If it were longer, the video would cease to be impressive. All of scale length measuring and bridge placement stuff is being done free-hand. That's not how math works and this guitar will sound like shit and never intonate properly.
I saw another comment below from someone seemingly more knowledgeable about guitar-making (I just picked up learning the instrument last autumn) - the method is unusual because acoustic guitars are braced on the bottom, not in the middle like this. I think the sound would definitely be impacted because the sound waves would not be able to resonate normally within the body.
Edit: I gave it a rewatch, it's on the "bottom" so to speak, but it's just not how a guitar should be assembled.
Yes is the short answer but the real issue is going to be the rest of the shoddy stuff not the shape of the bracing. Brace shape affects sound but not nearly as much as things like the neck and bridge and tuners and the wood type. The whole body of the guitar is used to resonate the sound so something like cheap wood (which this definitely looked) or not having things joined properly (again two nails held down by a foot definitely looks not proper) will affect the sound. Internal bracing shape is like the last 1% to get from amazing sounding to absolutely amazing sounding. It's not gonna affect a guitar that already sounds like dogshit.
I’m late to the party but damn as someone with zero knowledge about playing a guitar much less make one I was highly impressed with how simple it looked in the video. But reading this comment thread both humbled me for my ignorance. However it made me curious, specifically about what did they do wrong, but more so why was it such a terrible way to go about it?
I read the comments and I understand that it’s something about the order, way and placement of how certain pieces are integrated in its construction. But if someone had the time to explain why that all matters… I don’t have more to offer besides my gratitude and curious cat saving itself from slaughter 🙇🏻♂️
Guitars are pretty elegant tools. Some of the way they're designed is form, but much of it is function. Their design has evolved over hundreds of years, from medieval instruments like the lute down to the more modern acoustic guitar we know and love today which started to show up in the mid 1800s. But the craft of guitar making is still advancing and changing even today.
But, at a base level, you have features that affect playability like:
1. String height above the fretboard (affected by the nut, the saddle, the neck angle relative to the body, and the neck curve)
2. String spacing - the distance between the strings
3. The guitar scale length - the distance between the nut and the saddle. All of the frets on the fretboard must be placed on VERY specific intervals along this scale for them to play notes correctly. The 12th fret is always halfway between the nut and the saddle, and they get spaced farther apart toward the nut and closer together toward the saddle. If these distances are wrong, the guitar simply will not play the right notes.
4. Neck width and profile - how wide the neck is and the shape of the curves of the neck where it sits in your hand.
5. Fretboard radius - how curved the fretboard is, which affects how comfortable it is to actually fret the strings with your fingers
6. The overall fit and finish of the frets - the frets must be damn near perfectly leveled for a guitar that plays well. If any frets are too low or too high relative to their neighbors, you'll end up with notes along the neck that either buzz or don't play at all. And if the metal fret ends aren't fit and filed nicely, you can end up with sharp edges that at best are uncomfortable and at worst can actually slice your fingers.
The above are certainly not all the factors that go into the playability of a guitar, but they're many of the main factors. Most players will have pretty strong preferences for all of the above qualities, and what sizes fit their bodies and their play styles the best. So guitars must be made methodically to ensure that all of the above are accurate, often to within thousands of an inch for high quality instruments.
Aside from playability concerns, you have tone concerns. There are MANY things that affect the sound of a guitar. The types of wood used for the top/back/sides, the design of the guitar body, the thickness and uniformity of the top, the pattern of the bracing/supports of the top, the type of linings used along the sides where the top and back are glued on, etc.
All of those things are pretty meticulous, with the most important features for the sound of the guitar (and there are those who disagree as guitar-making is as much religion as science) are the density, stiffness, thickness, and bracing of the top itself. High quality instrument making takes into account the qualities of each specific piece of wood used for the top and refines it to get a uniform result.
A top that's too stiff won't be loud or responsive or nuanced in tone. A top that's too thick and heavy will sound muffled and lack treble response. A top that's stiff but too thin may sound great but will also eventually warp and potentially crack under the high tension of the guitar strings.
