Hi. thank you for the video. the soundhole seems oval. can you measure and tell us the size of the hole. Also will the size of the sound hole make a difference in the quality of the sound?

What the hell is with these tiny fractions of inches it is confusing compared to just using mms

This video is interesting and helpful for the DIYer. Every time I think of fret leveling and crowning, I think of the Plek Pro fret leveling and crowning machine. This machine is the ultimate in precision fret leveling and crowning. 👍👍👍

Good tools are important! In the end, it saves time and money. Not saying the most expensive tools are a must, but there are good tools which are not expensive.

Nice job! If you still lived in NY, I’d be trying to talk you into a ‘guitar-setup-for-burritos’ bartering system….

I've been playing on a Pao Ferro neck on my Strat and my Fender Fretless J bass! Have nothing bad to say about Pao Ferro! I also have a Squier Affinity Telecaster maple neck, and I love that one too but I want to swap the neck later for a Fender Telecaster US neck still in maple. The Fender Fretless J bass will keep its Pao Ferro because I'm pretty happy with that neck! I've ordered a Fender Professional II scalloped neck, Rosewood that I'm putting on my Stratocaster. Not because I don't like the Pao Ferro, but I love Rosewood and I wanted a scalloped fretboard! It had some delivery time but I might get it in mid of September! I can't wait! I will still use the Pao Ferro neck thought but I'll put it on a cheap LA guitar4music guitar I bought just to have a guitar to toy with, and to be honest that guitar is probably going to sound and look more like a Fender because I already swapped the pickups it came with and replaced them with my Stratocaster pickups when I bought Seymore Duncan and DiMarzio pickups for my Strat! Also buying Fender locking tuners for it when I'm swapping to Fender neck on that, but only temp, since those locking tuners will end up on the Squier when I buy a US tellie neck! My Squier also sound awesome, having DiMarzio Chopper bridge pickup! The neck pickup it came with actually sound pretty nice, but I intend to swap that too later either a Fast Track, Twang King or maybe a Little 59' 😛 I placed the Fender Strat tuners on my Squier which means I had do hand drill new plug holes to make them fit because the measurement on the Squier tuner and Fender is not the same. turned out great! When I've swapped the neck on it, the cheap guitar will no longer have the locking tuners as they will go on the US Fender neck and the cheap guitar inherits the Strat tuners going back to the neck they originally came with! Not a luthier, just self taught and crazy enough to void the warranty on my guitars, but all the parts and components and electronics I've swapped out has its own warranty on 5 years when I buy so technically my guitars never lost warranty except for the body, the input jack and the pickup switch! Everything else like the squier bridge will be swapped to US bridge, US 3 point saddles! The Stratocaster will still have the Tremolo bridge and saddles it came with though and don't see any point of swapping the tremolo bridge because it's good enough as is 😀 I guess I'm a little crazy doing all this but I just love making my guitars as personal as possible! The fretless bass on the other hand I wont do much with, maybe just swap the 2 pickups with EMG-J or Fender Noisless pickups! Not sure if Ill swap the electronics in that one, but my Strat has gone from 250K pots to Fenders 500K pots, and the Squier will later also have 500K pots, not sure if I'm gonna buy Fender pots or Seymore Duncan pots to the Squier, have not decided yet! 😀

Good morning, thank you for making the very informative video. I'm not clear on one step, can the white fx/aux 2 knob handle both functions at the same time? Let me explain: if there are monitors connected to the aux2 output on stage and I operate the white knob, do I raise/lower the channel signal or increase/decrease the effect? I understood that I can only route the effect to the aux1 output. I hope I have explained myself clearly and thank you in advance for your reply.

I put fender tex-mex on my 2014 MIM Fender Stratocaster, and they sound beautiful. Tex-mex pickups sound exactly like Strats pickups should sound.

I prefer my tribute goldtop p90 over my historic goldtop R7. Both are excellent instruments, but the tribute doesn’t break my spine and the P90’s sound just great.. not taking pricetags into account… Nice vid!

Does it come with guitar cable

I checked out your website. I love that your bio states “Richard MacLemale was born at a very young age in Rochester, NY”. That made me lol. I was also born at a very young age

Sounds great! I have an Epi SG with the Probuckers and against my Gibby SG Standard, the Epi completely holds it own. Some scenarios where I actually prefer it over the Gibby!

Thank You ! I learned some things I didn"t know.

What is the right hz should I be on

That is why I’m on you tube trying to figure out how to use it

No

Nice video and that would be great for a video on tools you us on guitars. Thanks.

