You Can Learn Things From Crimson Guitars

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I shared previously that I'm working toward building my own electric guitar from scratch.  Not a ton has physically manifested in that regard yet save for collecting tools and supplies necessary.

Still, I thought I'd share the resource I've been using to prepare myself.  Honestly I probably have no right for my previous fret job to have turned out as well as it did for a first timer, or to have the confidence to build my own guitar, but I'm getting the help I need from the Crimson Guitars YouTube channel:

Crimson Guitars are custom guitar builders in the UK run by Ben Crowe and company.  Their clientele notably includes Robert Fripp of King Crimson (unrelated to their own company name) and their work, in general, is just gorgeous.

Of the many luthier tutorials on YouTube, Crimson's content stands out for a few reasons:

  1. They actually build guitars.  Like, a lot of them.  Feel free to peruse their website to see many interesting and beautiful examples of their work.  They're not a shop that has made a couple guitars and are now calling themselves experts.  You can trust them because they're in the trenches making instruments every day.
  2. They're still learning themselves.  Related to the point above, they aren't just regurgitating the sources they used to make a few guitars.  They're sharing tips that they have honed over a long time building instruments and sharing that knowledge with the world.  In fact, you can see Ben's preferences changing over the years if you watch a lot of their videos.  He goes from shaping necks with angle grinders, to spokeshaves, back to rasps and angle grinders.  Along the way they explain why they've made the switch plus the advantages and drawbacks of each technique.  There are plenty of videos where Ben is doing experiments, trying things for the first time on camera to see what happens (a guy after my own heart).
  3. They aim their videos at the novice.  A lot of videos on YouTube have titles like "learn to radius a fretboard" then proceed to show their $10k radius jig or their custom built dead-head sander or a workshop full of Stew Mac's full line of guitar tools.  While there's nothing wrong with this, the layman doesn't often have access to that equipment.  The Crimson videos most often deal with tools anyone will have access to, from hand planes to chisels to good old-fashioned hand sanding.  Sure, Ben may mention or occasionally show their CNC machines etc., but only to draw the distinction between operating at scale vs completing a hobby project.
  4. They really love building guitars.  And they want you to also.  Their energy is infectious but always geared toward answering questions and helping newbies get their projects off the ground.

Anyway, that's enough going on about that, but if you're still reading and interested, here's video one of a five part series Ben Crowe did for Triton tools where he builds a guitar in five days using only hand tools and machines.  I'll bet money you'll also want to build your own guitar after watching.