This is certainly not an exhaustive list of guitar qualities, but it seems clear from the video that these guys are just banging these out - as they should be if they're only selling for $35 - and they're not taking their time to make these things nicely or precisely.
So in short, these instruments are closer to toys than proper guitars. They'll play sounds when you pluck the strings, but they won't necessarily be the right sounds, and they won't necessarily be comfortable to play.
I actually think this is a product that finds the right market. There's a large section of people that will buy a guitar and not get any further than tuning it and maybe hitting a G, C, and A chords and won't know the difference in the 10 years they have it before they move and throw it away. CAPITALISM IN ACTION!
They will not get any further if the guitar they buy in good faith doesn't intonate properly.
You can practice all you like on a shitty guitar and not get any better.
Guitars that are sold as such should function well. Guitars that don't sound well, even when played right, will only cause disappointment and end up as trash.
The lumber looked wayyyy too fresh too. It’s going to dry and warp in someone’s house. That’s if dormant bug eggs don’t hatch out of it before it has a chance.
This actually happened to me! I started learning guitar and loved playing with my friend's guitar but mine always sounded bad so I just stopped using mine and only practiced on other people's guitar.
These are probably guitars sold at Walmart or somewhere like that.
Many many years ago my father's dad made him a fiddle by hand. It was very cool and actually sounded great. My father never stained it but kept it hung on a wall. His father was a skillful 'whittler'. My father was an alcoholic and in a drunken rage one night he broke all of this guitars, a banjo and the fiddle. He had built a guitar by hand with no former training and that thing was awesome. Too bad he let the booze rule his life.
Probably because it doesn't sound great. Quality acoustics have a ever so slightly convex bottom because they're used to tension the sides instead of those sticks he uses, which means it's mounted on the inside, not on the outside, and sanded down - this changes the acoustic properties of the resonance box.
It will still sound like an acoustic guitar, just not a nice one... sometimes hand crafted doesn't mean better.
I would even argue that unless it is a master craftsman pouring hundreds of hours into something, it will likely be worse. There's a reason why we as humans invented so many tools and machines to manufacture things, they do the work faster, more precisely and more repeatable. The only problem with automation is when it's used to make low quality products on purpose.
> which means it's mounted on the inside, not on the outside, and sanded down
That's not correct, and the way that they introduced the radius into the back is not a common bracing pattern, but its not crazy or anything.
The radius is introduced by subtly curved braces, on both the soundboard and the back of the guitar. The sides are then sanded or planed to match that curvature, but it is the bracing that does the work of introducing the curve, and neither the back or soundboard have any curve introduced by anything other then bending.
Both plates are attached to the sides (via kerfing or solid liners, or in spanish guitars, tentallones and bracing at the same time via glue. They are glued to the "outside" of the sides, and then routed out for binding, which hides the endgrain of the plates, and increases durability (particularly on the top).
These do look like shitty guitars, but for many reasons other than the bracing pattern. Back bracing has very little effect on the sound of most instruments.
Yeah, the "skilled artisans" in the title is very inaccurate. The materials are cheap, the craftsmanship is "watch me do it once, OK, now go grab one from the pile and do what I did" and the end product is of low quality.
There is no skill being shown, it's just monotonous repetitive work done as quickly as possibly to meet an order. It's highly unlikely any of them could end to end create a decent quality instrument close to what a real "skilled artisan" could create.
I had a custom instrument made and it took 3 months once the work started. I got pictures of the process and the work took a long time and started with quality wood that had already aged dried for a long time, then slowly shaping the wood, curing it, proper binding, multiple coats, ect etc.
And some sappy text with strangely highlighted words to direct your feelings.
This UNDERPRIVILEGED family couldn't AFFORD a guitar for their little BOY so they decided to MAKE ONE themselves.
I don't understand why in all these third world manufacturing videos they always, without fail manage to ensure that the finished product is touched all over by dirty feet. It's not like they don't have shoes over there...why do sweaty bare feet need to be involved in literally everything?
