It's a rewarding life, but it's not an easy one
May 18, 2020 1:37 PM Subscribe
Ted Woodford is a luthier and guitar repairer in Hamilton, Ontario, who has a YouTube channel.
Slow, gentle tv at its very finest. Exactly what I needed to stumble over.
Every so often he posts videos of interesting repairs on guitars old, new, cheap and expensive: Refretting a 1922 Gibson Mandolin; A 1920s Weissenborn lap steel needs a lot of love; A new Chibson (boo! hiss!) is made more or less playable on behalf of left-handed guitar players; A Fender John Mayer strat is suffering from strangeness around the truss rod; A new (but reliced) Telemaster is getting robotuners (he's not a fan) at the same time as a parlor guitar from the 1890s is being restored; A late 1960s Harmony guitar gets converted to a pin bridge; A baritone 8-string gets side ports for a customer who's losing his hearing; How to find the right luthier; Advice for aspiring luthiers; and many, many more.
Every so often he posts videos of interesting repairs on guitars old, new, cheap and expensive: Refretting a 1922 Gibson Mandolin; A 1920s Weissenborn lap steel needs a lot of love; A new Chibson (boo! hiss!) is made more or less playable on behalf of left-handed guitar players; A Fender John Mayer strat is suffering from strangeness around the truss rod; A new (but reliced) Telemaster is getting robotuners (he's not a fan) at the same time as a parlor guitar from the 1890s is being restored; A late 1960s Harmony guitar gets converted to a pin bridge; A baritone 8-string gets side ports for a customer who's losing his hearing; How to find the right luthier; Advice for aspiring luthiers; and many, many more.
I love this guy. I watch him regularly. He explains his process well, and passes on really good tips and history about early branded guitars.
posted by CygnusXII at 4:56 PM on May 18, 2020
posted by CygnusXII at 4:56 PM on May 18, 2020
A million thanks for the post. I want to be Ted when I grow up.And he has such an apt surname.
posted by abakua at 4:57 PM on May 18, 2020
posted by abakua at 4:57 PM on May 18, 2020
I just recently started watching him as well. He explains what he's doing, and what went wrong, in a calm and very understandable way. After watching him a while, I realize I'm never going to repair my own guitars, but I'll watch him repair guitars just fine...
posted by blob at 4:58 PM on May 18, 2020
posted by blob at 4:58 PM on May 18, 2020
A new Chibson (boo! hiss!) is made more or less playable on behalf of left-handed guitar players
He makes a very good point early in in that left-handed players have a real paucity of options and often are forced to like what they get rather than to get what they like. I used to work in a place in Halifax that had regular Tuesday night get-togethers where a floating bunch of five to eight musicians -- mostly guitar players, of course -- turned up and sat in a circle playing acoustic music. One week a new guy turned up and sat at the edge of the circle; he was obviously quite enthusiastic about it -- mostly singing and drumming along on his knees but once or twice I thought I saw the tell-tale sign of him unconsciously forming guitar chords with his hands. At one point between songs I asked him if he played and if he wanted to take my guitar; he said he'd love to but he was left-handed and had left his own instrument at home so he was content to just sit and listen and maybe come back next week. (I, like everyone else there that evening, played right-handed.)
I fished out my octave mandolin from under my chair and handed it to him; he again said thanks but reminded me he was leftie. I pointed out that it is tuned GDAE low to high, which when turned around to a left-handed playing position can be played as the EADG of the lower four strings of a guitar. His brow furrowed, his jaw slackened; he took the thing and strummed experimentally, and his eyes lit up.
