Official Luthiers Forum!

hey all, i recently had the guitar making portion of the diy handmade music show on vhs until my vcr ate it. i was wondering if anyone knew where i could get another copy of the show or am i stuck waiting until it airs again? does diy sell copies?? also what are some other guitar building videos that are helpful to a novice builder? thanks to anyone who can help. brandon.

Build an acoustic guitar with Robbie O'Brien

John Mays DVDs

Frank Finichio DVD series

Do they still make VCRs......

I am waiting for the Blu-Ray versions of the above......

i was actually in the process of copying it to my dvd burner when it broke. i was pretty mad....lol

doh...wow....a forum default that prevents 0 character posts should be enabled...

anywho...you can take the vcr tape apart and repair it, or worst case transfer it to another case...you will probably lose a little bit of data, but that is about it....the John Mays DVDs are great

I have seen the show and in my opinion its not that good. They really don't show you much. I would do what hesh recomended. you'll learn a lot more from the videos he listed Mike

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

[QUOTE=Hesh] Build an acoustic guitar with Robbie O'BrienJohn Mays DVDsFrank Finichio DVD seriesDo they still make VCRs......I am waiting for the Blu-Ray versions of the above......
[/QUOTE]



I'm not gonna buy a Blu-Ray for about 13 years. I got burned on Beta-max.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Yeah Ron, but look at the professionals what did they use for their cameras and studio work, Beta-Max! You were just a higher grade customer, it's the rest of the world that got out of step. It also shows that the better product (Beta-max) is not always the one that comes out on top, it's the better marketing.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I did save most of the episodes and put them on DVD but I have to agree, while they may be ineresting to watch, I don't think they were intended to be tutorials or instructional programs.  There are better ones, as listed above, that will provide much more information and detail.  It's a rather brief look at the procedures one builder uses, just when you'd like to see more they move on so it's a bit frustrating. To me, it's better to just build and learn from whatever sources you can find.  This forum could help you just as much as that series of shows could, IMHO.

Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Robbie's and John's DVDs are worth its weight in BRW to any builder, In particular to if you have never built before or just a couple. both are very easy watching. I like the index-able chapters of Robbie's. makes it easy to use.

If you get Robbie's be sure to tune-up your God given ultra high tech glue spreading device and as well as having a Schoosh to decimal inches conversion chart handy at all times

I did the banjo series for DIY a few years back--the guys who produced the shows (the same bunch that did the guitar series with fellow Knoxvillian Lynn Dudenbostel) were very much interested in instrument making, and very much interested in capturing the instrument making process on tape.  But, their target audience was not luthiers or anyone who had any notion of how luthiery works.  It was average Jane and Joe Homeowner, who make up most of DIY's audience.

Even though on the banjo series, they taped everything I did in the shop on one banjo, by the time it had been edited down to three half hour shows, only the essence remained.  Some of it was not quite accurate, but tweeked a bit for the target audience.  But by and large, the final edited versions of the shows were probably a lot more interesting to the general public than a longer, more detailed show would have been (even though it meant leaving out "the best parts" as seen through an instrument maker's eyes).

I think the DIY guys did a good job of putting the shows together, given what it was they were trying to do.  But, as others have said here--these are not detailed "how to build a guitar/banjo/whatever" shows.  There are plenty of those available elsewhere.  And, as far as I know, DIY doesn't make DVDs available at all...

Dave

yeah i agree that the show wan't very detailed....it was just something that i enjoyed watching as a new builder. i've ordered the john mayes dvds and look forward to watching them. i paid a bunch for them and at the risk of looking like an idiot i'm not gonna list what i paid . how much should i have paid?

[QUOTE=leerobs42] yeah i agree that the show wan't very detailed....it was
just something that i enjoyed watching as a new builder. i've ordered the
john mayes dvds and look forward to watching them. i paid a bunch for
them and at the risk of looking like an idiot i'm not gonna list what i paid
. how much should i have paid? [/QUOTE]

No worries on your purchase price there... you paid $50 less than about 700
people before you have paid, and just slightly more than the lowest I've ever
offered them.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

sweet..... thanks john.

[QUOTE=John Mayes] [QUOTE=leerobs42] yeah i agree that the show wan't very detailed....it was
just something that i enjoyed watching as a new builder. i've ordered the
john mayes dvds and look forward to watching them. i paid a bunch for
them and at the risk of looking like an idiot i'm not gonna list what i paid
. how much should i have paid? [/QUOTE]

No worries on your purchase price there... you paid $50 less than about 700
people before you have paid, and just slightly more than the lowest I've ever
offered them.[/QUOTE]

John was kind enough to give me his DVDs for a song, mainly the price during the swap meet...
Even if you paid regular retail price .. from what people tell me (people who know piles more than I do!)they are worth much much more than he charges!        Thanks John
Just do him a favour and dont make copies,,,
Cheers
Charlie

Dave Ball, My memory of names is terrible. Were you the open back banjo or the gourd banjo?

By the way, Where do you get your tone rings? I'm considering building a Whyte Laydie or a Bacon and I'm not interested in forging my own tone rings.

[QUOTE=Mike Mahar]Dave Ball, My memory of names is terrible. Were you the open back banjo or the gourd banjo?



By the way, Where do you get your tone rings? I'm considering building a Whyte Laydie or a Bacon and I'm not interested in forging my own tone rings.

[/QUOTE]

I did the open back and was "technical consultant" on the gourd--both were taped in my shop.  It's a long story...

For tone rings, I make my own (patterned either after the Cole Eclipse or similar to the original Fairbanks patent that was later used by Gibson, but quickly changed to the ball bearing design after Fairbanks' successors sued Gibson for patent infringement...).  But, the best source I know of for open back tone rings is Bill Rickard in Canada.  he makes Whyte Laydie, Little Wonder, Tubaphone and H.C. Dobson style rings in both 11 and 12 inch sizes.  Bill is a great banjo maker, but also a great tool designer/machinist.  He also builds everything with only one arm (he lost his left arm to the shoulder and left leg to the hip in a motorcycle accident a few years back).  Amazing guy, and a really nice fellow too.  His website is:  http://www.banjo-workshop.com/

Dave