I’d love it if your next project was a carved arch top jazz guitar. With your background in violin family instruments the carving would be very interesting to watch.
Just picked up some really nice thumb planes.. and one of my next guitars is a Kauri 335 style with hand carved top and back.. so you will get your wish my friend!
Ben, you are learning! I loved how you started to ask us how we would finish the detail on the guitar and then stopped in your tracks. Let's face it, asking the community would have been carnage.
I really admire how you get every job "just right" so that it only needs a minimal amount of finishing. What always killed me was getting rid of all the tool marks, mistakes etc, and then I told myself that everyone makes mistakes, and that every detail that gives away parts of the process is a maker's signature. It's all a matter of experience. I should have started younger, kept it up, invest more time and equipment etc. It really is great fun. Even TH-cam interprets the tool sounds as music and laughter.
Hey Ben. I love this guitar build. In fact, I love all your guitar builds. Electric, acoustic, doesn't matter to me. I come to watch a master at work, and that you are. Frankly, I don't love the other videos so much; but then I don't have to watch them either. I understand that repairing guitars or refurbishing them must be a large part of any luthier's life, but I don't want to watch them doing it. I am not a luthier-- perhaps I should start-- but I am a woodworker. I gain much knowledge-- at 65 years old I already have a bit, but I am living proof you can never learn it all-- from watching how you solve the inevitable problems. But I would be equally entranced by your building a cabinet or a jewelry box or hand carving a walking stick or doing anything with wood. You build guitars. So be it. That counts as woodworking as far as I am concerned. And your hand tool only build? I'm in hog heaven. I don't mind your using the bandsaw to carve out the general shape. I use both species of tools as my needs change and the job requires, myself. But oh yes! Bring us more hand tool builds. That's fantastic.
I loved the evolution of the back of the neck joint, and it has much more resonance than I'd expect from such a small-bodied instrument. Can't wait to see the final result!
As always. Inspiring. I have a cool idea for a finish. Since the wood was a fence post. You could use barbed wire. Heat up the barbed wire and brand the wire into the wood around the outside perimeter of the top, and maybe around the sound hole rosette. Also branding a big C for Crimson into the top. Burn it! LOL. Thank you.
25:54 For staining straight lines like that, I've found electrical tape is the perfect tape for this, will get you a perfect line with no crinkley edges and will not let anything wick under it. Unless you add too much stain and the wood itself wicks it under the tape... Looking forward to seeing this finally finished! It's been just a little wee while ;)
I've been watching you for years. I've just realized that every time you are stressed, I am entertained. Literally laugh out loud at your demeanor & facial expressions. If I wasn't a guitar builder, it would still be enjoyable. Thank you, for being you! Not that you could be anyone else.
11:40, re: miscalumulated, my son who's now 15, when he was first learning to talk said, 'reneckonize' when he meant 'recognize'. He quickly outgrew his mistake, but the rest of us still use the non-word, cuz it's fun.
I love seeing the excitement in Ben's face when an idea comes together haha, it's quite inspiring and funny in a fun way lol. Thanks for another great video!
I made a cobble wood floor with some 4×6 beams that I cut each tile then rounded the edges of each tile. Then glued to the subfloor and used the sawdust with the clear coat to use as grout. Sanded after that and finish with 3 more coats of just the clear. Fun stuff. I really enjoy your work.
It would be interesting to see a build where you left all the tiny facets on the body created by your chisel work. Rustic but also like faces on a jewel. Then contrast the body with a beautifully shaped neck.
Really great stuff. Such a pleasure to see you "figure it out as you go along" - like we do. Can't wait for the bridge and finish, and finally the first sound check.
Fun stuff!! I can't wait to see how this turns out. I am actually watching this in the background while I am cleaning up the fret ends on my second ever refret on a bound fretboard. So much more difficult than making one from scratch, but it went pretty well, I'm happy with the results. Almost done with this old Harmony 😍😍
It's looking awesome, glad you managed to squeeze in the neck without changing the pocket. The finger board looks great with the stain! And it rings nicely, can't wait to hear it in action. Great to meet you at the show the other week. Cheers!
