is a DC Aura about 14 years old and has a mortise and tenon neck joint, so I dread the day it needs a reset. Maybe I'll send it to you, lol. It has been about a year ago, and the setup I did has not moved, a good sign. It intonates perfect and stays in tune. Kudos on a job well done. You could have done a bridge shave on it, and it would have worked, but I am glad you didn't. I don't like doing that, If you ever need to do a neck reset after that, you end up having to change the bridge to do it right. I'll shut up now and quit writing a book.
@@pmscalisi OK thanks, I thought it was earlier. One of the StewMac videos they gave a guitar one, just a straight rod not adjustable. To me that is the way to go, if it keeps the neck straight, why do you need to adjust it. Also the truss doesn't change the angle of the neck. The only reason it affects the action is buy pulling out the relief if it is too much.
Beautiful job Caleb , the guitar sounds great, i dont think this martin will have any neck reset issues across the rest of its life. Thanks for sharing your skill. Cheers. Andy. Scotland. 👌👍
Nice video, Caleb. I appreciated your attention to detail and your emphasis on setting the guitar up to fit the way the customer plays. Keep up the good work.
Nice job Caleb, that guitar sounds great and I'm sure with .085" to .075" that it plays nice too. Thanks for the reminder of an old John Prine song I used to do called "Hello In There".
Great work. I am going to be doing a neck reset on a Yamaha acoustic here sometime in the next month, ill have to video how i did mine. I get a lot of ideas watching everyones videos on repair work. Thanks and keep the work up :-)
It's a 70s Martin. Whos going to leave nasty comments over a neck reset on a 70s Martin? 1920s? 1910s? Maybe. Not 1970s. Even Ted W regularly does 30s and 40s and 50s Martin's and no one ever leaves nasty comments for him but he's also been doing this for multiple decades and has been through a proper luthier school. And he has hundreds of videos that prove hes very very very good at it.
One thing you could try is to measure the dip in the top before you steam it. When it is apart measure the dip again. It is possible that the moisture swells the top just slightly which changes the neck angle. This might be why the test refit without any cutting doesn't seem to need a neck reset as bad. I'm talking about the top around the fingerboard extension.
Not sure what that would accomplish. Since this thread is about neck resets you are attempting to show why the neck needs to be reset. String pull has caused the neck to place a downwards pressure on the top.Over time the top sinks down around the end of the fingerboard and beginning of the sound hole. @@menow.
I think you checked the final action on the 11th fret instead of the 12th. Probably won't make that much of a difference anyway, just wanted to let you know. You did a great job on the guitar repair.
Great job Calob, I enjoyed watching your video very much. One thing I will say in critiquing you is it you measured the action of the treble side on the 11th fret instead of the 12th. Probably didn't make much difference though just thought I'd throw that in there. But thanks again!
I'm catching up on your videos, 'cause I'm not doing anything productive and I can catch up on them between other activities. I own multiple Martin examples, some considered fairly valuable. I play them if I feel like playing them. There are plenty of examples for museums. If they like their guitar that way, it's their guitar and they can do what they want with it. It's kinda ingenious. I'm not about to do that, but they certainly can. Also, there's a brilliant luthier on TH-cam that uses inexpensive foam cutters for this task, instead of steam. It works very well for him. They're also inexpensive, according to him. I've never priced them.
I enjoy watching your videos Caleb. At 47:35 you say you are checking action at the 12th fret, however to me it looks like your gauge is at the 11th fret?
It's not expensive. You can use foam cutters to heat up the joint. They fit excellent into the holes. The guy from the channel "Twoodfrd" uses them and achieves excellent results.
Hey 👋 Caleb, I like the way you used the 2x2 on the fret board to hold the integrity of the angle while you glued it.. I enjoy your videos Great 👍 job !
A couple of observations; first I wonder if that guitar was maybe left in a hot car at some point for a short while, just long enough for the dovetail glue to soften up and loosen the joint so that it was able to shift like that and then re-harden in a less than optimum position. The other thing is re your steamer; to my eye it looks like you might have a bit too much steam shooting out of that nozzle all at once; I always thought that the steaming/heating process was much more incremental and gradual. But hey, that dovetail joint shot off of there like a rocket; like it wanted to be outta there... ;) I saw on Ted Woodford's channel that he's using these tools that were designed for heat-cutting styrofoam or foam rubber; basically looks like a wand or real skinny soldering iron that heats up to varying temps, and fits into the same size drill hole as what you've used. They seem to be very controllable and effective, not as fussy/messy as the steam, and don't look like they'd be too pricey... All in all, great job; I'm sure your customer was happier than can be to get her back in such good working order. Another thought: that's pretty funny about him adding that mass to the headstock to increase sustain; but then I remembered some bass players I knew back in the 70s who swore by that method on their Fender Pre & Jazz basses; adding mass (usually a brass plate) to the back of the headstock to try and get a fatter sound. By gum that D-35 sounds sweet. Wish I had one... ;)
I'm not opposed to trying the dry heat, but right now that's $13.71 more than I have. The steamer and all the parts were given to me, and as long as it works...