It is a remarkable feeling when you show someone the way out of a cage they thought was locked. He turned out to be a hell of a player, and returned for many weeks after with his own guitar.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:56 PM on May 18, 2020 [18 favorites]
He makes a very good point early in in that left-handed players have a real paucity of options and often are forced to like what they get rather than to get what they like. I used to work in a place in Halifax that had regular Tuesday night get-togethers where a floating bunch of five to eight musicians -- mostly guitar players, of course -- turned up and sat in a circle playing acoustic music. One week a new guy turned up and sat at the edge of the circle; he was obviously quite enthusiastic about it -- mostly singing and drumming along on his knees but once or twice I thought I saw the tell-tale sign of him unconsciously forming guitar chords with his hands. At one point between songs I asked him if he played and if he wanted to take my guitar; he said he'd love to but he was left-handed and had left his own instrument at home so he was content to just sit and listen and maybe come back next week. (I, like everyone else there that evening, played right-handed.)
I fished out my octave mandolin from under my chair and handed it to him; he again said thanks but reminded me he was leftie. I pointed out that it is tuned GDAE low to high, which when turned around to a left-handed playing position can be played as the EADG of the lower four strings of a guitar. His brow furrowed, his jaw slackened; he took the thing and strummed experimentally, and his eyes lit up.
It is a remarkable feeling when you show someone the way out of a cage they thought was locked. He turned out to be a hell of a player, and returned for many weeks after with his own guitar.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:56 PM on May 18, 2020 [18 favorites]
After watching him a while, I realize I'm never going to repair my own guitars, but I'll watch him repair guitars just fine...
I've tried a few simple things myself, and found that the ceiling of my skills is pretty low.....I Can't imagine having the confidence to take someone else's '59 ES and do a fret job on it
posted by thelonius at 6:09 PM on May 18, 2020
I've tried a few simple things myself, and found that the ceiling of my skills is pretty low.....I Can't imagine having the confidence to take someone else's '59 ES and do a fret job on it
posted by thelonius at 6:09 PM on May 18, 2020
I can't even replace my strings without fucking it up...
posted by Windopaene at 9:00 PM on May 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 9:00 PM on May 18, 2020 [2 favorites]
The only problem I have is that his voice has an uncanny similarity to a TVO personality I half remember from the late 70s into early 80s.
I thought he sounded exactly like Stan Rogers - who was also from Hamilton, of course...
posted by offog at 5:23 AM on May 19, 2020
I thought he sounded exactly like Stan Rogers - who was also from Hamilton, of course...
posted by offog at 5:23 AM on May 19, 2020
These are great.
Only the problem is that watching stuff like this makes me want to buy cheap/broken guitars and get to monkeying. Which is not good for my bank account or reducing the already existing pile of "projects" around the home . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 6:07 AM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
Only the problem is that watching stuff like this makes me want to buy cheap/broken guitars and get to monkeying. Which is not good for my bank account or reducing the already existing pile of "projects" around the home . . .
posted by soundguy99 at 6:07 AM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
(from the Luthiery advice video)
"You have to be able to look at your work, as I said, and not only be sort of self-critical, but you also have to be kind of self congratulatory at the same time"
I think this is great advice for any creative pursuit.
posted by nickzoic at 6:59 PM on May 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
"You have to be able to look at your work, as I said, and not only be sort of self-critical, but you also have to be kind of self congratulatory at the same time"
I think this is great advice for any creative pursuit.
posted by nickzoic at 6:59 PM on May 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
Just posting to say Mr Woodford is a treasure, like Dan Erlewine, but he posts content much more frequently. I enjoy them all.
(Although Dan Erlewine has some good stuff from his guitar and bass magazine columns out there in the aether, if you search)
posted by I am Otis at 9:05 PM on May 19, 2020
(Although Dan Erlewine has some good stuff from his guitar and bass magazine columns out there in the aether, if you search)
posted by I am Otis at 9:05 PM on May 19, 2020
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The only problem I have is that his voice has an uncanny similarity to a TVO personality I half remember from the late 70s into early 80s. I'm pretty sure he hosted an introductory computer science course at one point (I'm not talking about Billy Van). I think this guy had curly brown hair and was in his 30s or 40s at the time. He had the exact same quiet and affable tone.
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:17 PM on May 18, 2020