I only come for the philosophical ponderings

The use of the epoxy putty and plastic wrap to create a viable ‘chicken head’ knob was the highlight of the Eko segment. This will be filed in my mental lockbox. Thanks!

On the Eko the pickup switch selector is not stock. It's a made in USA probably a Chicago company plastic switch as found on old Harmonys and Kays. The original has a distinctive acute triangular shape with black pinstriping. I really enjoy the videos you make.

The flat on the switch is by design. The "correct" knob for this should have had a grub screw which tightens against it.

I really can't thank you enough for all you've taught me in the last few years.

When you said the delaminated finished looked ghostly, this came into my head: "That her face, at first just ghostly · Turned a whiter shade of pale." Beautiful work. Thanks.

My weekly therapy and well rounded educational TV. We never know what is in store. Philosophy, history, you name it, it's all here. Peace ✌️

I’m 65, someday when I grow up I want to be able to solder like you!

I'm sure many know, but mariposa means butterfly. The shape of the guitar is evocative. Another great video. Thanks!

Excellent work as always, Ted! Thanks for sharing some of your day-to-day work with us!

That EKO is the first guitar I ever had. I've been trying to find out what it was for years. I even painted a Gibson logo on the headstock. That was over fifty years ago and I've finally seem another one. Thank you so much...

Depending on personality and upbringing saying "no" can indeed be tough. For me it helped a lot to try and find more mellow/nice versions of no, like e.g. "okay, but not right now" or "Sure, we can schedule that work to be done (in a couple of weeks)" when it concerns scheduling for instance. Maybe that way you don't feel like you have to be 'mean' to some people

For the selector switch I'd had gone for a set screw. But then I'm a machinist, I like threads and such.

I had the same problem with the truss rod in a Sterling Mariposa. Returned to Guitar Center, informed them of the problem, they placed it back on the wall before I left.

Hope you're safe from the wildfires Greetings from Wales!...stay safe

from Herzog to Bob Ross

Always love seeing Eko repairs. I’ll never get rid of my 1980/81 lefty Ranger XII❤

0:10 …. My favorite line is, “youll see that type of thing in them big jobs” I like it because they are all big jobs

"Action speaks louder than words", while checking the string action. Priceless. 😂

Is that a little love for Bill Alexander? He was my Bob Ross...

I've done a different repair of the nob. You grab a dowel, cut it from the top, not exactly at the middle. And then you insert this in the knob, set it in position by just placing on top of the switch, mark it, take it off and glue it there. This is how I now make wooden knobs out of wooden dowels as well, that I use in my pedals that use a the wood from a jícara tree instead of the standard casted metal box.

Minor detail: The name from the Mars Volta guy is Omar, not Oscar 😊. Great video, as always!

I talk to myself like this too. Self therapy👍

Ted, this episode is great. I loved the fixes on the Echo. The epoxy trick is going in the memory banks. Customer would benefit from a refret to get max neck width for sure. And a 3D printed neck pickup ring!

That acoustic sounded pretty damn good. amazing job as always.

sets up the larrivee for fingerstyle, plays it with a pick. love you ted.

Great show as usual. Love seeing the old guitars and the fixes.

Been waiting all week for this! Thank you, Ted! We really appreciate the extra work you put in to make these vids, sir. Thank you so, so much!

If you put out a 10 hour compilation I would sleep to it.. food for thought... watch time will jump immensely

You could get a LOT meaner and still be a charming man. Good luck trying anyway. Iconic pronounciation of 'Chicago', too.

I bought an Eko bass when I was in the Navy. I was on the USS Nimitz and pulled into Naples in 1977. I bought the bass right on the ship as they allowed vendors to come aboard when we were anchored in port. I taught myself to play on the Eko bass.

I like your playing by the way.

I appreciate that even though you're swamped with work, you still make enjoyable content for KZfaq.

Love this channel. Been subbed for years on multiple phones aka multiple KZfaq accounts lol n I've not only never owned a guitar but i don't sing and i have no musical skills lol but he's just that awesome

Every EKO I've ever seen up close (acoustic or electric) has had major finish cracks. I don't know what they sprayed them with, but it's like their trademark. They also made some Vox guitars with the same issue.

It's always great watching your videos.

Wow. An Eko like that one was my very first electric guitar in 1967.

Really, thank you for that. It just reinforced what I've learned.

Innovative solutions as always, great stuff!

I wanted to say a big Thank You. Today, using the insight into processes, materials, etc. I've learned from you, I put some mother of pearl fret markers on the fretboard of my new Asian CNC 5-string bass which only had side markers. Tomorrow, I'll be "polishing polishing polishing" the frets. I'll never own the caliber of instrument that you regularly work on, but by sharing your experience, you've empowered me to make my modest instrument suit me better, and nicer to play.

