Hi Chris, Thanks so much for your kind words. I got a few emails from people saying that you had done this. Very cool. I know how it is to not have a lot of time to watch other guitar building channels. In any case, I'd still love to have you stop by the shop one day and say hey. Maybe the next time Dylan is in town we could get together. Take care my friend. I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday.
Thanks for mentioning my (KleshGuitars) channel! As you know I’m still getting my shop and templates / tooling together for production and believe that showing mistakes (and how to fix them) are just as important as showing the final polished results. Thanks again my friend 😊
As a hobbyist/hand-tool-minimalist I have found twoodford's stuff to be very useful and helpful! He does use some specialty tools, of course, but a lot if it is done with a small assortment of hand tools that are not hard to acquire.
Unquendor guitars is a really cool channel. The host seems like a genuinely lovely person and whilst his aesthetic is not my cup of tea the quality oozes from his instruments.
Crimson for general luthiery, Brad Angove for paint, Big D Guitars for stain, Dylan talks tone for pickups, Texas Toast for fabric finishes, and Guns and Guitars for unusual mods - that's how I learned. Well, that plus wood shop, metal shop, plastics shop, forge and foundry, and 3 years of electronics shop in Jr and Sr high school, and enough hours of engineering for 4 degrees. As a hobbyist builder, I like watching build videos while I work on builds and watch videos from many of the builders mentioned in the comments. My builds are largely one-off custom experimental guitars, or mods of traditional designs. As such, I have little use for and thus little interest in things like templates, jigs, CNC, etc. After 3 years of bingeing, there's practically nothing new left on TH-cam with respect to guitar building, its mostly the same old stuff - variations on a theme - yet another traditional build. Or "let's make a guitar out of... (some BS non-guitar material)". I find many of the channels are more promotional than instructional. Since I like watching builds, I've started posting mine, but just for fun, no promotion, unscripted, unedited, with full disclosure of all errors. They're not intended to be instructional, but I tend to explain everything anyway. As a viewer, I'd like to see a guitar building version of "new yankee workshop" or "this old house".
Tchicks guitar makes lovely well prepared videos. He has a three part Playlist for your first build from scratch with hand tools. And he does this with one arm in a cast! Very inspiring
I second Tchicks. Watching his videos is not only entertaining, but another source for really great ideas and inspiration for building techniques and approaches.
One of the things I love about Crimson’s channel is also how he backs himself into a corner and solves the problems with whatever odd build he’s doing. Also, while focused only on guitar electronics, I love CS Guitar’s “Too Afraid to Ask” series. It offers some great primers on aspects of guitar sound.
Maximum Guitar Works, took both of Steve M’s Beginning and Advanced Electric Guitar Making Classes at the local Community College. He is without a doubt a master builder and instructor. Just like you, he is very innovative. You two together are my Guitar Building Guru’s. So glad you both live in the area not too far from me.
TWoodford... Gotta check him out. Mostly acoustic repairs, but a lot of great info and history. Not so much about building though, mostly just repair and restoration.
BigDGuitars has some interesting tips on staining tops. Twoodfrd is about guitar repair, but I find it interesting to see the consequences of time, questionable designs, and typical accidents that happen to mostly acoustic guitars, but some electrics.
Probably 90%+ of my jigs and home built tools come from videos of either Highline or Texas Toast. Thickness sanders, buffers, pin routers, neck heel angle jigs, etc. For power-assisted hand builds, hard to beat what these 2 channels have on offer. My suggestion, even though it isn't strictly guitar related, is Tamar 3x3. Her jigs and methodologies are top notch, all kinds of really great general wood working ideas there. She is also another builder who isn't afraid to show the mistakes and present the improved solutions.
I started my first build a couple months ago. Your channel and the Texas toast channel have been immeasurably valuable resources for luthier information for someone like me who has very little to no experience with wood work/ luthiery
Ken Parker Archtoppery is one of the most interesting ones I've found. And whenever Matt Gleason from Monty's Guitars guests on other channels, like Andertons or That Pedal Show, he presents excellent information about guitar setup.
8:14 "he's also willing to share with you when things don't go well" some people would sweep that stuff under the rug, but he knows sharing that stuff can really help people, so I like that (KleshGuitars is who I'm referring to)
I am 70 years old. I am finishing and assembling my first electric guitar kit right now. I learned a lot about finishing on this channel, even though I am not a pro. Also, I feel I got a lot of good information from the channel by Brad Angove. Brad does finish and assemble kits.
