Articulate, thorough, intelligent. I really like listening to this guy

I am a tool and die maker who truly loves to watch you work. It is inspiring. At my job they have prioritized speed over craftsmanship and it hurts my soul. So nice to see a true professional work

During this era Fender used its "Tuff skin" finish. The sealer was heavy poly, but the colour and clear coats were still lacquer, which is why those finishes developed the light checking just in the thin lacquer surface layer. Also, the clear builds up heavier on one side of the fret because they were sprayed hanging vertically, not because the worker was right handed. I wish these videos had been available when I started out back in the mid-70's!! Good video - thanks!

Ok I'm super early AND it's two vintage Fenders? It's a Christmas miracle!

I think the reasoning behind Leo's crazy way of installing frets, was real genius if you think about it. His original plan with the bolt on neck was, the owner had to replace the neck when it wore out. There was no such thing as a "vintage market". Leo figured people would try to replace the frets instead of purchasing a new "Fender" Neck from him. Repair people tore the wood up from standard re-fretting, and you'd still have to come back to Leo for a new neck after your fingers hurt from the tear out. Cheers !

I have to say, I've been a builder and later repairer since I was 15 years old and I never get tired of learning from you. Yes I do it my way but I'm learning all the time and it's fun to learn from other people and you Sir are good at your craft.

I am like a little kid when I get a notification that a new repair video has gone up. I really like your approach to your videos and your repairs. I have used many of your tips and am inspired by your work.

Oh man ! I can't write how much I love your videos I'm so happy that you put them out more often lately Greetings from Poland ! ^-^

After the Tele & Strat, the split-post tuner is Leo's best invention ever.

I just got a Custom Shop 57 “Mary Kaye” Closet Classic Strat. One piece ash bodied Fenders are magical beasts. Fantastic visually and audibly. These old Esquires and Telecasters are probably the most recorded electric guitar ever. They just work so well with every genre.

have you messed with the soldering *gun* trick for heating frets? master luthier terry mcinturff is a big proponent of this method you get the big pistol-looking 100w soldering gun with the copper loop for a tip, cut the loop open to make two legs, spread them out to maybe an inch apart and place them on the fret. the fret completes the circuit and quickly gets hot, quicker than with a regular soldering iron. best part is the solder gun legs themselves _don't_ get hot, meaning if it slips off the fret onto the board no harm no foul. took me a little while to figure out that if the legs were too close together _or_ too far apart the fret wouldn't have the right resistance to generate heat, somewhere around 1" apart seems to be about right for my gun i bent the legs on mine over sideways so the gun wouldn't be up in the way while i was using it, and made rudimentary notches in the ends of the legs to better stay on the frets. (oh, and tests have apparently been done, the gun is not going to de-gauss guitar pickups)

Memphis hears you. We didn't invent the guitar, but we came up with a pretty good use for it. Keep 'em fixed up. You do have the best channel for guitar anatomy, dis-ease and corrective surgery anywhere on here I've looked at. Keep them cleats chamfered, and them splines skinny.

as a craftsman myself (working with metal though), it's great watching people like you do their work and explaining along. great source of info and very entertaining.

Best "horizontal" fret removal I have seen. I love how you blended the two processes together, remove horizontal, press back in. So well done, great vid! Thank you and have a happy new year!

The finish on the 71's fretboard looks like the factory was taking grandmothers' furniture covers and melting them onto guitars.

You do a GREAT job making a P.I.T.A. job look easy. Hats off to you.

Watching someone who has found his niche in life is a true joy to behold,

Really beautiful work, thank you for sharing it with your viewers. Dan Erlewine’s repair book shows the rube-goldberg way of sideways fretting that Leo devised. It’s literally a shoe piece with a pin attached to a cable and the foot pedal pulled the fret into place. Amazing and surprisingly efficient..... I guess Leo didn’t think that people would refret these necks, just replace them. Wild to think about.

"Oh no, i must never refret the guitar blah blah blah" Man. I adore your sarcasm. AHAHAHAHAHA

As a Tele owner, thanks. Always good to learn something about Fender!

I enjoyed the nod to Sam and Dave! Great video!

You should write a book on instrument repair, it would probably be the best on the market by far

Thank you Mr.Woodford for showing the process of removing sideways installed frets. You sir are formidable professor of luthiery. Thank you again.

Am always impressed with Ted’s playing. If he ever gets bored of the repair work…

You certainly posses the luthier skill of what one might call "guitar forensics." Undeniably a necessary skill for someone in your profession. I simply loved how you said that the fretboard was definitely sprayed by a right-handed person. Like watching CSI or something!🤣

Some of the nicest fret-end dressing I've ever seen. Thanks as always for sharing your work with us.

I enjoy ALL of Ted's videos. But I liked this one more than usual.