I agree that learning to do your own setup is always a good thing. The only problem is that to do it properly means leveling frets and crowning them. These days, concave crowing files have made it so that anyone with no skill can crown a fret beautifully. However, to do a setup well requires the investment of several hundred dollars in tools. Great if you are going to do multiple guitars for yourself or your friends, but hardly worth it if you are going to do one or two guitars. Schecter also does brilliant setups on their $700 guitars - made in Korea and final setup at their factory in California.

I can't imagine paying a grand for one of these. Blows my mind. I bought mine in 2015 ex-demo. I paid £400 (!) for it as 2015 was the year Gibson decided to commit to going bankrupt by putting "robo" tuners on everything and you could literally buy new Gibsons for £500 here. It had a bash in transit so I got a £100 partial refund. I got my net-£300 Gibson and went to work. The robotuner was sent to the bin on day 1. The circuit board in the control cavity has been my keyring since 2017. It ended up immediately needing a new nut under warranty and the luthier Gibson used did a fret dress for me too. It played like butter. I gigged it for many years top wrapped 11-49 which dissolved most of the frets in about 18 months *sigh. Then I switched to mini humbuckers because I got fed up of picking up radio in bars. It got Grovered.. later kluson green keyed. Drilled so many holes in the headstock it looks like art. I found the heavy locking tuners effected the tone in a pleasing way on the low output pickups but not with the humbuckers fwiw. Yes, I know! I routed it out for humbuckers in 2020. Of course. Using a chisel in my dad's shed. Paid a crazy amount of money to buy some US imported "booteek" PAFs. They were gash. Oh dear. Back to mini humbuckers with "goof rings" from a parted out 1970's Deluxe. I just refretted it with some slightly wider 43080 Jescar wire. Put in all 10% taper audio pots with 50's wiring. Gibson M69 pickup rings. Some witch hat knobs off an old 70's Fender Twin Reverb. No pickguard. An old 1960s Bigsby B7 with the roller bar removed and (against my better judgment) some Throbak KZ-115s (which are amazing). This guitar is best described as beat to s*. The nitro is pretty much all worn off the neck and the headstock is so scratched up from lazy string changes the lacquer has gone opaque. At some point it sat too close to a fan heater at a gig and checked all over .. but horizontally ... which looks weird.

I learned how to do my own set ups from this channel! SO thankful. The guy at the ONLY local guitar store charges $30 a set up and keeps it two weeks, and just doesn't do a great job at it. One time I had to take a guitar back to him twice to have him re-do the set up because the strings buzzed on the higher frets and he didn't know it. Terrible.

🎉

Thanks! 🙏

Are you still enjoying that thing? I am thinking of getting one as well thank you.

I dont think I’ve ever met another musician or been in a band with anyone who wasn’t dealing with some kind of mental health issue, some complex trauma from childhood, or some neurondivergency. Like I’m Autistic and have dealt with everything that comes with that, my old band mates had severe depression and anxiety issues. A lot of musicians i know/knew had bad substance abuse issues to cope. I’m 31 now and got into music around 14. Learned metal vocals, electric guitar, bass (being my autistic special interest), I have a keyboard and drum kit, many types of guitars. My bedroom is basically just a studio/jam space with a bed and TV in it. I have pens and notebooks close by so when I need to vent, or inspiration hits, i have all of my stuff all around me. My wife had severe ADHD and has mental health issues, she’s learning drums rn on our electric drum kit, im teacher her bass. Im still in contact with a few ex band members who suffer from severe depression to check up on em and encourage em to keep going. Music is what keeps me going and is therapeutic for my Autism. It’s almost like a stim for me. Music is my passion in life. Idc about being famous or getting attention, I do it because it helps me express myself in ways I can’t verbally or cant communicate to others. With my ASD I have ADHD, and BPD as comorbidities, and bad Anxiety. It’s really hard to deal with sometimes, especially when I become overwhelmed and have meltdowns which I literally dont and cant control, but music brings me back to reality. It really sucks, and depression comes with it too, lots of negative intrusive self hating thoughts, can cause suicidal ideations. I was only diagnosed recently, so for 3 decades I thought I was just broken and crazy, but was just missed as a child. Sorry if this is all over the place and rambly…comes with the ASD. But yeah if it weren’t for my wife accepting and supporting me and my passion, and music being an outlet to release the negativity in my mind, idk where I’d be. Like when I have meltdowns and lose control, my wife will put music on and it brings me back and grounds me again because I can become really self destructive, start hitting myself, throwing things around the house (never violent towards her), it just becomes so much mental and emotional anguish. It’s sucks too because the ASD causes me to have severe insomnia, chronic migraines, stomach issues, I forget to eat ant drink. I have terrible social anxiety, almost to the point of agoraphobia sometimes, so I bring my headphones out with me. Sometimes my Zoom H6 and one of my basses with IEM’s so if need be I can plug into the zoom, out the IEM’s in my ears and play my bass and tune the world out. It’s crippling sometimes and there are days I wish I could just be “normal”. I’ve actually attempted suicide a few times during my meltdowns when I was much younger before I first picked up and instrument. I know it’s cliché to say, but music literally saved my life. I’ve tried therapists, medications, and nothing worked. Music does though. Sorry for the novel, but this is my experience with music and mental health.