Pre 1984-85 Martins had a non-adjustable truss rod. Up to the 1960s, they used a heavy steel T bar. From then until 1984-85 they used lighter square steel tube rod. My 1976 D76 Bicentennial neck is as good as the day I bought it new in 1977. I've never had it set up and the intonation is still perfect even though well played.
Glad to see you use techniques beyond what Jerry taught you. I like the way you used the carbon paper and the way you fitted the neck. Way to go Caleb.
@@michaelpthompson He use carbon paper for sure but not the same way. Caleb used a small strip wrapped around dovetail all I have aver seen Jerry do is put the carbon paper into the dove tail and insert the neck. I have never seen him fit a neck the same way Caleb did that one. He may have taught Caleb the technique bur I have never seen him use it.
An interesting story , and a demonstration of the guitar repair process . I especially liked how Caleb managed to extract the 15th fret so smoothly! Usually they are pulled out of the slots damaged, mangled ( unsuitable for further use). I can 't believe it , although he himself demonstrated that it is possible to do this with wire cutters ! In the video, when the luthier lad had deleted this one ( about somewhere in the 10th minute of the video) it looked like new ! Of course , if , for example , it would even be slightly damaged , then it would be possible to apply there a sandpaper , the 320th could be there ( depends of amount of damage , of coarse ) , and then sequentially with a smaller abrasive : moving consistently from one to another . And it would be fine. I wonder what Caleb 's email address is ?
Caleb, did you realize that when you did the initial setup, you checked the action at the 11th fret, not the 12th. :) You really did a nice job on it though. Sounded great!
I had to stop the video as I ran out of time. Given that the 70s Martins suffered from the bridges in the wrong location, was this checked and corrected?
It would've been nice to know what the action was before you took the strings off, just some constructive criticism that you might want to think about next time, but I still like your videos big guy
Dude, you really should put some kind of protection on the top, around the fingerboard extension, especially when draggin' that blade across the fretboard.
You aren't Jerry. People left him comments because he is terrible at repairing instruments. You don't have to try and fend off the negative comments like he always did. He got them for a reason. He usually ended up damaging the instrument at least once on everything he touched. And had very unorthodox methods and ways of doing things that caused those problems much of the time. Don't be like Jerry. You don't have to fend off negative comments before they ever get posted. You arent Jerry. Don't be like him, Caleb. You have WAYYYYYY more potential to be WAYYYYYY better than him.
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I'd recommend you find yourself a more precision straightedge ,other that great job Caleb ,very interesting
Glad to see a young guy with the guts to take on a neck reset, but we have to talk about that mill and crown technique brotha.....
Can I share a trick I learned from Dan Erlewine years ago in one of his books? When you're trying to get glue under a sliver of wood like you had in the neck pocket, run a piece of paper - wax paper works well - under the crack with some hanging out one side. Then load that overhanging piece of the paper with glue and pull the paper through/under the sliver and out the other side. You'll drag glue all over the interior surface of the piece you're trying to glue down. It's a very handy technique and less messy than trying to work glue in hydraulically.
This kind of work isn’t for everyone.. you got a real knack! Great job.
Great job, Caleb. I love your presentation; it’s clear and concise, and you present with warmth and friendliness.
Thanks,
Mark
I know you from you work with Jerry and I started following you for that reason. This is the first long video of yours that I've watched. Now I know I've been missing out on some good guitar repair videos. I like how a young guy believes in and does high quality work. Your narration is good too. Keep up the good work!
Enjoying your videos. One thing to be careful is removing tape from nitro finishes. I've had a section of finish come off a nice Martin once that I had to repair. It's easier to do than you'd think.
Great job ole pal! I wish you lived closer to me I’ve got a Blueridge that needs a badly needed setup
You might want to look at Ted Woodford's channel, twoodfrd. He has started to use foam cutting wire probes. Less chance of finish damage, as there is no water. Seems to work for him quite well.