In the last few years iv become very aware of what it takes to do what u guys do (i started doing it myself) u make it look easy . Heard people complain about the cost and im close to the front of the line . Never again u guys should b charging 3x what u do . My hats off to u sir . Have a good day .

Apparently only Deluxe and Custom Teles went to three bolt necks in the 70's. Regular ones always came with four bolt necks. Loved the video as per usual! Cheers!

I'm quite sure I will never tackle a job like this, but it's sure fun to watch an artist skilled in his profession.

Awesome work. One can learn so much here. I'm happy to have found this channel.

The history this guitar has seen! I thank God that, although I'm old, I got to be a 70s kid.

Dominic Troiano was a very prominent Canadian guitarist back in the 70s and 80s who used a tele. He played with bands such as the Mandala, Bush, Guess Who and James Gang to name a few.

I never tire of watching your videos. Your attention to detail is amazing!

Always so completely satisfied watching your videos. The workmanship is amazing. Your a blessing to alot of people.

awesome as always! pretty sure the main reason for the neck pickup to have the screws hidden was that when it came time to adjust the truss rod you'd just slip off the pickguard, no need to even loosen the strings, and access the rod through that nice cutout notch in the body. everybody hates on vintage fenders for having to take the neck off to adjust, but the original designs for the tele and the early single coil P bass both had this system, just remove a small pickguard (with nothing mounted on it) and the adjustment was right there easy-peasy. my guess is they came up with the strat in '54 that had all the electronics mounted on the pickguard meaning you could no longer just slide it out of the way, but by that point they weren't going to re-engineer their neck making machines and so they went with it.

That's amazing! I'd heard about the original system Leo had used to install Fender frets. Glad to see how to remove those frets.

I always prefer the electric guitar videos, of which I always prefer the fenders, so happy day for me. Thank you.

Happy Holidays and thank you for helping all of us get thru this insane year!

Wow that fret job was immaculate!!

It was an option in the fender catalog to add the neck pickup on an esquire.

Your one of my favorite KZfaq channels

Love watching you work and the history and knowledge you share with us. Dreading the day I run out of videos in you back library. Lol

Those fret ends were a work of art!

In '71 the bodies and headstock faces were still nitro. The back and sides of the necks were poly. They went to all poly in '74.

I simply adore the utilitarian design of the Telecaster Body+Neck=Guitar Two chunks of wood put together

Scary excellent work as usual, but. The clear pooling along the fret is from the necks being hung headstock down when sprayed.

Beautiful work! Thank you so much for sharing it with us and letting us into your shop.

Thanks for your efforts with these videos; they are super informative and interesting. I neither play or work on instruments but I am woodworker and tinkerer. I greatly admire your skills, attention to detail, and your ability to communicate (educate). I find your methods translate into projects I do work on.....Thanks again

When he said scooch I heard gooch. Thanks dave

There's nothing better after a long day of servicing HVAC equipment than watching you repair guitars. I appreciate good craftsmanship. There has to at least be some pictures somewhere of the machine Fender used to drive frets in. I'm sure someone has one somewhere, I have a feeling it was made out of some heavy-duty steel.

Far be it from me to nitpick, but two important telemasters deserve to be remembered here: Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton.

Beautiful job the new frets looks awesome 👍

Oh, that trick with using the fingerboard to radius the underside of the nut was brilliant!

Outstanding fret work.

Can't imagine all the murders you would have solved had you gone into police work. "The guy that sprayed this neck was right handed!" I love it!

I have never heard of the “drive the frets in from the edge” method. It’s like Leo Fender had just graduated from MIT and wanted to do it in the most difficult way possible.

I had no idea Fender frets were put on that way at the factory and I have never seen a fret job hammered out sideways, fascinating.

You can downplay your skills all you like. You are top notch when it comes to being a luthier. You don't fix guitars, you re-engineer the wheel with each individual that comes across your bench. That sir, makes you an artist whether you like being called one or not. This is a bit long but I am making a point I promise. I am disabled and have an Epiphone Les Paul Standard that I purchased as a Gibson Les Paul Standard. Someone had gone to the trouble of going over the original Epiphone logo with some gloss black paint, leveled and polished then put the Gibson logo over top of that. The work that someone put into it was honestly quite good. I could not tell that it was covered over it looked so good. How I discovered it was an Epiphone is a good story and I have Dave of Dave's Guitar Channel on KZfaq to thank for helping me figure this out. (not telling that in this book, (You're welcome) Now that is all cleaned up and proudly shows it's original Epiphone logo I am excited to have it. Thankfully I only paid $200 for the guitar. For all intents and purposes it is a fairly well made guitar that came from the indonesia plant and was born in 2012 . ( I was told that "Gibson" made this in 2005) My point is this, I paid a fair price for this Epiphone and now knowing what the Gibson version would be sold for it would have been a steal had it been real. The nut on this guitar has been messed with and it buzzes on the 1st string. I was going to take it to a local luthier to have the nut replaced, because I thought it was a Gibson and as such would be fairly easy to ruin, (well affect at least) the value if I made a mistake. Now knowing it is an Epiphone I am not afraid to try. The reason I am not afraid is that I can't really hurt the value and I have been watching you. I will let you know how it turns out lol. My custom Amazon Luthier starter kit with nut files , fret dressers, level checers etc is now here . Oh my, the trouble I can get into with these new tools lol. As they say "Let the games begin" Thank you for making this channel and giving an old dog the courage to learn a new trick.