Matt and Chris at TTG are awesome. Dylan is incredible as well. Also, Jeff at Home Built Workshop. He's not just building guitars, but there are a number of them. His latest was a beautiful acoustic he built for his daughter. Finally Jayszun at Temple Guitars. He does lots of jigs.
Apart from your channel which is my No 1 go to for building, the top 3 for me would be Guns and Guitars for down and dirty building with style, Tchiks guitars for amazing hand tool builds, and Two Cherries for his chill demeanor. Also I have finished and used the pickup winder and the CNC router build is 75% done.
It's definitely worthwhile spending a bit of time checking out Ken Parker Archtoppery channel. Ken is the guy behind the radically innovative Parker Fly from the 90s but is now concentrating on archtop electro-acoustic guitars. Virtually every video contains a tip that valuable, at least to consider.
One of the first TH-cam guitar builder educators is still the best. If you are new to this please check out the David Fletcher guitar channel and his Stratocaster build series. I've watched some of the Klesh videos and they are very fun, but he seems like a beginner.
Yes if you don’t have spray guns or but tins of spray finishes the alternative was for me to us stains and oil natural finishing .must sa the results were pure woody finish .fabulous.I watched your tutorials on oil finishing to ..Brill guitsr builder in the UK called Crimson Guitars .Got a fabulous TH-cam channel .does loads of nature pure wood finishing.just beautiful.
For your top coat you should use simtec polyester.. you don't have to spray it you can use a winnie roller..it sands easy and buffs out like glass.. also it's 90% the hardness of glass!.. also they make a sanding sealer which comes in clear, gray or white if needed👍😎🎸
Very cool video, thanks! I'm mostly here because I've been waiting almost an entire year for a custom bass that's paid for, and since then have come up with a more extreme design that would work with my playing style. I would like to find a way to mass-produce instruments without them being "cheap," but my research so far has shown me that nothing beats wood for low density and thermal stability, so woodworking (and lots of sanding) seems to be unavoidable. I have a feeling I'll be using some of your plans in the future, and I appreciate you (and fellow viewers) pointing out other avenues to give me more inspiration!
Check out Jim Lill. He has been doing a deep dive into where the tone of a guitar comes from and it has been super interesting and really really eye opening.
I don’t play guitar, bit I need to understand everything about them so I can assist my Grandson on his guitar playing journey. Thanks for another fantastic video.
Great list! I kinda expected you to disagree more with Texas toast since they are a bit more “silly” but your explanation of their channel was perfect. Two that I would add. 1. Driftwood guitars for acoustics. 2. Austin shaner for cad/cam especially if you use fusion 360.
Love these kind of posts! Bringing the guitar building community together, sharing and being humble. Besides the already mentioned channels, I'd like to mention @FletcherHandcraftedGuitars who has some really good complete build process videos, and also @TempleGuitars who has some really high quality production videos on a lot of topics. Also, one of the most soothing voices on the internet, or universe in general.
If you haven't come across Richard Heeres Guitars, he has a couple of free in depth tutorials. A traditionally built Classical, and power assisted build of an archtop.
There's one called Santiago Sanhueza, it's more about repairing, he doesn't call himself a luthier, but his work is impressive. In his last video he repairs a les Paul neck that had been wrongly fixed. But yours is the best!
There are a bunch of some kind of string instrument builds I`ve seen. Cigarbox guitar builders and one guy that uses knarly woods and resins, forgot name. Seems most every guitar builder is a little nuts. lol
No he definitely is not... All smoke and mirrors trust me I build his wood store.. And was behind on pre paid orders by almost 2 years ... Ideas thief... I could say more.. But it worth the time on him.
Genius or not, Ben is very entertaining. And his ideas are inspiring, even if they are not original. But I find his videos have gotten way too long-winded.
Hi would it be possible for you to give a work around lesson on tapering or trailing off on the upper register frets to compensate for no more truss rod adjustment in the dry season to reduce buzz in that area on the bass string. What should be considered etc.
Tim Sway builds with actual garbage. He specializes in "re-use." He does end up with functional instruments but they are not in the same league as Texas Toast or many of the other "actual" guitar builders. He is very much an amateur.
The TT channel is alright, but I gave up on it for a while due to how arrogant and obnoxious they are. Highline is a whole different vibe and way more enjoyable. Hey I might even prefer the TT builds, but they are a huge turnoff.
