Your faith in pushing down constantly on a Gibson headstock is breathtaking!

At times this is like watching a surgeon operating on a patient. Very lucky patient!

Great to see an honest and skilled luthier.

When scribing the top's finish around the new bridge, hold the bridge in place with two small screws, one through each of the E string holes, with nuts on the inside. Pad each screw head with a large Nylon washer to prevent damaging the bridge face.

Love how candid this chap is.... it’s called wisdom. 👍

Hi Jerry i just wanted to say that the product you used will work ive been there done that. You got to give product a true test. It usually the applicator that needs to learn the product. Everything ive see on your videos are fixable i got 35 years in this business and have learned from chemical engineers trial and error and Master painters. Now im not bragging but I dare anyone to find my repair. I have become a Master of color and finisher i was book 6 + months in advance for my work and craftsmanship. I Turn down work, i just got to busy but im retired now old and barely can walk. I see your frustration but your a blessed man to, your Quality is one of the best I’ve seen. If i live in U.S.A I would make a trip to see you and Demonstrate to you How knowledge of the stain craft can be accomplished. Along with the do’s and dont’s I would gladly point you in the right direction. May the lord keep you and family safe and healthy..........A fan of the Rosa Channel.

I loved seeing this wonderful old guitar that was in such severe need of QUALITY help get just what it needed. WOW!! It looked to me like it was in need of a LOT of repairs! I just dislike when you leave new bridges with a natural finish instead of dying them black and make them look like they did. But you do great repairs, Jerry.

Another awesome educational hour. I hope you can comprehend how much some of us appreciate you sharing your methods.

50 years of belly bulge brace reluctance. Lol. Been there, and so true. I use steam and weight, with flat cement pavers stacked up over the belly for multiple days, then i dry it slowly with the weight in place. From one luthier to another, Love your channel.

As entertaining and informative as BBC's The Repair shop. I love watching craftsmen at work.

Jerry Rosa - master craftsman!

Again I am so impressed with your determination and ingenuity. Thanks for sharing this with us I am anxiously awaiting Part 3.

I admire your thinking, work ethic, and craftsman skills, great viewing :-)

"Show me!" An extra thumbs up for this answer.

Ever use a deflated ball, like a soccer ball or small inflated toy? Brace the top and bottom of the guitar, slip in the ball over your brace wood and add air to put pressure on those hard to reach repairs.

For those little cleats deep in you can use super strong magnets as clamps or at least as something to hold them in place whlst you clamp them...Also some double sided tape on your cauls will help hold them in place on your bridge plates...

I only watch sport on TV, but since I discovered you and The History Guy my screen time has increased by several orders of magnitude! I always learn something from your vids Jerry, thank you sir.

Well, you are a very patient guy. I’m loving this. These are my favorite videos to watch Can’t wait to hear this old warrior! Ken hughes

You read the number on the neck as either 528 or 328 but it is a four digit number. It looks like it might be 5248. You were missing the 4. That guitar is coming along nicely. Looking forward to part 3.

To have a better chance of removing the belly; 'humidify' the box with a net of damp newspaper & leave cramped up for days. Then remove the newsprint and cook out the humidity with a lightbulb.

Clear finger nail polish will fill those little and you scrap it down and polish it! Finger nail polish is basically a thicker lacquer,

I suggest the lack of symmetry on the old bridge is due to uneven shrinkage over the years. I's a piece of machined wood and will have been true when 'new'. Loving this rescue!

Thanks for the dish soap trick. I just got finished using CA glue for a deep gash in a thick, lacquer electric guitar finish. I built it up scraped, sanded and polished. and it looked perfect. melted right into the surrounding finish.

Thanks for the running monolog on your decisions. It really helps to understand your thought process when working on a guitar.

YES! I was waiting patiently (okay, impatiently) for the Part 2!

Amazing how you work with titebond. I have used it for close to 50 yrs. You know how much working time you have to deal with to the Nth degree. So much fun watching you work !!