The Master at work yet again! Always good to see the creativity used.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom and also the. Brief images of you fretting the finger board while playing. As usual amazing work.

I can't agree more w/ the previous posters.. Ted, you are a magnificent craftsman. your sensibility and subtle dry humor is so appreciated! I've watched a million of your vids.. you are amazing.

Thanks for playing them after you repaired them! 👍

“ If anything it’s more toppy.”

That Eko is cool. Glad you were able to patch it back together again

Thank you for your time and sharing your knowledge!

Loved the G string use for setting an intonation point! Thanks for sharing. 😊👍

Great solution for the knob . You always satisfy my luthiery hankerin.

Larvae, Shawn in the Oxnard shop when it first started Shawn or Shun, laughed at my first guitar I learned on and Michael Tobias helped me out back in 1982 help me out with making me an electric guitar and a 1 piece birch P-bass. Both were way to heavy again I was young and dump. Who knew I was living with premature degenerative disk disease and from 5' 10" to 5' 4" now at 66, plus crippling arthritis. It only started from my 50, so the last 10 to 15 years ago. So Suan laughed at me and I wanted to work for free over there just to learn back in the 1990's. So he laughed and I was going to build my guitars with or without his help. I wanted to make acoustic guitars, but my wife said, make electric guitars first so 2010 to now I'm almost completed 2 guitars. One my design and a odd looking Strat. 2 this year's and 2 per year to make jigs to reproduce the same builds while selling or taking on as much as not to being cautious! Cheers!

I went to the serlingbymusicman site and the specs for the Mariposa state that the Truss Rod is a "Dual Action" so, maybe that accounts for the resistance you were feeling. My Lowden guitar also has the same ridiculous Truss Rod access location as the Larrivee, and "required" a special wrench to reach it. The wrench cost something like $40 way back then and had to be ordered directly from Lowden. 🤣The music store I purchased the Lowden from had an official wrench, so I made a tracing of it, then figured out how to make my own. It only took a few minutes to come up with a DIY design that cost me nothing except a little ingenuity and items I had laying around. Here is the design if you want to make your own, and doesn't require a Blowtorch to make, or taking off the strings to use. This assumes your guitar has the same basic design as my Lowden. 🤓 1. Copper Tubing, about 10.5 inches in length, outer diameter 3/8 inch, inner diameter 1/4 inch. 2. L-Shape Hex Wrench: Long leg 2 and 3/8 inches, Short leg 1 and 1/4 inch long. The Hex size I needed is 3/8 inch or 5mm. 3. Masking Tape 4. Hacksaw (to cut the tubing and possibly the Hex Wrench to the correct lengths) 5. Wrench or hammer A. Bend the Copper Tube so it forms the letter "J" with a sharp bend where the short leg of tube points up. That short length should be 2 inches long, and be parallel to the long tube at a distance of about 2.5 inches away. B. Use the wrench hammer to flatten the tube some on both sides where you bent it. The will give it some extra strength against the torque of turning the Truss Rod. C. Slip the long leg of the Hex Wrench into the short leg of the rod such that the short leg of the Hex is facing away from the long leg of the tube. It should like like the letter "J" with the short leg of the Hex Wrench sticking out and pointing to the left. D. Use some masking tap to fasten the Hex to the tube so it wont slip out. You may need to compress the tub a little to hold the Hex in place. E. Slip the bottom part of your new "J" Hex Wrench between the D and G String and poke around until the end of the Hex Wrench fits into the Hex Nut on the hidden end of the Truss Rod. Then turn the long leg of the tube to the left or right to tighten or loosen the Truss Rod. Wiggle the device to pull it out of the Hex Nut when done. 😎

7:30 "...maxed-out truss rod." Could you insert a washer (spacer) behind the black spinner nut-thingy? It could give the threads a fresh start further along.

Those sound chamber men are notoriously hard to deal with. ;)

Always enjoy seeing something from Larrivee on the bench. My 96 C-10 is still going strong.

I love those pickups and selector switch on the EKO semi-hollow…

Oh, it's just the wrong knob completely. Looks like it should have a pointer knob with a D-shaft interface. a standard type of electronics knob.

Fine work Ted, Thank you

yer awesome dude...i love watching your videos thanks

I love that old Eko! It's funny to me how similar the Italian and Japanese stuff from this era are. I have a Japanese guitar that a LOT like this one. Similar binding, the bolt-on neck shape, small frets, bridge, and single coil pickups with white covers and black surrounds.

The control wiring of that Mariposa, only two (2) individual volume controls, yet clearly there is some kind of tone capacitor on the neck volume pot, while the bridge pickup volume pot appears to have a treble by-pass circuit! Very interesting.

That Eko turned out pretty sweet.