A couple guitar building channels to consider: Crimson Guitars @CrimsonCustomGuitars Custom shop and luthiery school in the UK. Videos on anything related to guitar building Brad Angove @BradAngove Finishing expert from Canada, videos on spray painting guitars by gun or can and more recently full builds etc. Guns and Guitars @GunsandGuitars Started out as a kit builder but expanded to full builds. Geared more toward the home workshop/DIY side of things. Six String Supplies @SixStringSupplies Custom wiring shop from the UK. Great resource for wiring/soldering tutorials. Phillip McKnight @PhillipMcKnight Allround guitar channel for anything guitar related really. CS Guitars @CSGuitars Builder Pickup winder from Schotland. Informative videos about anything guitar related. JHS Pedals @jhspedals One for the pedal enjoyers for good measure. These are just some of the channels that helped me a lot starting out. Hope this helps some of you!
I can't believe that you haven't mentioned Zachary Guitars @zacharyhandcraftedguitars9733 He's self proclaimed best luthier in the world 😄. And quite unhinged character! 😂
Hi Chris,
Thanks so much for your kind words. I got a few emails from people saying that you had done this. Very cool.
I know how it is to not have a lot of time to watch other guitar building channels.
In any case, I'd still love to have you stop by the shop one day and say hey.
Maybe the next time Dylan is in town we could get together.
Take care my friend.
I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday.
Crimson Custom Guitars channel is simply the best there is!
Wow thanks so much for the shoutout
Thanks for mentioning my (KleshGuitars) channel! As you know I’m still getting my shop and templates / tooling together for production and believe that showing mistakes (and how to fix them) are just as important as showing the final polished results. Thanks again my friend 😊
twoodford, IMO, has a great guitar repair channel. I watch every video he posts.
As a hobbyist/hand-tool-minimalist I have found twoodford's stuff to be very useful and helpful! He does use some specialty tools, of course, but a lot if it is done with a small assortment of hand tools that are not hard to acquire.
Unquendor guitars is a really cool channel. The host seems like a genuinely lovely person and whilst his aesthetic is not my cup of tea the quality oozes from his instruments.
Absolutely, Justin. Daniel's channel is excellent, as are his skills.
+1 for Unquendor
100% Agree
Crimson for general luthiery, Brad Angove for paint, Big D Guitars for stain, Dylan talks tone for pickups, Texas Toast for fabric finishes, and Guns and Guitars for unusual mods - that's how I learned. Well, that plus wood shop, metal shop, plastics shop, forge and foundry, and 3 years of electronics shop in Jr and Sr high school, and enough hours of engineering for 4 degrees. As a hobbyist builder, I like watching build videos while I work on builds and watch videos from many of the builders mentioned in the comments. My builds are largely one-off custom experimental guitars, or mods of traditional designs. As such, I have little use for and thus little interest in things like templates, jigs, CNC, etc. After 3 years of bingeing, there's practically nothing new left on TH-cam with respect to guitar building, its mostly the same old stuff - variations on a theme - yet another traditional build. Or "let's make a guitar out of... (some BS non-guitar material)". I find many of the channels are more promotional than instructional. Since I like watching builds, I've started posting mine, but just for fun, no promotion, unscripted, unedited, with full disclosure of all errors. They're not intended to be instructional, but I tend to explain everything anyway. As a viewer, I'd like to see a guitar building version of "new yankee workshop" or "this old house".
Tchicks guitar makes lovely well prepared videos. He has a three part Playlist for your first build from scratch with hand tools. And he does this with one arm in a cast! Very inspiring
One of my favourite channels.
And his sense of humor is just right. 🤭
I second Tchicks. Watching his videos is not only entertaining, but another source for really great ideas and inspiration for building techniques and approaches.
One of the things I love about Crimson’s channel is also how he backs himself into a corner and solves the problems with whatever odd build he’s doing. Also, while focused only on guitar electronics, I love CS Guitar’s “Too Afraid to Ask” series. It offers some great primers on aspects of guitar sound.
I am a big fan of Crimson Guitars in the UK just because a lot of what Ben Crowe does is hand building with vintage tools
Maximum Guitar Works, took both of Steve M’s Beginning and Advanced Electric Guitar Making Classes at the local Community College. He is without a doubt a master builder and instructor. Just like you, he is very innovative. You two together are my Guitar Building Guru’s. So glad you both live in the area not too far from me.
TWoodford... Gotta check him out. Mostly acoustic repairs, but a lot of great info and history. Not so much about building though, mostly just repair and restoration.
Twoodford! Is the channel I'm addicted to. It's my CarTalk of Saturday mornings past.
Good video Chris. I personally like Driftwood guitars TH-cam, particularly for Acoustic building, but they are doing a lot with CNC as well.
Congrats on 75,000+ Subscribers!!