I would not change freatboard... If Mr. Willie Nelson's Trigger still exists And plays despite his condition, this is brand New state, comparing this guitrar to Trigger... Nice job my friend! Greeting from Croatia 🇭🇷 🖖🤙

Way to go Doc, watched both posts and anxious to see the completed resto, you sure have an equal amount of patience and perseverance and immense talent !! Wish we were closer together, would love to meet you in person. God bless!

digging the black nail varnish

Love your show Jerry! Give us part 3 lol! cheers

Great work Jerry, looking forward to part 3.

Looking forward to the next video on this guitar Jerry, great work 👍❤️🇬🇧

I in-layed new blocks of rose wood in three area on my friends guitars. Worked great. You can barely tell it was a great match.

Spent an hour before bed last night watching you wrestle a neck, lol..... Still more entertaining than watching a wrestler wrestle a neck. LMFAO.

Old girl probably has some stories to tell. Good work, Man....Good work.

Hi Jerry. I really enjoyed this series. Very detailed explanations on the different procedures including explanations of the options you made between several different procedures to sort many different problems I heard for the first time. Very detailed and also detailed information about the several different options you made between different possible procedures. The end result is excellent and I think the guitar sounds wonderful (probably better than when it was brand new). Great restoration of a guitar in terrible shape). It ended up as one of your best videos. Thanks!

Ever used a flexible nozzle on your air hose with low pressure to force glue in like a pressure grease gun? I saw you blow with a regular nozzle. An old air brush with the cup hole sealed makes a great tool with 5 to 15 psi air.

Thanks for all your hard work Mr. Rosa!!!!

Looks like it is coming along nicely.

Great to see you use titebond glue. I did furniture repair back in the late 70s and wouldn't use anything else.

By jings thats a difficult one!! Ive got an old hummingbird from 1974 with high action at the top end and needs a neck reset. It wasn't the best that Gibson put out at the time, sort of mass produced from their Kalamzoo factory. Its got better with age but will need to spend some money on it. Watching this makes me realise its not that bad. Great vlog as always! but hurry up with part 3 Ive got no nails left watching this :-)

Hi Jerry; At 26, 45 It can't possibly be harder to hold down flat on the top than I think. Every time I've tried to hold something down on the top of an instrument and trace around it, it has been almost impossible to hold. I really like the work you have done on the neck joint area so far. I'm always interested to see how you clamp things for gluing, because that's one of the most important things in being successful at what your doing. You Jerry, are a master at using clever gluing methods. Lots of experience from what I've seen. Fine work so far friend. looks like you've got a pretty good ratio of thumbs up to trolls. best wishes to you and yours.

your a great craftsman / luthier RSW. love the videos

Great job so far

I admit, I was using balls to pop dents out of closed areas on cars, but similar idea, just have to brace the top and bottom so you are not deforming the guitar with internal pressure, just holding the glue joint.

I love watching these videos ...!!! Excellent work !!

Great stuff as usual, although You and i differ on Natural Wear (like the fret board for example) i would have left that natural patina finger wear and concentrated on the frets alone. The wear on the board doesn’t effect playability, and i like the natural wear from years of play. Also, when replacing bridges , i prefer going with the Same Bridge so everything looks original. Keep up the good work. 👌✌️

Put a piece of double sided tape or some blue tack on the caul to hold it in place on the inside of the guitar and when the glue is dry just it off.

Jerry, you sure do good work!

Wow! She's a mean one. Thanks for sharing your thoughts precesses about what to repair and what order and how.

These are some of the most interesting videos, when you search for answers & try things sometimes fail, but more often you have a success. Or you say this is the best I can do. Or you say it’s not perfect, but it usually looks as close to perfect as is possible! Thanks!

Old style flimsy cardboard guitar case latch scars/gouges maybe? I’ve got similar dents on the top of my guitar caused by my carelessness. Enjoying this repair!

Great work! difficult work! As they say here in Kentucky that was a hard row to plow..

Air pressure..Little squirt should clean out cracks. If your lucky : )

That bridge is a beautiful piece of rosewood. Lovely grain pattern. And very nicely built. Good job! That neck/top joint was a LOT of work, and I've never seem the neck block crack like that one. Seems to me that it took a good hit somewhere along the line. Ouch! Again, really nice work. ETA: On gluing rosewood: I've heard some conflicting things, over the years, and the most recent one that I've heard is that what you do is plane or scrape the surface and don't acetone it. Then glue it within 10 or 15 minutes of doing that scraping or planing, and that's how you get the best joint. I can't verify that, and I've done the acetone thing for years, myself. I guess the only thing to do is make a test and wait for about 20 years to see which one holds best.

