Hi Sam. Just wanted to say hope you have a great 2025 and thanks for another year of your great videos. This year I assembled my first guitar, and only had the confidence to have a go after watching your channel. I wanted a short scale Stratocaster like the Fender Player but being a Lefty couldn't source one. So, inspired by your videos, I assembled my "Stratstang", a 24" Mustang Neck on a Strat body. Positioning the Bridge was tricky, but all done now, it's intonated perfectly and I use it as the main guitar in my old man covers band. Without your videos and straight forward commentary I would not have even thought of attempting a self build and setup, so thank you once again for your generosity in sharing what you do. All the best Sam, Cheers 🤘
Hi Ian (I'm risking guessing your name from TH-cam name!) - thanks for a great comment. It's so nice to hear that what I do has given you the confidence to make your own guitar. It's so satisfying to make and play something with your own hands! Happy playing with your 'old mens' covers band' - I'm looking forward to the next get-together of ours for the same reasons! All the best for the coming year - let's all hope for peace, sanity and a lot more love and understanding that we saw in 2024! Sam
🎄🎄Hi Sam, Great job! Stainless sure is hard on every thing. It was brilliant how you found an on hand solution to assist with the fret cutting, that's thinking on your feet. I ended up buying a HOSCO TL-FC28S Stainless Steel Fret Cutter, (which assisted in saving my hands, well worth it being a repetitious task and one that won't break the bank). Wishing your have a very Merry Christmas and the New Year is glorious for you. 🎄🎄
Thank you! I'll check out that Stainless Steel Fret Cutter you mentioned! As for 2025 I'd like to see Russia leave Ukraine alone and go back home and reform their country so their citizens have a better quality of life (and freedom). It's a big hope! Wishing you a happy Christmas!
Hello Sam!🎅 Another great job from you.. Wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and hope for a better 2025.. Keep up the good work.. All the best from Vorarlberg on Lake Constance, Andy M.
Hi Sam, even though I haven't yet done a refret, I always prefer a rosewood or ebony fingerboard for playing. The exception is my Korean 90s Squier Strat which has a lovely maple fingerboard without the insanely glossy 18 layers of lacquer lol. Really can't see the advantage to the player of those high gloss fingerboards??? I mean they look shiny and pretty, and i'm sure they are very durable... until you need to refret if it's a Fender. I have a Squier CV 50s Telecaster with that overspray fingerboard and it sounds lovely but have never liked to feel of the thick gloss. At least G&L don't follow Fender's habits yay 😎
Yes. A rosewood or ebony fretboard is so much easier to maintain, fix, re-fret etc. The G&L finish was good; Squier CV is really thick and glassy gloss! I think wood is wood and should feel more like wood than glass!
Have you looked at Hosco Precut Fretwire? They do stainless in three sizes, 10" radius, cut slightly over length, and tang trimmed back. Won't suit every situation, but potentially saves a bit of work. I bought a set to try, haven't used yet. (Sorry if you covered it, I tend to skip around a bit in the long videos.) Fingers crossed for 2025!
Thanks for the suggestion - I tend to avoid the pre-cut wire because I like to choose my own amount of 'over-bending' for the job at hand; in this case bending the wire to 7.25" to go on the 9.5" radius to ensure the ends stay down... You can't really adjust the radius on pre-cut wire (well, only by hand-bending which is always iffy!)
At stew mac a guy said that he puts a back bow in the neck and that pushes the wood apart and releases the pressure on the frets so theres less chances of tearout.
@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars , I did a partial refret thanks to you. I did it the lazy way and used the dust to fill the tearout on a rosewood fretboard. Next time I'll do it the better way. Thanks Sam for the detailed information. I spoke to Taylor to see if I could become a rep but I don't have the 1500 to get me started.
Doesn't matter where its made today all professional quality builds on all 4 corners of the world..and if that's made in Indonesia it most likely came out of the Cortex Aka Cort facility Cort is known for their professional quality builds whether its their own brand or building for other brands since 1973 so if you have a Cort made guitar you have quality..
I tend to use some Titebond III to add some extra grip. Possibly not even necessary but it cleans up perfectly well so there's no harm in it even if it wasn't doing anything.
What brand slotting files do u have and at the fírst fret what # are u goin for . I'm trying to learn this stuff so im the man with a thousand questions . Thx
Sam is using Hosco nut files (about £90) I believe as have the same set 👍First fret height is 0.3mm using feeler gauge. When it's buzzing against the gauge you're in the zone yay
Martin has beaten me to the reply lol - I use a set of Hosco files and yes, 1st fret height is 0.3mm... but it can be a little more or a little less. The reason it's so low is to avoid the strings going sharp when fretted near the nut. You can fret any note sharp if you try hard but when the action is more than 0.5mm at the 1st fret it's almost guaranteed to go sharp.
I'm looking for any semiacoustic guitar without f holes and no holes at all. Is there any guitar like that.? I find f holes horrible. These are for violins, cellos and bass. Not for guitar and this is my opinion because I don't want to start a series of comments.
Good tip - the BB King Lucille. I wouldn't have been able to answer that question. I'm not a fan of the 'F' hole on semi-acoustics either; nor scratchplates. And the most sensible semi-acoustic I ever worked on was the Gibson 333 - because it had an electrics cavity cover on the back, making changing components and functionality an relative JOY compared to ANY of the others where you have to feed all that stuff in through the 'F' hole!
Hi Sam. Just wanted to say hope you have a great 2025 and thanks for another year of your great videos.
This year I assembled my first guitar, and only had the confidence to have a go after watching your channel.
I wanted a short scale Stratocaster like the Fender Player but being a Lefty couldn't source one. So, inspired by your videos, I assembled my "Stratstang", a 24" Mustang Neck on a Strat body. Positioning the Bridge was tricky, but all done now, it's intonated perfectly and I use it as the main guitar in my old man covers band.