I've watched over 100 of Jerry's vids, and more than a dozen of yours, and I'm surprised to see that neither of you appear to buy guitar strings in bulk. I'm only an amateur luthier, mainly working on guitars I buy from people unwilling to put hundreds of dollars of work into them. When finished, I usually sell them, but might keep one occasionally, as I also perform. Anyway, I've been buying 10-set packs of Martin phosphor-bronze lights for $30 or less - that's $3 or less per set. I can't imagine this wouldn't save you a bunch of money, especially over time. Great vid!
Good job Caleb
Great work. That guitar sounds great! I appreciate that you set high standards for the outcome you want to achieve. That means a lot.
You did a real nice job doing that neck reset. If all necks would come out that easy, many more would get done that way. I know everyone thinks that the plane of the neck should go over the top of the bridge, and most of the time that is true, but not always. My son's Martin the plane does not make it over, in fact it looked similar to that one. I was able to adjust the truss rod and lower the saddle till it was perfect action. It still has enough brake angle on the strings and still have enough saddle to take more off if needed. That guitar is like a d - 41, It is a DC Aura about 14 years old and has a mortise and tenon neck joint, so I dread the day it needs a reset. Maybe I'll send it to you, lol. It has been about a year ago, and the setup I did has not moved, a good sign. It intonates perfect and stays in tune. Kudos on a job well done. You could have done a bridge shave on it, and it would have worked, but I am glad you didn't. I don't like doing that, If you ever need to do a neck reset after that, you end up having to change the bridge to do it right. I'll shut up now and quit writing a book.
This D-35 has no adjustable truss rod.
@@pmscalisi I noticed that too, I find that odd for a '75.
@@jthonn Martin didn’t start using adjustable truss rods until the 80’s.
@@pmscalisi OK thanks, I thought it was earlier. One of the StewMac videos they gave a guitar one, just a straight rod not adjustable. To me that is the way to go, if it keeps the neck straight, why do you need to adjust it. Also the truss doesn't change the angle of the neck. The only reason it affects the action is buy pulling out the relief if it is too much.
@@jthonn some truss rods weren’t even metal. I have an 90 year old guitar like that with an ebony truss rod and the neck is still correct.
Those Yamahas can be the hardest to do So its good to see a nicely built cooperative guitar for you to do
Hello Caleb as a Martin fan when I see a video with the name Martin in the title I immediately watch it. So great video title. Great video.
Great job Caleb. Approached like a true professional. Now I'm not as nervous tearing into a Martin. I learned a lot. Thank You
More sustain is one of the last things a Martin needs. My D28 rings for days. Every Martin Ive ever played does.
That sounds so good. Love a old Martin...
Your work was really great and your presentation was outstanding. Very nice job all the way around
Awesome job Caleb and happy to see u did not cut the fretboard. Thanks for the video
Beautiful job Caleb , the guitar sounds great, i dont think this martin will have any neck reset issues across the rest of its life. Thanks for sharing your skill. Cheers. Andy. Scotland. 👌👍
Great video - thank you for posting this. I am about to do this on a 1968 Martin 000-18.
Great job all round mate. That is a great sounding chunk of timber too 👍
Nice job. That's the way to do it.
twoodfrd. seems like a must study for one doing guitar repair, he does boatloads of very high end work, good luck
It has a nice tone. Nice work, Caleb.
Fascinating Caleb!! I really enjoyed your presentation. Thank you so much!
Watching from Ireland brother, well done, you have serious skill.
Nice video, Caleb. I appreciated your attention to detail and your emphasis on setting the guitar up to fit the way the customer plays. Keep up the good work.
Absolutely. As a player that’s exactly what you want. It’s that relationship with the luthier that is key to getting the best out of your instruments.
Awesome 😎 upgrade to the ol Martin.... I like your style.... Keep it up..Caleb.
Excellent job. That thing sounds pretty damn good for not being produced. Hell Yeah!
Nice job Caleb, that guitar sounds great and I'm sure with .085" to .075" that it plays nice too. Thanks for the reminder of an old John Prine song I used to do called "Hello In There".
Nice job Caleb! Very Professional work, and enjoyable to watch!
Nice sound with some detail. Nice instrument.
Great work. I am going to be doing a neck reset on a Yamaha acoustic here sometime in the next month, ill have to video how i did mine. I get a lot of ideas watching everyones videos on repair work. Thanks and keep the work up :-)
Hello in there. Good job Caleb.
It's a 70s Martin. Whos going to leave nasty comments over a neck reset on a 70s Martin? 1920s? 1910s? Maybe. Not 1970s. Even Ted W regularly does 30s and 40s and 50s Martin's and no one ever leaves nasty comments for him but he's also been doing this for multiple decades and has been through a proper luthier school. And he has hundreds of videos that prove hes very very very good at it.