Now that you mentioned it, I would exactly have made it like a Les Paul neckpocket. It would have been very easy to glue the inserts in, and the narrow pocket would make a dead stop for the neck, increasing sustain by stronger contact due to string tension. It would be a blind solution, nobody would be any wiser, and it would have accidentally turned into a stronger construction :)
Absolutely loving this build, it’s really interesting to see how you work through the problems that get thrown up during a build. Although I’m not sure it’s good for my blood pressure!
Really enjoying this! One hack for avoiding wicking of stain under the masking tape could be to use Frog Tape. It gives a nice crisp line when use with paint so might work with stains too
"Go make some sawdust. Stop watching me. Get in the workshop." I watch these videos while I work in the workshop. While watching this video I sanded clear coat on a trem claw screw block, and applied clear coat to a trem claw screw block and a curved triangle guitar body. I'll be cutting out another curved triangle guitar body while I watch the next Crimson video.
Ben, thanks for introducing me to Triton Tools and ISOtunes! I've bought the Triton track saw and the ISOtunes free aware so far. And I couldn't be more happy with the decission to spend my money on it
Here in the United States, there's a painter's tape called Frog Tape. It's specifically made to not allow paint/stain to wick under the edge like with standard masking tape. I'm sure you could order it from Amazon to give it a try.
I kept eagerly checking the channel for this update! I know you do a lot of Electrics, but I really like you Acoustics. I was worried last time that the mistake was going to table this build for more than 2 months. Looks like your over the hump though. I imagine you'll be done in 2 or 3 videos now. Christmas Guitar?
Nice solution, it is coming together. And now more personal note. Be careful to not overwork and end up crashed into a wall. I know that you have zillions of exciting things going on, and projects to do and so on, but in this video got a feeling that you might be on your way of overworking. I sincerely hope I am wrong. Out of personal experience I know that you can do it and have fun at the same time and live on new exiting projects and positive feedback (and more coffee, for those of you who use that) for a long time until it just stops. And that really s**ks. Don't try that one! And the worst part from my own experience and a lot of other people I know is that most of us don't get back to what we were before. Some lucky people manage to do so, but probably not most of us. Listen to what people close to you tell you. They most often knows better than you think. And for us, your followers on YT, we have just to accept if you slow down a bit. That is far more better than a video telling us that you have to stop for a unspecified time. The fact that the luthier teardown more and more is made by other people, and you get others involved in the videos is good. Lowering the workload a bit. It is hard to slow down but it is even harder when you hardly manage to get out of bed one morning because all you systems say no. I have learned a lot from your videos, and hope to do so in the future too. And I love the creative process, mostly not straight forward (should it ever be that?), creating really nice things. Take care! (And yes, I am a very bad user of social media and haven't yet managed to get a Telegram account)
A while ago I used the superglue trick to attach the clamping blocks to the clamps to keep them in place while positioning them. This connection will have enough flexibility for movement while still holding everything together until the clamp pressure takes over.
Collect the shavings from your various projects, all that amazing wood, and mix them into clear resin for a guitar body. I feel like it would be pretty amazing to have sort of a playable history of your builds.
Thank you for this and other video series. Very relaxing and inspiring. To strengthen super glue joints, you can add bicarbonate of soda. You can also add pencil lead scrapings for even more strength
I have really enjoyed this series. So much so that I even preordered the kit that is based on it and cannot wait until that ships. I may be a little biased, being a bass player, but I would love to see another bass build and am curious to how you would do an electro-acoustic bass.
I want to see him do a power tool only build I have seen hand tool only builds but with the amount he uses hand tools I think it would be a fun change of pace
20/20 hindsight and all that, but would it have been better to use a mandolin truss rod even if it meant sacrificing a few cm of coverage? Loving this build!
The next GIANT journey should be exactly that; travel somewhere where they harvest sustainable woods used in commercial guitar building. Its a win-win situation, gets you out of the "office" for a few days and brings awareness to those companies doing "the right thing". I love this build so far, the tone of the wood-tapping so far sounds promising!
On a build without tool constraints, I'd have lopped off the adjuster end of the truss rod and made a joint so I could shorten it to within a short length of centimetres of the block, so it could be inserted in home position but angled on entry. Attacking the problem from the other side, in other words. Sod mucking about with all that with only hand tools, though. Been missing the streams a bit. Must come and make some memes at you.