BigDGuitars has some interesting tips on staining tops. Twoodfrd is about guitar repair, but I find it interesting to see the consequences of time, questionable designs, and typical accidents that happen to mostly acoustic guitars, but some electrics.
I'm a big fan of Maximum Guitar Works. Even if you don't use his template system, there is a serious wealth of knowledge on his channel.
I'm a fan of his channel but his videos are too long in my opinion, else I'd have watched them all...
Probably 90%+ of my jigs and home built tools come from videos of either Highline or Texas Toast. Thickness sanders, buffers, pin routers, neck heel angle jigs, etc. For power-assisted hand builds, hard to beat what these 2 channels have on offer.
My suggestion, even though it isn't strictly guitar related, is Tamar 3x3. Her jigs and methodologies are top notch, all kinds of really great general wood working ideas there. She is also another builder who isn't afraid to show the mistakes and present the improved solutions.
Shock The Fox has got some great build videos.
I have really enjoyed the content from Shock the Fox too (insta stories are great for bite size insights)
I started my first build a couple months ago. Your channel and the Texas toast channel have been immeasurably valuable resources for luthier information for someone like me who has very little to no experience with wood work/ luthiery
Ken Parker Archtoppery is one of the most interesting ones I've found. And whenever Matt Gleason from Monty's Guitars guests on other channels, like Andertons or That Pedal Show, he presents excellent information about guitar setup.
@BradAngove is a great channel too .. mainly focusing on kit builds but detailed info on paint/stain finishes
8:14 "he's also willing to share with you when things don't go well" some people would sweep that stuff under the rug, but he knows sharing that stuff can really help people, so I like that (KleshGuitars is who I'm referring to)
Crimson guitars and guns and guitars are great channels.
Two very different channels but I love them both as well.
I am 70 years old. I am finishing and assembling my first electric guitar kit right now. I learned a lot about finishing on this channel, even though I am not a pro. Also, I feel I got a lot of good information from the channel by Brad Angove. Brad does finish and assemble kits.
Ewor guitar is a new one, he has some cool guitars.
Matt and Chris at TTG are awesome. Dylan is incredible as well. Also, Jeff at Home Built Workshop. He's not just building guitars, but there are a number of them. His latest was a beautiful acoustic he built for his daughter. Finally Jayszun at Temple Guitars. He does lots of jigs.
Thanks for the shoutout!
Apart from your channel which is my No 1 go to for building, the top 3 for me would be Guns and Guitars for down and dirty building with style, Tchiks guitars for amazing hand tool builds, and Two Cherries for his chill demeanor. Also I have finished and used the pickup winder and the CNC router build is 75% done.
It's definitely worthwhile spending a bit of time checking out Ken Parker Archtoppery channel. Ken is the guy behind the radically innovative Parker Fly from the 90s but is now concentrating on archtop electro-acoustic guitars. Virtually every video contains a tip that valuable, at least to consider.
One of the first TH-cam guitar builder educators is still the best. If you are new to this please check out the David Fletcher guitar channel and his Stratocaster build series. I've watched some of the Klesh videos and they are very fun, but he seems like a beginner.
I love Burls Art
Big D Guitars has some cool stuff like stains for the eye candy and repairs for the more hardcore. His whisky barrel guitars are really neat.
Yes if you don’t have spray guns or but tins of spray finishes the alternative was for me to us stains and oil natural finishing .must sa the results were pure woody finish .fabulous.I watched your tutorials on oil finishing to ..Brill guitsr builder in the UK called Crimson Guitars .Got a fabulous TH-cam channel .does loads of nature pure wood finishing.just beautiful.
excellent guitar builder (and player) FreddysFrets
Maximum Guitar Works, Brad Angrove, Two Cherries Instruments
For your top coat you should use simtec polyester.. you don't have to spray it you can use a winnie roller..it sands easy and buffs out like glass.. also it's 90% the hardness of glass!.. also they make a sanding sealer which comes in clear, gray or white if needed👍😎🎸
Too toxic for me.
Very cool video, thanks! I'm mostly here because I've been waiting almost an entire year for a custom bass that's paid for, and since then have come up with a more extreme design that would work with my playing style.
I would like to find a way to mass-produce instruments without them being "cheap," but my research so far has shown me that nothing beats wood for low density and thermal stability, so woodworking (and lots of sanding) seems to be unavoidable. I have a feeling I'll be using some of your plans in the future, and I appreciate you (and fellow viewers) pointing out other avenues to give me more inspiration!
I'm about 2 years into my building career. Getting better every day, come take a look! I do pickups as well. Have several nice sets!