I remember fender advertising their ' Thick skin' finish in the 70s. I agree, if i were to have just one guitar, it would be a telecaster. I used to be a les paul deluxe guy since the mid 70s. Over the last ten years, i have grown to love telecasters. So much, that a few days ago i sold my 1973 gold top deluxe. Going back to the 24 3/4 scale seems too small for me these days. Now a 1975, and a 1977 telecaster are filling my need. Your numbered block for holding the new frets made me smile.

Amazing work. This is therapeutic to watch

6:10 I have the same screwdriver. Proof that tools don’t equal skill. I’m always impressed by your patience and workmanship. Have a great New Year!

Masterful. This was a joy to behold.

I have done this on a few old fenders and is easy to push them in side ways the same as they come out

Damn, love that esquire. Sad its refinished. This is a great channel. And i dont even repair guitars, but i know great work and content when i see it. Im proud to say im canadian when i watch this mans work

Earlier today I watched a rare video of Steely Dan playing "Reeling In The Years" live; Jeff Skunk Baxter and Denny Diaz were both playing Telecasters.

What's gonna happen in 30 years when the next dude thinks those frets where installed from the side lmao

Excellent video, as always. You are a master of your craft, sir.

I forget where I saw it, but someone removed old-style Fender frets using a small chisel which was just sharp enough to bite into the fret, and tapped on the fret to push it out sideways. I also saw a photo of the machine Fender used to slide the frets into their slots. All the frets were pushed into the slots at one time.

Excellently detailed lesson. Thank you.

That fret job was so clean.

Nice guitars, such a sharp clear, it glows

BEAUTIFUL FRET WORK!

I remember my Musicians Union stickers on my equipment which you had to have in the UK in the 70’s/80’s .

I got a 77 telecaster with fret low as shit more then like this one but no buzzing fret and that is what make this guitar fantastic

Fantastic video. You do some really nice work.

Nice work ! I dread doing these old fenders too, your Dremel work is something I will try the next one I do thanks for the tip

Beautiful work!

Awesome Job T.. That is True Love Care Dedication and Attention to Detail.. And Loving Your Playing Bro and Thank You for This Instructional Video ☺☺😎👊💯💯

Very nice I love the tele

I believe you finished off the video with a few seconds of Mudflap Wilson’s “My Baby Cain’t Leave Me Cause She Already Been Gone So Long”. Heartrending and played with real soul. Thank you Ted!

I had a 54 strat S/N 00249 May 6, 1954 it was Navy blue ink stamped just below the truss-rod.. No pencil marks.

You're in lockstep with Keith Richards who also noted that Leo Fender got so much of it right the first time. Keith swears by his Teles.

That refretted board is beautiful.

Thanks for your time for making this video.

Sam and Dave is awesome.

As always, fantastic job, congrats! Thank you for sharing your work!!!

Great video, I love these , every ones a great lesson . Thankyou.

Thanks for all you do! Cheers from Indiana!

Thank you for sharing your brilliant work. Wish you a happy & safe newyear ! Greetings from Norway.

Damn that's some clean, quality work!

On 11:50 you talk about the change to 3 bolt necks, actualy the "normal standard" telecaster stayed 4 bolt through all the 70s, almost every other fender guitar and bass became 3 bolts, even the other telecaster models, like the custom, deluxe and thinline were 3 bolts on the 70s, but the standard tele stayed the same. Particularly i only had problems with 3 bolts necks that have been pulled out of the body a lot of times, making the screw holes bigger and the neck moving because of it, but a redrew fixed the problem. Happy holidays to all!

Such a great show, thanks.

your fret work is so nice!

Excellent video and top job as always

Great stuff! Your videos are interesting and very informative. Thanks so much.

Beautiful work, as usual! Happy Merry Jolly!

The dude of life strikes again. Good work bruiser.

Hy, great & fine job! I had a 1979 standard Stratocaster but the radius neck in the 80’ (CBS production) stato I think was too small and find them difficult to set up with a fine action! The most difficult refret I’ ve done was into a Gibson E175, I’ ve looked her for two days before decide to work on the frets!!! Many thanks for you videos & work specification! GREAT!❤️❤️❤️

What an absolute treasure! Thank you Ted!! Here's to a Happy New Year my good man!!! CHEERS!