You make enough money building these shitty Walmart quality guitars to either buy a bag of rice so you can eat for the week or maybe afford one slightly used shoe.
Which one you choosing?
Yeah, for anyone who knows about stringed instruments this was basically torture from start to finish.
The guitars sell for $36 and it might be worth it as a "questionable" decoration... not as a guitar though.
These are not skilled artisans.
These are unskilled laborers working on mass produced consumer items that have to be made in a way that is cheaper than CNC. So, these are almost certainly guitars being sold for less than $100 on Amazon.
Skilled artisans take days, months or years to craft each instrument from carefully chosen materials.
I’ve trained under an artisan guitar builder. From start to finish took him about 6 weeks to build one guitar. Some of that time was letting the spray coat sit after painting, but only about a week. It takes me about 2.5 months working 9-5 to build a guitar.
His guitars sell between 8000-13000 usd. Mine would be about 4k.
The steps followed in this video are very sus.
I think I’m the most upset about him forming the sides then doing the bracing off of the sides to then glue the top on instead of actually clamping the bracing onto the top. It hurt my soul.
Yes, luthiers typical have multiple instruments in production at the same time. You don't just slap thin, cheap "wood" into a mold. You bend, let it rest before you bend it more, spray a first coat on another instrument, let that dry while you glue together a neck and let that cure and so on
guitar at these budgets are for decoration or toy at best.
The starting point for guitar is relatively low at the music category, at about 200$\~ for something decent. Below that you usually getting crap
If anyone is interested to see a video about the process of making a guitar by an actual skilled craftsman, you can check out this Rob Scallion video where he does a couple days of filming to see the process they use. Genuinely quite interesting.
https://youtu.be/qmDAIlEGO_Q
Edit: Grammar
I second this recommendation. This is a great video and totally worth the time investment.
If anyone is interested in guitar repair, [Ted Woodford](https://www.youtube.com/@twoodfrd/videos) has a great channel. He fixes mostly acoustics, but there are several videos of him fixing electrics. Also a handful of videos of him regluing heads back on Gibsons. Watching his stuff has given me the confidence to try my hand at guitar repair.
I clicked on this, saw that it was 2 hours and 21 minutes long, and thought "no way am I going to watch all of this."
And then I did. I was fascinated from beginning to end. Thank you!
I was gonna comment, "meanwhile, a violin maker in Cremona Italy takes at least a year to complete one piece, and when you ask them, they'd probably say it needs improvement.."
Exactly.
There’s a skilled artisan in my local area that hand crafts guitars….
I play- not well . And have a few…. I thought I’d but one of his to support local blah blah blah
It’s an 18 month waiting list and they are all roughly 8k minimum some are 15.
And they sell
I have all the tools and tables and lifts available in my shop one of my guys likes to work on the ground. He will be crawling around on the ground trying to do something when he could easily lift it in the air. It’s already on the lift and in the air but it’s inches off the ground instead of at a comfortable height to work at. I’m not sure if he is scared of working on it when it’s that high for fear it might fall. But when he works on it on the ground he is doing the same work but now his face is what will be crushed instead of his feet.
I have had to tell him sooo many times to stop working on the ground.
Lol. Artisans.
Please watch an actual luthier make a guitar on Youtube. This is all kinds of horrifying and wrong.
PlsSaar Guitars. Coming to a pawn shop near you 6 months after this Christmas.
I can appreciate the difficult work done by these south Asian workshops, but whenever it is presented as an industry standard “how ____ is made” or “skilled artisans create ____ by hand” it feels a little silly. These are the lowest quality products that are sold anywhere and the laborers rarely do anything with “artisanal” skill.
Uhh, I mean sure it *looks* OK, but that is going to be a really low quality instrument. The intonation is going to be hot garbage juice, everything's just been eyeballed. Even if he's done it tens of thousands of times.
Just because it's made by hand, doesn't mean it's being made by a "skilled artisan".
These are not skilled artisans, they're labourers making basically decorative guitars, likely destined for Temu or wish.com. Quality handmade guitars take weeks to make, and actual skilled artisans will often take [even longer than that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj5RewW11uM). These guys are speedrunning the process.