Just had a thought. You could have the fretboard stain transition to the neck with a burst/fade rather than a solid line. That's something I've never seen. Sort of like a sunburst neck.
i tried to build this guitar too, and i also f***** up at joining the neck to the body. Even i saw your mistake in last episode... AHHHH Stay healthy and make some sawdust ben :)
Frog tape was made expressly for the situation with the fretboard staining. If not available there, blue Scotch is your friend. Just saying… with your shop you can justify a bulk order to keep the price reasonable. From a boat shop supervisor/ parts guy
Too late now, but did you think about wetting the wood of the neck and compressing it with C Clamps just enough to make it fit. when it dries, it will expand back out and make a tight joint. Just a thought, but I know that goes against the idea of keeping the wood very dry.
I think you may have just "hit on" a cool drum design. That shape allowed for a lot of different sounds. As a guitar, its looking very cool. This is something I would definitely own and play.
Lovely guitar! Excellent craftsmanship. Will be there plans available on the site? I would love to build one of those for myself. Peace and long life! 🖖
Ben: after watching you drum your fingers on the body to test the resonance, YOU SHOULD BUILD A CAJON! Not a guitar (duh), but it would be fun to watch.
Next project... POWER TOOL ONLY BUILD... "going to do some delicate detailing around the sound hole, but I have to use an SDS hammer drill... wish me luck!".
I love your videos Ben; I am saving up to do a 3-month acoustic guitar building course next year. would i be able to do it with just hand tool? no elastic trickery... not even a battery pistol drill or polishing wheel ;)
I was thinking when it comes to hand tools only doesn't power assisted hand tools count? Like a cordless option like drills and such. Because you operate them by hand or am I wrong.
As I am from California where English is not a first language, I address your reference at around 9:14 that you are "bodging" this piece ... Is that a good thing, as-in like, a good thing? Or, can bodging be to degrees as in ?
![[DRIP] ‘CLIK CLAK’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bcxkcOSbpac/mqdefault.jpg)
I’d love it if your next project was a carved arch top jazz guitar. With your background in violin family instruments the carving would be very interesting to watch.
Just picked up some really nice thumb planes.. and one of my next guitars is a Kauri 335 style with hand carved top and back.. so you will get your wish my friend!
@@CrimsonCustomGuitars Awesome! Thank you!
This build is proving better (…and more nail-biting!) than any thriller! Can’t wait to see/hear this instrument!😊😊❤️❤️🍷🍷🎸🎸
Ben, you are learning! I loved how you started to ask us how we would finish the detail on the guitar and then stopped in your tracks. Let's face it, asking the community would have been carnage.
So relieved to see the neck installed to the body.
Can't wait for the next episode.
Over a year in the making! Finally coming together! Uncle Ben never ceases to impress me, Its been a long time coming.
The guitar looks so beautiful with the neck installed! So resonant when you tap!
I really admire how you get every job "just right" so that it only needs a minimal amount of finishing. What always killed me was getting rid of all the tool marks, mistakes etc, and then I told myself that everyone makes mistakes, and that every detail that gives away parts of the process is a maker's signature.
It's all a matter of experience. I should have started younger, kept it up, invest more time and equipment etc. It really is great fun. Even TH-cam interprets the tool sounds as music and laughter.
Hey Ben. I love this guitar build. In fact, I love all your guitar builds. Electric, acoustic, doesn't matter to me. I come to watch a master at work, and that you are. Frankly, I don't love the other videos so much; but then I don't have to watch them either. I understand that repairing guitars or refurbishing them must be a large part of any luthier's life, but I don't want to watch them doing it.
I am not a luthier-- perhaps I should start-- but I am a woodworker. I gain much knowledge-- at 65 years old I already have a bit, but I am living proof you can never learn it all-- from watching how you solve the inevitable problems. But I would be equally entranced by your building a cabinet or a jewelry box or hand carving a walking stick or doing anything with wood. You build guitars. So be it. That counts as woodworking as far as I am concerned.
And your hand tool only build? I'm in hog heaven. I don't mind your using the bandsaw to carve out the general shape. I use both species of tools as my needs change and the job requires, myself. But oh yes! Bring us more hand tool builds. That's fantastic.
I loved the evolution of the back of the neck joint, and it has much more resonance than I'd expect from such a small-bodied instrument. Can't wait to see the final result!
