Renovating my Guitar

Martin: - I am so happy because this is
my favorite music instrument of all, my guitar,

and I have Carlos Montoro here from Anjuda Guitars.
Carlos: - Hi.

Martin: - A guitar luthier. You actually build guitars.
Carlos: - Mhm.

Martin: - Carlos is going to help me repair
this guitar, because we have an issue over here.

Apart from the guitar being really dusty,
there's a crack here under the fretboard.

So Carlos is shining from the backside of the guitar

and you can see the light goes straight through under the fretboard here.

Martin: - How does it look?
Carlos: - Looks bad.

Martin: - Bad?

Carlos: - We need to close the gap.
Martin: - And then this string?

Martin: - Yeah, so if you open it?
It goes on this fret when you open it,

and when you close it, it goes on the nut.

Carlos: - The string is forcing the neck
of the guitar to go in this way.

So we need a thin strip of sanding paper.

Martin: - Oh, sweet.

[background music]
[♪ unreleased/Work ♪]

Carlos: - Now looking at the dust I made,
I can see this clear sand here is from the binding,

and this more darker is from under the fretboard.
You can see the colour matches.

Now hopefully we don't lose the lacquer.
Martin: - Aw, doesn't matter. It tells the story.

Carlos: - I always say that to my clients.

"I got a ding in my guitar!"
- Oh, come on, let the guitar tell the story.

Carlos: - Let the... let the time break your guitar.

Martin: - Ah, so they want you
to just make it look old?

Carlos: - Yeah.
Martin: - Huh.

Carlos: - Exactly.
Martin: - Oh, that's cheating.

Carlos: - Exactly.

Martin: - Just what the doctor ordered.

[music in foreground]

Martin: - So Carlos explained to me that
he wanna make a special clamping technique.

Carlos: - Mhm.

Martin: - That we don't want to clamp
the fretboard down to the neck,

but you want to clamp the neck up to the
fretboard, to not bend the fretboard.

Carlos: - Correct. So this way hopefully,
with the zip ties, we will get that.

Martin: - So I asked Carlos:
"Do you have enough glue in there?"

And he was like,
"the glue is supposed to spread",

and now it's spreading evenly everywhere.

So I'm always using way too much glue on everything.

Carlos: - And you know what? We can't go with too much glue

because the truss rod is just in the middle of the neck.

Martin: - Okay.

Carlos: - So we need the truss rod to keep
moving so the guitar can be adjustable.

Carlos: - I feel good about this.

So now that we have the glue setting and drying,

we are going to move the truss rod, often.

And hopefully, the truss rod will not be
glued with the fretboard and the neck.

Martin: - Yeah, so the truss rod is like a long bolt
that goes through the whole neck of the guitar.

It goes all the way down here?
Carlos: - Mhm.

Martin: - And it can adjust the tension
of the neck.

So often when you repair your guitar,

you always check the truss rod.

Carlos: - You always check the truss rod,
always, and you adjust the truss rod always.

Carlos: - So this is a truss rod. There are several types
but they all work more or less the same.

As you can see, this is a neck, work in progress.

This is just rough cut and here is a slot in the wood.

So pretty easy to place the truss rod in the slot
and then glue the fretboard on top of it.

All the truss rods have some way to actuate them.
In this case it's with this four millimeters allen key.

So you insert it, turn it clockwise, and,
as you can see, a bow is generated in the truss rod.

So when the fretboard is in place,
all the neck is forced to bow as well.

Carlos: - Do you know, how do we
call the truss rod in Spanish?

Martin: - No.
Carlos: - The soul.

Martin: - The soul?

Carlos: - The soul.
Martin: - Wow, that's beautiful.

Carlos: - Yeah, it's the perfect name for that,

because indeed it's something that is hidden in between,

and when the truss rod is not workable,
you don't have guitar at all.

It's like, dead guitar.

Martin: - Happening with no soul.
Carlos: - No soul.

Martin: - But Carlos, it doesn't sound so good.
Carlos: - Oh, it takes time.

Martin: - The glue needs to dry first?

Carlos: - How long hasn't you used making the MMX?

Martin: - Don't rub it in!

[playing a riff on muffled and detuned guitar]

Carlos: - You know you are in front of a musician
when they can do music with just anything.

Martin: - Do you call it music?
Carlos: - It can be.

We let this dry for today,
so I think it's time to untie it.

Martin: - During these days, I got to know Carlos better,

and Carlos told me that when you meet a customer,

you focus more on the relationship between
the customer and the customer's guitar,

than the guitar itself.

Carlos: - Yeah, you're a musician and you know
that musicians can get very close to their instruments,

and they feel like very personal for them.
For them is like to go to the doctor.

Martin: - Yeah.

Carlos: - You know, do you have your
doctor that you are confident with?

Martin: - Yeah.
Carlos: - It's the same with luthiers.

Martin: - Yeah. Even if it's
a cheap, kind of bad guitar,

you treat it with the same respect as if it's
a vintage hundred year old guitar,

because of the emotions that
the customer has for his instrument.

Carlos: - The price is not of the instrument.
It's not in the money.

It's in the customer's relationship with it.