Buy used on offer up or pawn shops you can find great deals for half the price that's how I got most of my basses/guitars and great for modding because I didn't pay a lot

Hey I've been looking for something like this thank you. I got a quick question what can you burn besides music. How would it be if you wanted to make your own games and then put them on CDs and sell them like we used to?

Radical. Thanks man. Much help! 🤘🤘

Why not run them through a tube amp demo?

A piece of advice: common industry practice when you measure your action is to do it while the guitar is in playing position (e.g. vertical) and not while on its back, as there will be a slight difference.

Take all the time you need to get better. I wish you and your family the very best ❤

Sorry to hear, and feel better man

Not helpful... what's the point of setting up a tele that's already mostly set up?

Thank you for the update and for sharing your struggles. So sorry for your losses, and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Best prayers and wishes your way! Hang in there!

Your videos are thoroughly missed. Wish you get well soon, and sorry to hear about your loss.

Hang in there Budge! Sorry for your losses.

You might say how the display works ie only tune to the centre. Because when I first switched mine on I had a rainbow and no idea what that meant. And what the modes are. And that there is no 'guitar' mode only C. Maybe mine is different to yours. Pls don't complain about other tuners. It's confusing. The sheet you crumpled is safety info, not operation info. I did find the manual in the box I bought today, glued to the side, written in the tiny font you noticed.

❤

Excellent demo! I've been a pickup snob for a long time, and I dropped a set of gfs gold foil strat pickups in a DIY strat build. I was very impressed with the tone. Great pickups.

As a musician I feel like I've been chewed up and spit out by the LA/Hollywood scene and I've been attempting to slowly recover from that harsh harrowing reality, I was drumming for a notable artist for a few months and I thought I was on the cusp of realizing the work life I dreamt of as a child. I put my heart and soul into those rehearsals and made it my everyday routine, The last show I ever played for them I was not paid then I was replaced by someone who never practiced, who was younger, and who had a bad drug addiction. I was pretty sure that the only reason I was replaced was purely based on physical appearance. Just wanted to share a little of my story after I viewed this video, I appreciate you sharing Richard. I try my best to write more music when I am able to and fortunately I was recently recruited to a new band a friend of mine started and it warms my heart because they always mention these words "It feels great to play with a competent drummer" I am also extremely into music theory and how to use it to write music so I'm hoping one day I have as much courage as you do to start my own channel because I want to show people that writing music and understanding music theory doesn't have to be hard. I've been told by many people and many students (I teach on the side) that I am very good at explaining music theory and that I should publicize my thoughts. I only have a couple of pages written so far for the first video and hopefully I will find the confidence to finish it sooner rather than later.

I got locking tuners on my Stratocaster, but my Telecaster has normal Fender stratocaster tuners. I don't twine the strings around too much, i just stretch the string, and tune it up while i hold and angle on the string so it get winded just like a half knot and my strings don't slip. I however like the locking tuners better because then its just to thread thru and cut and have nothing sticking out

What grain steel wool?

Can i use this to record my tracks please?

How did you feel the tray to hold the CD?

I’m having a hard time finding the output, jack plate for my epiphone, Les Paul. Any advice where I can go to get one that uses the same mounting screw holes…

i have some prob after low the string action only first fret buzzing . thats mean my neck to straight or uneven fret ?

In 1984 I travelled to my local guitar store to buy a Fender Telecaster that I had been saving up for most of my life to purchase. When I got to the store, they had three models in the colour I wanted, all three had issues and every time I spotted an issue the salesman started knocking money off the price, I wanted a perfect guitar though, I was just about to leave and visit another guitar store when he pulled a Squier Telecaster out, I had never even heard of Squier guitars, the salesman gave me some BS about Fenders being called Squier in Japan. The Squier was perfect in every way and sounded great, It was set up just how I like and the neck felt so comfortable, I was confused as to why a better built better sounding guitar of the same model could be so much cheaper, at first I thought they had made a mistake with the price. I bought the guitar and still have it today, over the years I have lost count of the people who have asked if I would consider selling it to them or letting them have first shout should I decide to sell it. I couldn't sell it, it feels as though this guitar was made just for me, the finish on the maple fretboard is a little worn but apart from that it is in very good condition despite me gigging it for a few years.

How could you possibly know if the strings will line up with the neck and pickups without any indication of where you should drill those holes you drilled for the bridge and pickguard...? That's the part I wanted to know...?

My frets were awfull.

This is very useful advice, thank you