One thing you could try is to measure the dip in the top before you steam it. When it is apart measure the dip again. It is possible that the moisture swells the top just slightly which changes the neck angle. This might be why the test refit without any cutting doesn't seem to need a neck reset as bad. I'm talking about the top around the fingerboard extension.
What does "dip in the top" mean?
Place a straightedge on the top from the bridge to alongside the fingerboard extension. Look and see where the top has sunk@@menow.
@@davedavidson9996 Then you would put the straightedge across the top from side to side, at the end of the fingerboard, no?
Not sure what that would accomplish. Since this thread is about neck resets you are attempting to show why the neck needs to be reset. String pull has caused the neck to place a downwards pressure on the top.Over time the top sinks down around the end of the fingerboard and beginning of the sound hole. @@menow.
Really enjoyed watching and learning! Nice job! Need to get my 1974 Martin D28-S looked at for what could be the same issue.
I think you checked the final action on the 11th fret instead of the 12th. Probably won't make that much of a difference anyway, just wanted to let you know. You did a great job on the guitar repair.
I’ve got a 1977 D35 that’s got high action now and will be getting a neck reset before too long. Interesting to see what going to be happening.
Great job Calob, I enjoyed watching your video very much. One thing I will say in critiquing you is it you measured the action of the treble side on the 11th fret instead of the 12th. Probably didn't make much difference though just thought I'd throw that in there. But thanks again!
I'm catching up on your videos, 'cause I'm not doing anything productive and I can catch up on them between other activities.
I own multiple Martin examples, some considered fairly valuable. I play them if I feel like playing them. There are plenty of examples for museums. If they like their guitar that way, it's their guitar and they can do what they want with it. It's kinda ingenious. I'm not about to do that, but they certainly can.
Also, there's a brilliant luthier on TH-cam that uses inexpensive foam cutters for this task, instead of steam. It works very well for him. They're also inexpensive, according to him. I've never priced them.
Great tutorial, thank you.
Guitar sounds great! 😎👍
I enjoy watching your videos Caleb. At 47:35 you say you are checking action at the 12th fret, however to me it looks like your gauge is at the 11th fret?
I liked the final sound test. Makes me wanna say Hello. 👋
Great job. That thing sounds amazingly good.
very nice work.
Great vid
Nice job sir.
Great job and video, I was wandering when you were checking the string height on the 11th fret?
It's not expensive. You can use foam cutters to heat up the joint. They fit excellent into the holes. The guy from the channel "Twoodfrd" uses them and achieves excellent results.
You can cut bits of a card like for poker or whatever to get the glue in a narrow tight places.
That guitar does sound great!! Nice job.
This was an excellent one Caleb. Enjoyed this video, way to go.
Nice Job Caleb! I have one I would love to send to you!
Hey 👋 Caleb, I like the way you used the 2x2 on the fret board to hold the integrity of the angle while you glued it.. I enjoy your videos
Great 👍 job !
Good job
Hello, would you mind sharing how you made your heating iron for the finger board extension? Thanks
Great video Caleb lots of detail thanks 🇬🇧
Wow .. Great job..
Nice one Caleb. Cheers pal
Nice sound
Good Job! ❤
I know you through Rosa ... Good luck.
A couple of observations; first I wonder if that guitar was maybe left in a hot car at some point for a short while, just long enough for the dovetail glue to soften up and loosen the joint so that it was able to shift like that and then re-harden in a less than optimum position.
The other thing is re your steamer; to my eye it looks like you might have a bit too much steam shooting out of that nozzle all at once; I always thought that the steaming/heating process was much more incremental and gradual. But hey, that dovetail joint shot off of there like a rocket; like it wanted to be outta there... ;) I saw on Ted Woodford's channel that he's using these tools that were designed for heat-cutting styrofoam or foam rubber; basically looks like a wand or real skinny soldering iron that heats up to varying temps, and fits into the same size drill hole as what you've used. They seem to be very controllable and effective, not as fussy/messy as the steam, and don't look like they'd be too pricey...
All in all, great job; I'm sure your customer was happier than can be to get her back in such good working order.
Another thought: that's pretty funny about him adding that mass to the headstock to increase sustain; but then I remembered some bass players I knew back in the 70s who swore by that method on their Fender Pre & Jazz basses; adding mass (usually a brass plate) to the back of the headstock to try and get a fatter sound.
By gum that D-35 sounds sweet. Wish I had one... ;)
Absolutely brilliant !!!! Great Job!!!!