Without your videos and straight forward commentary I would not have even thought of attempting a self build and setup, so thank you once again for your generosity in sharing what you do.
All the best Sam,
Cheers 🤘
Hi Ian (I'm risking guessing your name from TH-cam name!) - thanks for a great comment. It's so nice to hear that what I do has given you the confidence to make your own guitar. It's so satisfying to make and play something with your own hands!
Happy playing with your 'old mens' covers band' - I'm looking forward to the next get-together of ours for the same reasons!
All the best for the coming year - let's all hope for peace, sanity and a lot more love and understanding that we saw in 2024!
Sam
That's right Sam we were created with frontal lobes!!! Hope you have a merry Christmas 😊 thanks for the video 👍
Seasons greetings to you Ronnie. Wishing you a peaceful and happy 2025.
....and we worked HARD to evolve those frontal lobes :D :D
🎄🎄Hi Sam, Great job! Stainless sure is hard on every thing. It was brilliant how you found an on hand solution to assist with the fret cutting, that's thinking on your feet. I ended up buying a HOSCO TL-FC28S Stainless Steel Fret Cutter, (which assisted in saving my hands, well worth it being a repetitious task and one that won't break the bank).
Wishing your have a very Merry Christmas and the New Year is glorious for you. 🎄🎄
Thank you! I'll check out that Stainless Steel Fret Cutter you mentioned! As for 2025 I'd like to see Russia leave Ukraine alone and go back home and reform their country so their citizens have a better quality of life (and freedom). It's a big hope! Wishing you a happy Christmas!
Hello Sam!🎅
Another great job from you..
Wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and hope for a better 2025..
Keep up the good work..
All the best from Vorarlberg on Lake Constance,
Andy M.
Merry Christmas Andy!
Hi Sam, even though I haven't yet done a refret, I always prefer a rosewood or ebony fingerboard for playing. The exception is my Korean 90s Squier Strat which has a lovely maple fingerboard without the insanely glossy 18 layers of lacquer lol. Really can't see the advantage to the player of those high gloss fingerboards??? I mean they look shiny and pretty, and i'm sure they are very durable... until you need to refret if it's a Fender. I have a Squier CV 50s Telecaster with that overspray fingerboard and it sounds lovely but have never liked to feel of the thick gloss. At least G&L don't follow Fender's habits yay 😎
Yes. A rosewood or ebony fretboard is so much easier to maintain, fix, re-fret etc. The G&L finish was good; Squier CV is really thick and glassy gloss! I think wood is wood and should feel more like wood than glass!
Have you looked at Hosco Precut Fretwire? They do stainless in three sizes, 10" radius, cut slightly over length, and tang trimmed back. Won't suit every situation, but potentially saves a bit of work. I bought a set to try, haven't used yet.
(Sorry if you covered it, I tend to skip around a bit in the long videos.)
Fingers crossed for 2025!
Thanks for the suggestion - I tend to avoid the pre-cut wire because I like to choose my own amount of 'over-bending' for the job at hand; in this case bending the wire to 7.25" to go on the 9.5" radius to ensure the ends stay down... You can't really adjust the radius on pre-cut wire (well, only by hand-bending which is always iffy!)
At stew mac a guy said that he puts a back bow in the neck and that pushes the wood apart and releases the pressure on the frets so theres less chances of tearout.
Yep - I do that too. Heat, backbow and water where it can dampen the wood (which is less likely on gloss-finished necks).
@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars , I did a partial refret thanks to you. I did it the lazy way and used the dust to fill the tearout on a rosewood fretboard. Next time I'll do it the better way. Thanks Sam for the detailed information. I spoke to Taylor to see if I could become a rep but I don't have the 1500 to get me started.
Doesn't matter where its made today all professional quality builds on all 4 corners of the world..and if that's made in Indonesia it most likely came out of the Cortex Aka Cort facility Cort is known for their professional quality builds whether its their own brand or building for other brands since 1973 so if you have a Cort made guitar you have quality..
You're right, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Cort-made. Very nice fit and finish.
Yeah, morning. In the post.
Are you using wood glue to hold the frets in?
I tend to use some Titebond III to add some extra grip. Possibly not even necessary but it cleans up perfectly well so there's no harm in it even if it wasn't doing anything.
What brand slotting files do u have and at the fírst fret what # are u goin for . I'm trying to learn this stuff so im the man with a thousand questions . Thx
Sam is using Hosco nut files (about £90) I believe as have the same set 👍First fret height is 0.3mm using feeler gauge. When it's buzzing against the gauge you're in the zone yay
Martin has beaten me to the reply lol - I use a set of Hosco files and yes, 1st fret height is 0.3mm... but it can be a little more or a little less. The reason it's so low is to avoid the strings going sharp when fretted near the nut. You can fret any note sharp if you try hard but when the action is more than 0.5mm at the 1st fret it's almost guaranteed to go sharp.
I'm looking for any semiacoustic guitar without f holes and no holes at all. Is there any guitar like that.? I find f holes horrible. These are for violins, cellos and bass. Not for guitar and this is my opinion because I don't want to start a series of comments.
B.B.King Signature Gibson
@@BeesWaxMinderThanks!
@ no probs
(EpiPhone do a great version too!)
Good tip - the BB King Lucille. I wouldn't have been able to answer that question. I'm not a fan of the 'F' hole on semi-acoustics either; nor scratchplates. And the most sensible semi-acoustic I ever worked on was the Gibson 333 - because it had an electrics cavity cover on the back, making changing components and functionality an relative JOY compared to ANY of the others where you have to feed all that stuff in through the 'F' hole!