Excellent Ben, love these steps ! Would love to see a decoration of branches and leaves taking their roots at the bottom of the body !
As always. Inspiring. I have a cool idea for a finish. Since the wood was a fence post. You could use barbed wire. Heat up the barbed wire and brand the wire into the wood around the outside perimeter of the top, and maybe around the sound hole rosette. Also branding a big C for Crimson into the top. Burn it! LOL. Thank you.
As an old school Joiner by trade, budding luthier by hobby, I'm loving this build mate.
25:54 For staining straight lines like that, I've found electrical tape is the perfect tape for this, will get you a perfect line with no crinkley edges and will not let anything wick under it. Unless you add too much stain and the wood itself wicks it under the tape...
Looking forward to seeing this finally finished! It's been just a little wee while ;)
I've been watching you for years. I've just realized that every time you are stressed, I am entertained. Literally laugh out loud at your demeanor & facial expressions. If I wasn't a guitar builder, it would still be enjoyable. Thank you, for being you! Not that you could be anyone else.
11:40, re: miscalumulated, my son who's now 15, when he was first learning to talk said, 'reneckonize' when he meant 'recognize'. He quickly outgrew his mistake, but the rest of us still use the non-word, cuz it's fun.
I love seeing the excitement in Ben's face when an idea comes together haha, it's quite inspiring and funny in a fun way lol. Thanks for another great video!
Lol “it’s fine we’re fine we’re good” … really enjoying this series
I made a cobble wood floor with some 4×6 beams that I cut each tile then rounded the edges of each tile. Then glued to the subfloor and used the sawdust with the clear coat to use as grout. Sanded after that and finish with 3 more coats of just the clear. Fun stuff. I really enjoy your work.
It would be interesting to see a build where you left all the tiny facets on the body created by your chisel work. Rustic but also like faces on a jewel. Then contrast the body with a beautifully shaped neck.
That is a really cool effect actually, Gibson have done it on some production guitars and I loved it
Imust say that the intro was BRILLIANT!
Beveling the edges to make it pretty was for the future luthier that does a repair to admire.
13:08 OK I giggled. So did you. If you say you didn't you're lying....
Really great stuff. Such a pleasure to see you "figure it out as you go along" - like we do. Can't wait for the bridge and finish, and finally the first sound check.
Fun stuff!! I can't wait to see how this turns out.
I am actually watching this in the background while I am cleaning up the fret ends on my second ever refret on a bound fretboard. So much more difficult than making one from scratch, but it went pretty well, I'm happy with the results. Almost done with this old Harmony 😍😍
Ben have a Great Holidays. Glad to see You Back Home at your Workshop 👍🏻
It's looking awesome, glad you managed to squeeze in the neck without changing the pocket. The finger board looks great with the stain! And it rings nicely, can't wait to hear it in action. Great to meet you at the show the other week. Cheers!
Now that you mentioned it, I would exactly have made it like a Les Paul neckpocket. It would have been very easy to glue the inserts in, and the narrow pocket would make a dead stop for the neck, increasing sustain by stronger contact due to string tension. It would be a blind solution, nobody would be any wiser, and it would have accidentally turned into a stronger construction :)
Absolutely loving this build, it’s really interesting to see how you work through the problems that get thrown up during a build. Although I’m not sure it’s good for my blood pressure!
Really enjoying this! One hack for avoiding wicking of stain under the masking tape could be to use Frog Tape. It gives a nice crisp line when use with paint so might work with stains too
"Go make some sawdust. Stop watching me. Get in the workshop." I watch these videos while I work in the workshop. While watching this video I sanded clear coat on a trem claw screw block, and applied clear coat to a trem claw screw block and a curved triangle guitar body. I'll be cutting out another curved triangle guitar body while I watch the next Crimson video.
Coming together beautifully!
Thank-you
I prefer the home workshop :)
Agree, it was way more chill and more private without sounds from other People working
Same! ✊🏻
21'42" ... Actually Ben read my mind: "Are you seriously using the guitar as a bench???" 😁
"When working with chamfers, you don't want to cut corners"
- This Old Tony
Ben, thanks for introducing me to Triton Tools and ISOtunes! I've bought the Triton track saw and the ISOtunes free aware so far. And I couldn't be more happy with the decission to spend my money on it
Great to hear!