I watch the guys' at Texas Toast and Dylan's videos frequently. Good stuff
Check out Jim Lill. He has been doing a deep dive into where the tone of a guitar comes from and it has been super interesting and really really eye opening.
I don’t play guitar, bit I need to understand everything about them so I can assist my Grandson on his guitar playing journey. Thanks for another fantastic video.
A D Finlayson is a nice honest single guy guitar building channel i recommend.
remige french guitar builder, grimson guitar they made amazing work
Great list! I kinda expected you to disagree more with Texas toast since they are a bit more “silly” but your explanation of their channel was perfect.
Two that I would add.
1. Driftwood guitars for acoustics.
2. Austin shaner for cad/cam especially if you use fusion 360.
Love these kind of posts! Bringing the guitar building community together, sharing and being humble. Besides the already mentioned channels, I'd like to mention @FletcherHandcraftedGuitars who has some really good complete build process videos, and also @TempleGuitars who has some really high quality production videos on a lot of topics. Also, one of the most soothing voices on the internet, or universe in general.
As if I needed another reason to buy a pair of Dylan's P90
I follow Crimson Guitars and (Daisy) Tempest Guitars and Temple Guitars
Driftwood guitars is a great well presented channel and the have a bit of fun . Mostly acoustic guitar building but we are all in it together 😂
I was coming to add driftwood for acoustics!
6:04, do you mean Klesh Guitars?
That's what I said!?!
If you haven't come across
Richard Heeres Guitars, he has a couple of free in depth tutorials.
A traditionally built Classical,
and power assisted build of an archtop.
There's one called Santiago Sanhueza, it's more about repairing, he doesn't call himself a luthier, but his work is impressive. In his last video he repairs a les Paul neck that had been wrongly fixed. But yours is the best!
There are a bunch of some kind of string instrument builds I`ve seen. Cigarbox guitar builders and one guy that uses knarly woods and resins, forgot name. Seems most every guitar builder is a little nuts. lol
He's a tech, not a luthier (He emphatically says so), but I really like Fret Friend from the UK. I've learned TONS about fret work from him.
Crimson Guitars. Ben Crowe is a genius!
No, he's not...😁😁
No he definitely is not... All smoke and mirrors trust me I build his wood store.. And was behind on pre paid orders by almost 2 years ... Ideas thief... I could say more.. But it worth the time on him.
@@MrAllaqua Hey, I see you once made atty stands! I used to own a company that made custom vaping coils. The company was called PureCoils.
He really, really isn’t.
Genius or not, Ben is very entertaining. And his ideas are inspiring, even if they are not original. But I find his videos have gotten way too long-winded.
All great builders.
Hi would it be possible for you to give a work around lesson on tapering or trailing off on the upper register frets to compensate for no more truss rod adjustment in the dry season to reduce buzz in that area on the bass string. What should be considered etc.
Barada guitars
This, is a great channel. Thank You!
Tim sway is great because he feels very DIY when compared to highline
Tim Sway builds with actual garbage. He specializes in "re-use." He does end up with functional instruments but they are not in the same league as Texas Toast or many of the other "actual" guitar builders. He is very much an amateur.
Good selection, do you know my channel? (French channel) sorry for talking about me :)
The TT channel is alright, but I gave up on it for a while due to how arrogant and obnoxious they are. Highline is a whole different vibe and way more enjoyable. Hey I might even prefer the TT builds, but they are a huge turnoff.
A couple guitar building channels to consider:
Crimson Guitars @CrimsonCustomGuitars Custom shop and luthiery school in the UK. Videos on anything related to guitar building
Brad Angove @BradAngove Finishing expert from Canada, videos on spray painting guitars by gun or can and more recently full builds etc.
Guns and Guitars @GunsandGuitars Started out as a kit builder but expanded to full builds. Geared more toward the home workshop/DIY side of things.
Six String Supplies @SixStringSupplies Custom wiring shop from the UK. Great resource for wiring/soldering tutorials.
Phillip McKnight @PhillipMcKnight Allround guitar channel for anything guitar related really.
CS Guitars @CSGuitars Builder Pickup winder from Schotland. Informative videos about anything guitar related.
JHS Pedals @jhspedals One for the pedal enjoyers for good measure.
These are just some of the channels that helped me a lot starting out. Hope this helps some of you!
I can't believe that you haven't mentioned Zachary Guitars
@zacharyhandcraftedguitars9733
He's self proclaimed best luthier in the world 😄. And quite unhinged character! 😂
@fletcherhandcraftedguitars is another superb tutorial site.