Official Luthiers Forum!

Do any of the pros here offer online setup videos?

I'm looking for fret leveling, but slotting, saddle height, relief set, etc.

Thank you,

Mike

Mike, if you join The Art of Lutherie's Luthier's Edge program for $10 (or something close) per month, you'll get access to Tom's full setup video course. It's called, "Guitar Physics and Design: Full Course".

Part 2 is what you get access to when you join, and that's where the setup videos are.

No but we will be offering an in person "Set-up For Builders" class early next year at our shop. $325 for an all day Saturday class and it will teach folks how to glue bridges with HHG without worrying about the jell clock...., nut making, saddle making, compensation, and how to do an expert set-up so that your stuff makes it easy for a prospective client to want to take home.

Mike, if you want to make the trip to Kansas City, I offer classes in my shop for all of this and more. One-on-one instruction and best barbecue in the Midwest too! PM me if you want more details.

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It will probably be alright.

I'm kind of hoping I can do this at home. I'm a homebody. Once I'm settled into a trip,I'm good, but I always dread trips. I can't stop thinking about all I could be doing if I was home. Weird. But I was thinking of trying 3 of Robbie's videos on leveling, setup, nuts, etc. Thoughts? Maybe after I get through these next 5 I'll take a break and take a trip.

Hesh, Michigan is a long way from Looweezeeanna especially for an old guy that still has got to go to work five days a week. I wonder, have you guys ever considered doing some instructional videos that anyone can buy, online or dvd?

here is one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXfyVb3L3G0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82JDqAbY-dU

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks Rusty we were just talking about it and Dave is going to answer you later when he gets a chance. Thanks for asking though!

I've tried many times to shoot videos, photos, write detailed breakdowns of the techniques and the underlying principles which are critical to understand to guide choices and use of these methods, but I've not been able to succeed to my satisfaction.

Backstory time, bear with me, as I think it's at least vaguely relevant, and I'll try and keep it brief. About 20 years ago I broke my head (back country winter camping, sled, ~40° hill, Jameson, tree, you get the picture). I survived (obviously), but with severe injury to the Wernicke and Broca's region of the brain, I essentially lost the ability to speak, find words, form coherent sentences, essentially to communicate with others. Look up Broca's aphasia, you might get a glimpse what it's like.

Having full use and control over every other mental function, but loosing the ability to communicate your thoughts with others can give one a pretty unique perspective on the challenges of accurately translating your thoughts to a form (words, gestures, images, etc) which could reliably and accurately be translated back to an understanding by the recipient precisely as you intended. Needless to say, I obsessed for many years on the efficacy and accuracy of communication, which is easy to take for granted until you lose it.

Fast forward a few decades, and although I feel I've done a pretty good job of rebuilding my vocabulary, the obsession on challenges of accurate communication has stuck with me. It would seem that instructing one how to cut an ideal nut, or adjust a truss rod or saddle, or how to determine which should be focused on to address what issues should not be a terribly complicated task. From my perspective however, having taught dozens of students, apprentices, and having an unique experience-developed sense of how thoroughly and innately the intended information is received, I find it to be anything but simple.

Step by step procedures can be perfectly suitable for assembling an IKEA chair, but if you are restoring furniture where each case you come across is different, these idealistic guides fall terribly short. With instruments every one is different, and successfully executing an ideal setup requires not just a sequential step-by-step prescription, but how to evaluate individual circumstances reliably and accurately, and adjust your approach case by case based on numerable variables that must be weighed. It's like juggling cats - you can't just say "grab tail, tail, then leg, then neck", you need to develop a sense of what the best limb is as each one comes around.

So back to video setup lessons. I've shot tons of footage, photos, bought special lenses and focus stacking software to try to get the right perspective to convey what really needs to be seen. In spite of my best efforts however, I have yet to be able to effectively capture the essence of what I feel is critical, in a way that I feel can be assured to convey an innate understanding in the way I feel is essential. Maybe it's a borderline neurotic obsession with thoroughness and accuracy of communication, but I guess from my perspective I feel somewhat justified in that obsession. I don't feel comfortable teaching anything in a medium where I feel the opportunity to get the point exactly as intended is compromised or uncertain.

When teaching in person, there are so many more means by which understanding of key points, principles, perspectives can be effectively communicated and confirmed. From dynamic dialogue to exercise, review, and correction, first person tutoring allows opportunities to assure and confirm that the principles and perspectives are truly understood. The goal is not to impart immediate mastery of any technique, but at least a proper foundation of principles which allows one to see how to appraise their own work and improve with practice on their own over time, guided by sound principles.

If I could find a way to reliably communicate this level of innate understanding through photos or video, I certainly would (lord knows I've tried). I hold a rather high bar of standards to accurate communication though, and have yet to find a way to meet that bar through any medium short of first person instruction. Maybe some day I'll find the right words, angle, lighting, or lens, but as of yet have been unable to find a way to do so to my satisfaction.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Wow David, I'm glad you battled your way back to heath. We are all richer for it.
It's possible the only way it could be done is if you found someone as skilled at technical film work as you are at instrument repair. It is a craft all it's own I'm sure, and well paid unfortunately.

Thanks David! My brother-in-law is actually a professional product photographer of around 30 years experience, and I have talked with him about trying to coordinate a shoot in hopes of being able to capture what I could not. Perhaps some day we could make it happen to some level I find acceptable, but I think I would still have to drop the bar a notch or two below the standards I like to hold for first person communication. We'll see how (or if) that happens, but I'm not holding my breath.

If interested, here's how I talked for a while after my accident.

http://youtu.be/1aplTvEQ6ew

Rough as it was, being trapped inside an otherwise normal mind but left unable to communicate your thoughts offers a unique and poignant perspective on the challenges of accurate communication. Not that I'd recommend others try it, but I do think that I'm better for it today, and a more effective communicator.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Thank you David,
I am planning on attending the Galloup repair school when I retire so when I do I want to drop by and personally meet you and Hesh.

Fantastic, and I look forward to meeting you. Great school (of course having taught there 15-20 years ago I may be a bit biased), and we are about 3 hours away. Let me know when you're going up there, as we have a family cabin about 20 miles northwest of Galloup's, so I get up there a few times a year.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Mike - I just noticed you have the same curse of auto-correct as I do with "but slotting".

Aaaaarrghh! I hate it. I can't type anything about a nut without it auto-correcting to but, and my computer can't seem to believe that Rod doesn't always require capitalization when mentioning a truss Rod.

At least we can rest assured that any threats from being overtaken by artificial intelligence are still a long way off.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Maybe this will help.