I've been working on a antonia copy of that Gibson you have there, I believe it's a sixties one and a complete basket case the binding on the back was ripped off, it was bellied, I ended up having to remove the fretboard I tried for weeks to remove the neck to reset it. The neck would not be moved, I had to fit a bridge doctor to remove the belly - I had to give up on the neck as it just wouldn't come off even with a jig, so you'll be horrified by my fix but bear 🐻 with me as I didn't want to throw it away so... Here goes.... I took the fretboard which was bound, and removed the binding and cleaned up the back. Then I glued it straight to an eighth thickness of mahogany board, then I glued on a strip of the same board below the last fret to give my angle and the sanding began, when the nut end was flush with the table and the strip was gone I refitted the board and rebound it, the neck is slightly thicker but only at the bottom of the board, the action is now good I've set it aside strung for a couple of months now and it's not moved, hopefully it will come up nice when I finish it sounds great for a guitar that was sold to me for £15 for the tunners! I may keep it 😊

Great work as always, Jerry!

Urrrghh - open tin of acetone just below head level ... nasty stuff. You end up seeing pink elephants dancing on the soundboard. Really good series of uploads for this tricky repair. I'm not a luthier but all the woodworking skills, tips and tricks are fascinating. Amazing sets of clamps as well. I laughed aloud at 'Wishful thinking'. Nice one.

just love those old Gibson J45s

With regards to the cleats you could use some high power magnets internally and externally to pull through the back and hold the cleats during glueing process. Magnets are real powerful now.

Have you ever tried using Blu-Tak to hold things in place temporarily? Like the bridge when you're scratching around it, or test fitting parts when you want to see how it fits with a camera? Teachers use it to temporarily hold posters to walls, and people in earthquake states us it to hold valuables in place. Easy to use and comes off clean.

Really good, great watching. I work mostly on electric guitars and I build them also but I need more experience with acoustics. I repair a lot of acoustics but I turn a lot away for lack of experience. So really love hearing your thoughts while repairing. I’ll for sure make a steam hose like yours using a tea kettle. Thank you

Great job so far. For chips on a Nitro finish, I have had great luck with StewMac's Colortone Clear Gloss Lacquer pen. They have a few in different tones. They seem to last a while too.

Great work, Jerry. As far as the fret board, I'm in the "clean it up as much as practical but it's OK to leave some "character" behind" crowd. If it were mine I would't want a new fret board.

I've heard of scalloped fretboards, but dang.

Great videos. During the part where you were trying to fit your Xacto knife blade in the guitar body to clean it out (16:05) you were struggling with what you might use to get in there to clean it out. Have you thought of using dental tools? You can get various types of dental tools with hooks and blades from Amazon. I use these tools for small detailed model carving. They work great.

When it comes to fretboards and wear, my philosophy is to always leave it unless there is an issue with the truss rod (or, of course, unless the customer says "replace it"). The reason I'd leave it alone, all things being equal, is because the condition of the fretboard doesn't actually matter; the frets are what makes the notes. Scalloped fingerboards are even something that certain players actually want. Now, maybe not everyone plays with a deft enough touch to play a scalloped board (I sure don't), but there's no real harm in developing a defer touch to play a well-worn fretboard ... because you don't need to press the string to the wood to make a note. In fact, the intonation is likely to be worse if you do.

Wow that was quick..

Pure lemon juice on a towel or rag rub over a finished item will help clean them up.

the marks are the rivets on a pair of jeans

Jerry- your comment about CA running, try medium or thick- you have time to apply, get some pressure on the joint, and then if you need, you can hit it with kicker, although it can make the joint harder. Just as I post you dig out the medium........ there are also some variants that remain a little more flexible, though for instruments probably only valid for potting as in wire or pickups. Saw your choice of canopy glue- having come from an aviation background, and the last fifteen been heavily involved with Radio Controlled models, the choices in adhesives is greater than any other time. Why don’t you use hide or fish glue? Have you had bad experience with these? Enjoying your fighting through the battles this is providing!

im watching the last part now im dying to hear this thing

Great job!