Martin: - That's beautiful. It's
exactly how I feel with this guitar,

because now when I see it on the operating table,
I realize how much it means to me,

and that I've been taking it for granted,

and putting it just against walls and letting it fall.

[testing strings with clear tone]

Carlos: - Yeah. It seems we did it.

Now it's time to give love to this thing.
Martin: - Okay.

Carlos: - Before the love, there's always the fight.

[music in foreground]
[♪ unreleased/Helping Out ♪]

Carlos: - Secret formula.

- Mhm.

Martin: - Mhm, oh my...

Carlos: - Alright, isn't it?
Martin: - Oh wow.

Martin: - I didn't know it was black.
[laughs]

[music fades]

Martin: - I mean, who does this to his guitar,
when you can just buy a strap lock?

[chuckles]

[strums guitar strings]
Martin: - Check out this guitar!

Carlos built this beauty.
It has a bookmatched... maple?

Carlos: - Maple, yeah.
Martin: - Why is it so cool?

Carlos: - Because this is actually
the figurine of the wood itself.

Martin: - It looks like a blue tiger.
Carlos: - Yeah, it's called flame maple actually.

[guitar music]
[♪ unreleased/Jamming with Carlos ♪]

[ends with pronounced bass note]
[laughing]

Martin: - I love it, it's nice!

Martin: - I can't believe, you... you built something like this.

Carlos: - You tell me?

Martin: - Ah, yeah.

Martin: - Ok, should I try if the guitar is finished?

[strums chords]

Oh wow, new strings!

Honey, I'm home!

Ooooh!

Carlos: - I didn't make any adjustment,
but I think it is good as it is, like this.

[Martin playing a blues line]

Martin: - It's so beautiful!

[playing rhythmical chords]

I can only play bossa nova, apparently.

[laughing]
[jamming ends]

[background music]
[♪ unreleased/Helping Out ♪]

Martin: - Ok, so Carlos is now adjusting
the bolt that goes through the whole neck

and you're going to go to an extreme position?
Carlos: - Mhm.

Martin: - ...where the strings are too low?
Carlos: - Too low.

Martin: - and then we go up until it's playable.
Carlos: - Yeah.

Martin: - Ok.

Carlos: - So, we are going to check
the straightened of the neck.

Martin: - And how does it look now?

Carlos: - This, it look a little bit bad.
Martin: - Ok.

Carlos: - So it seems that we can
straighten the neck a little bit.

Martin: - Ok. So now you're going clockwise

to get the ramp to force the neck
down towards the table here.

Carlos: - Mhm.
Martin: - So bend like that.

Carlos: - So, you know that you have gone
too far with the truss rod tightening

when it starts to buzz on the first frets.

[guitar makes buzzing sounds]

Not good.

Martin: - Okay, so then you have to give more relief?
Carlos: - Yeah.

Martin: - So it's a compromise between
easy to play and no buzz.

Carlos: - Yeah, exactly.

[much less buzzing]

Still a little bit of buzz, but it is something
that some players can handle good.

Martin: - Can I try?

Martin: - Does it work for bossa nova?
Carlos: - Yeah, smoothly.

[jamming]

Martin: - This feels better.

Carlos: - You see the buzz there?

Martin: - It's only on that note actually.
Carlos: - Yeah.

Martin: - I don't like F anyway.

Can we make a tiny adjustment to higher,

because this is very, very easy to play?
It feels very good though.

Carlos: - I'd say that we should loosen a little bit more.

Martin: - Yes. Here we go.

Yes.

Carlos: - When you have this set up, in guitars,

and then it's... at that point is when it's important
to check out the guitar in winter and in summer,

because now it will be affected by the weather.

Martin: - Ok. Because it's so tight.
Carlos: - Because it's so tight.

Martin: - But how can I learn to play
something else than bossa nova?

Can you solve that for me?
Carlos: - You tell me!

Martin: - I actually asked Carlos...
I want the strings lower,

and I thought I was having to put this down.

Carlos: - Yeah.
Martin: - But you didn't touch this.

Carlos: - Yeah, it's the first thing that people
should suggest: to touch the bridge,

and actually it's more important to touch
the truss rod and have it in the right position

and then you can go to the bridge if needed.

Martin: - Carlos, an amazing experience

seeing you work with my baby guitar.
Thank you so much!

Carlos: - Thank you! Thank you so much for
bringing me here

and work here with the bass and the MMX.
It was just wonderful!

Martin: - My pleasure. It's so fun to have
expertise company in the workshop

and as I've said a lot of times, I learn
so much more seeing someone work in real life

than just trying to find information
on the internet. So, that's lovely.

And, it feels like, I've been
building for like three years,

and a little bit this feels like a little start
for my music again.

So it means very much to me.

[intense music]
[♪ unreleased/My Dream Snare Sound - Full ♪]

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Thank you so much everyone
who are supporting and thank you

for believing in this crazy dream
that is the Marble Machine X.

Thank you so much for watching.
See you on the next one!

Martin: - You're not happy yet.
You want to tweak it more.

Carlos: - Yeah.
Martin: - Ok. Love it!