The more I watch this video, the more I want a guitar with a rotating selection switch instead of the standard sliding ones. Keep it awesome 👍

Ted, as an independent repair guy who has experienced several work droughts where the phone just doesn't ring for a couple of weeks, I'd say you're in a pretty good (if tiring) place, buddy.

Love your videos ❤❤

Cool guitars, all!

Worse week to come to Chicago, hottest days of the year. Have a good time

Love the epoxy putty trick!

Nice Guitars. Thanks! 😎

Thank you, Ted. That Sterling guitar has a very beautiful, rich tone! Maybe that is why it has no tone controls

I would virtually guarantee that white bat-handle knob was a replacement. It was set up for a splined shaft, which that switch isn't. It's quite possible the original knob was held on with a setscrew. It may have gotten loose and the knob fell off and got lost. The repair you made is obviously good, but just FYI, knobs for flatted shafts came in one of two forms. Either the aforementioned setscrew that would screw down on the flat, or a folded piece of spring. The spring might be steel or some brass-like material. It usually had a flat side with a couple of barbs to stick into the plastic and prevent slipping, and the other side was bent into a knuckle shape and would press against the flat.

Great work, I really like the ECHO

I’ve got to say… that’s the oddest (and maybe coolest) pickup selector switch I think I’ve ever seen. Kind of clunky, but also kinda funky.

What a cool bunch of guitars, great video as usual, wish they were 3 hours long.

That Larrivee is violently pointy. But wow, she booms. Beautiful sound.

Your definitely uploading more often, love it.

What a disappointment that Music Man is… and I do hold to high regard the Cort factory plant! Hope the owner can get a hefty discount on that one, though great work as always!

Fun fun fun!!! 👍🏼😎 Sunday Funday!

Excellent excellent Having a very bad day finally sit down after losing a continuous battle with my daughter to find a woodford upload .. Akwaya makes the day better

I can't believe its a brand new guitar with a maxed out truss rod. Bro should have sent it back

Thanks Ted! Respect!

Have I ever told you the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise? Oh wait wrong podcast. I'll show myself out.

I like your suction cup gizmo for forcing glue into cracks but I’m afraid that it will pull glue back out when pulled away from the surface. To alleviate this problem I modified my own by drilling a small hole in it. That way I can cover the hole with a fingertip when pushing and uncover the hole when pulling back so there is less suction to pull glue back out. Concerning the switch lever on that very cool Eko, I have a feeling that it is not original. I’m no expert on 1960s Italian imports, but the flat on the switch shaft looks too smooth to have been filed by hand. My intuition tells me that the original matched the control knobs and was held in place by a miniature set screw. Anyways, nice camera work and another very entertaining video!

Ted, I had lots of friends who had Eko dreaghtnoughts back in the 70s, I had an Epiphone Texan. Those Eko's sounded good and were very popular. I wonder what was made of the Italian makers- for a veneer wood guitar they sounded good.

Man i had no idea omar helped design this. No wonder its so cool.

That Echo is supposed to have a chicken head knob instead of that big old thing.. Slick fix though..

Ted, I have the EKO semi-acoustic bass version of this. It sports the same horrible switch and what I took to be cracks in the sides turned out to be cracks in the horribly thick finish. It plays absolutely fine though despite its age and long list of previous careless owners :)

Thanks for posting

After seeing the EKO headstock I recognized I had owned a matching 6 string and 12 string EKO acoustics when I was stationed in England in the mid 70's. They really sounded nice. I recently tried googling the EKO brand but had no success.

Thankfully, no “happy little accidents”! :) I think that’s the first Echo I’ve ever seen (I mostly just hear them). …LOL… Sometimes I do amuse myself. :) ❤ from James Bay :)

The shaft on the switch is shaped that way intentionally, it's called a D-shaft and is fairly common in amplifiers and effect pedals. Usually they are used in conjunction with a knob with a matching recess, seems like an odd choice not to since they're not exactly rare or hard to come by but who knows what the situation was with parts availability in 1960s Italy (assuming that both the switch and the knob are original to the guitar in the first place)

A luthiery mezze is always welcome! ❤❤❤

23:13 man that guitar must be a joy to play!

Nice move on the switch knob problem!

Got lucky on that Eko switch!

Larrivee... that is a nice guitar. I don;t usually like the way cutaway steel strings sound but that thing is choice.

Brand new with a maxed-out truss rod...ordinarily you'd need to shell out for a Gibson to get that kind of quality!

With the Rebecca Black reference. She actually just dropped her first album since that single.

The old Eko`s had small frets and was very often delivered with an unusually high string set-up.

I think that switch is supposed to have a chicken head knob with a set screw, I had a similar guitar way back in my teen years and it had this type of setup. I seem to remember the one I had being a 12 string, it was stolen before I had a chance to do anything but string it up.

I enjoyed the random Rebecca Black reference