I hope you have to change the fretboard. I hate when I have to glue a fretboard on a finished neck, but I'd like to see how you manage that (so I can steal your method). Great video as always.

Just in case you didn't know, Dave uses Glue Boost products when working on chips and finish repairs on guitars. Daves world of fun stuff.

Hello Jerry, Would you like some shellac flakes? You just need to add alcohol. On second thought you most likely have a pound or two of Shellac laying around. All the best, Edgar

I recognize those chip's.There from Levi rivet's.

A lot of manufactures make top on a 25ft dia dish which gives the top like a bowl, which might explain the hump thats troubling you

Have you ever just taped the caul to the clamp? I had to re-glue a couple of bridges on a couple inexpensive, but sentimenal, guitars I own. To get over the bracing I put a little loop of tape on the clamp, stuck the caul to it, and it saved me the pain of trying to hold it in place while I clamped the bridge. Just had to check it after I got it in there to make sure it was straight. Great work as always, Jerry!

very interesting (i learn a lot too... )

Great work - I suspect that this is one of those jobs that the owner is better not watching ;-)

That fingerboard is going to make you fret.. but to me looks knackered.

You might want to try some Glueboost on those chipped areas.

a little spray adhesive will hold the call.

With fingerboard gouges that bad- Is routing them out and grafting in rosewood feasible or dumb? Could some sort of color-matched epoxy/sawdust filler work?

Jerry, have you ever tried steaming the dents up with a small sealing iron and wet t-shirt? I know some of it is plain wear, but isn't part of it pressure compressing the wood? I know I lift a Lot of dents out of wood on firearms I refurbish. I don't have your experience, but I have worked with a good bit of wood in building furniture, refurbishing firearms and wooden sculpture. Might be worth exploring.

Jerry Harbor Frieght sells 5 minute Epoxy for those small Nick's just a little dot will do it scrape's well and a wet & dry sand paper block sand flush .😁🔔🔔🔔

Have you seen Dave of 'Dave's world of fun stuff use Glue Boost for finish repair? Apparently it's pretty magical once you get used to it.

yes, i would have stained the chips to match before using any clear gloss.

Couldn't you use maybe a adjustable speed dremal tool to buff ? Sure would take a lot of the labor out. I know sometimes it is too hard not to burn the finish, but if you use the right attachments etc.? I am impatient also..

That stuff is just for surface finishes,and scratches,

It always amazes me to see fret board wear like that. My fingernails are too flimsy to ever do that. It's beyond me how people can pick strings with their fingernails. If I did that mine would shred in seconds. That's why I use Ernie Ball Pickey Pickeys. And that classic blue Herco thumb pick.

Btw...I’ve seenchips like that on a guitar before. Guy had a “custom strap” with a metal buckle on it....

472 is what saw.

Jerry I'd love to get your opinion on the JLD Bridge Doctor. I see it touted as a guaranteed fix but luthiers I know seem to side with you on the matter, meaning, belly bulge is not an easy fix. It seems to me that the Bridge doctor would put extra strain on the bracing and set you up for problems down the road. Would love to hear your thoughts. Really loving your guitar restoration videos. Thank you and keep 'em coming!

it would be insane to replace a vintage brazillian fretboard . sanding down the radius is the way to go . i would lose my mind if someone wanted to take the board off of my 53 gibson lol

Great video Jerry! You really are a great source of learning for beginner Luthiers like myself. I have been training Bridge Replacement with my Plywood Top Yamaha F310. It has 2/3 years top, but the top has already arched like that one, or worse. I don´t know if it´s due to a weak top. The issue is fitting a straight bridge to that top. It´s rocking a lot. Do you think I should try to clamp it tight and see if things flatten doing this, or regluing the Bridge Place with downward pressure on the Top is the better way? Thanks!

Fill them fretboard dents with some JB weld. 😂

Great going till now, Jerry. Could you solve the mystery of why the neck was resisting coming off?

Just take the top plate off and fix the insides. And then replace the fingerboard. Easy! By the time you've spent a few hours agonising over it, you could have done it!