Check out foam cutters from hot wire foam factory, Ted woodford uses them for dry heat very successfully. They’re like $30 each.
I'm not opposed to trying the dry heat, but right now that's $13.71 more than I have. The steamer and all the parts were given to me, and as long as it works...
@@MillsGuitars just a resource for when you can. Really impressed with your workmanship.
Hey Caleb. Why are you measuring the action at the 11th fret?
Why were you checking 12th fret string heights at the 11th fret?
What about the binding crack on the fretboard extension treble side?
Good job. sounds great...
Excellent !
nice work kid
I think its pre 1984 Martins that dont have truss rods. After that they became standard. I may be of a year or two on that.
Pre 1984-85 Martins had a non-adjustable truss rod. Up to the 1960s, they used a heavy steel T bar. From then until 1984-85 they used lighter square steel tube rod. My 1976 D76 Bicentennial neck is as good as the day I bought it new in 1977. I've never had it set up and the intonation is still perfect even though well played.
Glad to see you use techniques beyond what Jerry taught you. I like the way you used the carbon paper and the way you fitted the neck. Way to go Caleb.
Jerry uses carbon paper the same way all the time, as well as neck shims.
@@michaelpthompson He use carbon paper for sure but not the same way. Caleb used a small strip wrapped around dovetail all I have aver seen Jerry do is put the carbon paper into the dove tail and insert the neck. I have never seen him fit a neck the same way Caleb did that one. He may have taught Caleb the technique bur I have never seen him use it.
Well done Caleb. You are right that neck must have been loose, it just popped out too easily, but it won't now !
I agree, but with a dovetail, if you get them to come upward even a fraction, you got it.
Take that strap button out of the dt cap. Put it in the bottom side of the dt.
I like those clamps you’re using. Did you make them? It’s nice to continue watching you and techniques slightly different than Jerry. Good job Caleb!
what do you do when the neck is bent the other way? the strings are sitting on the frets
An interesting story , and a demonstration of the guitar repair process . I especially liked how Caleb managed to extract the 15th fret so smoothly! Usually they are pulled out of the slots damaged, mangled ( unsuitable for further use). I can 't believe it , although he himself demonstrated that it is possible to do this with wire cutters ! In the video, when the luthier lad had deleted this one ( about somewhere in the 10th minute of the video) it looked like new ! Of course , if , for example , it would even be slightly damaged , then it would be possible to apply there a sandpaper , the 320th could be there ( depends of amount of damage , of coarse ) , and then sequentially with a smaller abrasive : moving consistently from one to another . And it would be fine. I wonder what Caleb 's email address is ?
It's always in the intro
Very nice video Caleb....job looked perfect!
Caleb, did you realize that when you did the initial setup, you checked the action at the 11th fret, not the 12th. :) You really did a nice job on it though. Sounded great!
This was fascinating! Thank you. Where in the world are you?
Archie Missouri
@@chrismills1561 I'm in Grandview, MO. Just south of kc and north of peculiar
@@chrismills1561 I have just sent the reply
@Chris Mills isn't there a dirt track in Archie?
@John Washburn that is Adrian.
good.
I had to stop the video as I ran out of time. Given that the 70s Martins suffered from the bridges in the wrong location, was this checked and corrected?
My bad Caleb, I commented as soon as I saw you taking the strings off before letting any of us know what the action was so I apologize
spritz knife with water help cut the glue
😎
Nice job ( I wouldn't screw a weight on a 50 cent guitar headstock, just saying)
It would've been nice to know what the action was before you took the strings off, just some constructive criticism that you might want to think about next time, but I still like your videos big guy
Bravo!
As Caleb did here, Always check for belly bulge and fix that Before you decide to reset a neck.
BTDT 🤪😭It's Not good.
Not bad lad , 👌
I wish u had shown the entire set up and repair and broke it into 2 parts if you needed to.
Dude, you really should put some kind of protection on the top, around the fingerboard extension, especially when draggin' that blade across the fretboard.
You know you checked it on the eleventh fret. Probably very little difference?
You aren't Jerry. People left him comments because he is terrible at repairing instruments. You don't have to try and fend off the negative comments like he always did. He got them for a reason. He usually ended up damaging the instrument at least once on everything he touched. And had very unorthodox methods and ways of doing things that caused those problems much of the time.
Don't be like Jerry. You don't have to fend off negative comments before they ever get posted. You arent Jerry. Don't be like him, Caleb. You have WAYYYYYY more potential to be WAYYYYYY better than him.
Treat her gently, Caleb.