Here in the United States, there's a painter's tape called Frog Tape. It's specifically made to not allow paint/stain to wick under the edge like with standard masking tape. I'm sure you could order it from Amazon to give it a try.
I kept eagerly checking the channel for this update! I know you do a lot of Electrics, but I really like you Acoustics. I was worried last time that the mistake was going to table this build for more than 2 months. Looks like your over the hump though. I imagine you'll be done in 2 or 3 videos now. Christmas Guitar?
Nice solution, it is coming together.
And now more personal note.
Be careful to not overwork and end up crashed into a wall. I know that you have zillions of exciting things going on, and projects to do and so on, but in this video got a feeling that you might be on your way of overworking. I sincerely hope I am wrong. Out of personal experience I know that you can do it and have fun at the same time and live on new exiting projects and positive feedback (and more coffee, for those of you who use that) for a long time until it just stops. And that really s**ks. Don't try that one! And the worst part from my own experience and a lot of other people I know is that most of us don't get back to what we were before. Some lucky people manage to do so, but probably not most of us.
Listen to what people close to you tell you. They most often knows better than you think.
And for us, your followers on YT, we have just to accept if you slow down a bit. That is far more better than a video telling us that you have to stop for a unspecified time.
The fact that the luthier teardown more and more is made by other people, and you get others involved in the videos is good. Lowering the workload a bit.
It is hard to slow down but it is even harder when you hardly manage to get out of bed one morning because all you systems say no.
I have learned a lot from your videos, and hope to do so in the future too. And I love the creative process, mostly not straight forward (should it ever be that?), creating really nice things.
Take care!
(And yes, I am a very bad user of social media and haven't yet managed to get a Telegram account)
A while ago I used the superglue trick to attach the clamping blocks to the clamps to keep them in place while positioning them. This connection will have enough flexibility for movement while still holding everything together until the clamp pressure takes over.
Collect the shavings from your various projects, all that amazing wood, and mix them into clear resin for a guitar body. I feel like it would be pretty amazing to have sort of a playable history of your builds.
Loving this build. Like the old Ben Crowe. Thinking on his feet.
The next journey? I must say that I like your one-off hollowbodies. They’re fascinating!
Nice to see this one coming together! I love that sanding stick, need to get one.
Well saved, Ben. I had "steam the top off" on my bingo card....
I am.so glad I didn't need to do that!
@@CrimsonCustomGuitars Indeed!
Thank you for this and other video series. Very relaxing and inspiring. To strengthen super glue joints, you can add bicarbonate of soda. You can also add pencil lead scrapings for even more strength
Thanks for the tip!
I was doubtful in this guitar, but i am enjoying this build.
At 17:25 you're powdering the thing with fairy dust 🧙♂
Love the build, and would love to see a scrap wood/off cut guitar build for the future!
Carving the heel: this is why I'm thankful to be ambidextrous.
Ben's chisels always look like if I had one in my hand, I could kill a charging rhinoceros with it!
I have really enjoyed this series. So much so that I even preordered the kit that is based on it and cannot wait until that ships. I may be a little biased, being a bass player, but I would love to see another bass build and am curious to how you would do an electro-acoustic bass.
I want to see him do a power tool only build I have seen hand tool only builds but with the amount he uses hand tools I think it would be a fun change of pace
It’s looking great! I love that you still make time related promises😂 I’ll put money on you getting carried away with the purfling 💵
I want you make a rubber stringed acoustic bass twin for this little beauty 😍
20/20 hindsight and all that, but would it have been better to use a mandolin truss rod even if it meant sacrificing a few cm of coverage? Loving this build!
Looking good getting close.
Already planning the next build? Well with Sophia arriving and all of the goodies in the last delivery it has to be a full acoustic.
You should Paint it as a skyscraper with the head stock as the top of the building
The next GIANT journey should be exactly that; travel somewhere where they harvest sustainable woods used in commercial guitar building. Its a win-win situation, gets you out of the "office" for a few days and brings awareness to those companies doing "the right thing".
I love this build so far, the tone of the wood-tapping so far sounds promising!
That worked a treat!
On a build without tool constraints, I'd have lopped off the adjuster end of the truss rod and made a joint so I could shorten it to within a short length of centimetres of the block, so it could be inserted in home position but angled on entry. Attacking the problem from the other side, in other words.
Sod mucking about with all that with only hand tools, though.
Been missing the streams a bit. Must come and make some memes at you.
I'm still maintaining it's a Star Destroyer with added guitar neck ;)
Just had a thought. You could have the fretboard stain transition to the neck with a burst/fade rather than a solid line. That's something I've never seen. Sort of like a sunburst neck.
As I'm sure others have already suggested, use fine line tape, instead of masking tape, to get a better line
i tried to build this guitar too, and i also f***** up at joining the neck to the body. Even i saw your mistake in last episode... AHHHH
Stay healthy and make some sawdust ben :)
Frog tape was made expressly for the situation with the fretboard staining. If not available there, blue Scotch is your friend. Just saying… with your shop you can justify a bulk order to keep the price reasonable. From a boat shop supervisor/ parts guy
Have ya tried vinyl masking tape? It's mostly used for auto body paint but it tends to have a lot less bleed through
Too late now, but did you think about wetting the wood of the neck and compressing it with C Clamps just enough to make it fit. when it dries, it will expand back out and make a tight joint. Just a thought, but I know that goes against the idea of keeping the wood very dry.
Bravo Ben!
Acoustic pick up, would make this guitar more useable. Pick up choices would be interesting
I think you may have just "hit on" a cool drum design. That shape allowed for a lot of different sounds. As a guitar, its looking very cool. This is something I would definitely own and play.
Cool, thanks!
Yesssss new vid!
Lovely guitar! Excellent craftsmanship. Will be there plans available on the site? I would love to build one of those for myself.
Peace and long life! 🖖
We will be. Please email office@crimsonguitars.com to let Rikki know you are interested. Tell him Ben said you should be first in the queue. Ben
Great series. thanks so much.
coming together nicely... am I the only one that heard a slight rattle when you tap tested the top?
That tap test at 27:05 was a bit special!
I think this is the first time I've heard you say "cool, but not today". Adulting is hard!
"should only take a couple of episodes"... ❤️
Ben: after watching you drum your fingers on the body to test the resonance, YOU SHOULD BUILD A CAJON! Not a guitar (duh), but it would be fun to watch.
For once I'd like a "worn" finish - to mimic the rough internal wood.
Wonderful solution 👌 👍 and if you hadn't said anything it would have looked like it was planned😀
It's really looking good 👍
Next project... POWER TOOL ONLY BUILD... "going to do some delicate detailing around the sound hole, but I have to use an SDS hammer drill... wish me luck!".
I love your videos Ben; I am saving up to do a 3-month acoustic guitar building course next year. would i be able to do it with just hand tool? no elastic trickery... not even a battery pistol drill or polishing wheel ;)
You would.. mostly.. bending the sides and thicknessing the wood are not things I would want to do without electricity 😫
so did the extended part of the truss rod not simply screw off?
Great solution
Very nice, really good video work.
Gibson Grabber style bass maybe with a smaller body and a nicer scratch plate. Keep the sliding pickup idea
So I guess the Leatherman-only build is going to be a T-style?
So, you’ve made a fretted cajon? 😊
You should read the comments in the last video, you did pretty much what I suggested.
Love that guitar,
Rectangle the neck pocket and glue in wedges from the outside.
I was thinking when it comes to hand tools only doesn't power assisted hand tools count? Like a cordless option like drills and such. Because you operate them by hand or am I wrong.
You're not wrong, the title is just a bit ambiguous. It's Ben-speak for no power tools really. Hand powered tools, fine; electrical powered tools, no.
Spot the Wookie! 😂
why not use painters tape or something instead of masking tape? over here we have frog tape, no bleeding at all.... for paint. might work with stain?
At 21:50 in the video, a black object with arced striations appears on the work bench next to the neck. What is that?
This is the handle of a Gyokucho Japenese Saw from workshopheaven.com. DC
As I am from California where English is not a first language, I address your reference at around 9:14 that you are "bodging" this piece ... Is that a good thing, as-in like, a good thing? Or, can bodging be to degrees as in ?
Oxford Dictionary definition: informal British - to make or repair something clumsily or badly. DC
I'm sorry but didn't you say you were not going to glue in the neck today?
I would love to see a 12 string electric 🎸.