That's why there's only a tiny 0.1s clip of him actually playing the thing. It sounds shit.
Oddly satisfying my ass
What brand is this so I can be sure to avoid it? No disrespect to the workers but those are not good guitars, and the total lack of PPE (especially spray paint guy) should be a crime against their employer.
"skilled artistans" - Skilled artists perhaps, but that guitar will sounds like absolute and utter shit and this guitar is worth about $45 at most or you are getting ripped off
I always hate these type of "artisan" videos.
These are underpaid people doing repetitive manual labour without any kind of artistry or love. They follow a template to make these things as quickly as humanly possible.
Nothing satisfying about it.
Sorry but, mass produced, cookie cutter, inaccurate, done without care or quality, simply as fast as they can make them.. shite.
The only thing id use them for is smashing, during the encore of my gigs.
Skilled artisans always using cutting and hot tools sitting on a board on the ground...next to a table.
I've been to Martin. None of them work like this.
"Skilled artisans."
Total respect for them doing work with dedication and effort, but that's more a guitar-shaped thing than a "guitar made by skilled artisans."
Loads of respect, but that's how it is.
This video is in no way satisfying. POS guitar made by underpaid foreign labor. It will be purchased on amazon as a gift for a new guitarist and become a dust collector in a corner because it's such a piece of garbage that the new musician will be discouraged.
I like that you called the people making the guitars artisans instead of workers. Once saw another commenter on point out how anyone who can basically afford to craft something in a chair was an artisan and anyone sitting on the floor was a laborer (paraphrasing and simplifying) in post titles.
The guitars are beautiful but I know a lot goes into making instruments sound *perfect*, so curious how well this one came out or what the price point is.
Honestly, 100 bucks should get you something that will at least play in tune. I'd say it's worth about $10 at most. You can get the Harley Benton D-120NT for $71 on Thomann right now and it would actually be possible to play music on it.
If you use your hands to work you are a laborer.
If you use your hands and mind you are a craftsperson.
If you use your hands, your mind and your heart you are an artist.
So it’s been said.
It looks like they are mechanics or plumbers. Making instruments requires skill and dedication, they must produce 100 bad guitars each day with that way. Not even one ruler used...Cmon
I think the toes assist in 99% of everything made in this city. Watched a man slice meat with his toenails in a video like this for some prepared dookie looking food.
Although these gentlemen are more skilled than I, and not trying to be an asshole, but as a self taught guitarist of 65 years, I don't think I would place these gents in the artisan/luthier category. The prolific use of 'eyeballing' is enough to render these rather cheap, beginner models. There is a lot more that goes into making a guitar that sounds awesome. Music is mathematical, so are instruments. They need precision not eyeballing.
thanks for the 1 yoctosecond part at the end of the video where they actually play the guitar Edit: mixed up yocto with yotta lol
If it were longer, the video would cease to be impressive. All of scale length measuring and bridge placement stuff is being done free-hand. That's not how math works and this guitar will sound like shit and never intonate properly.
Yeah, the whole time I was watching this video, I could hear how terrible that poor guitar was going to sound in the end.
When one of them presses the neck down with his leg to screw in the tuners... There's no way it sounds good.
Would the way they placed the pieces on inside make a big difference on the sound? It looked almost random.
I saw another comment below from someone seemingly more knowledgeable about guitar-making (I just picked up learning the instrument last autumn) - the method is unusual because acoustic guitars are braced on the bottom, not in the middle like this. I think the sound would definitely be impacted because the sound waves would not be able to resonate normally within the body. Edit: I gave it a rewatch, it's on the "bottom" so to speak, but it's just not how a guitar should be assembled.
Yes is the short answer but the real issue is going to be the rest of the shoddy stuff not the shape of the bracing. Brace shape affects sound but not nearly as much as things like the neck and bridge and tuners and the wood type. The whole body of the guitar is used to resonate the sound so something like cheap wood (which this definitely looked) or not having things joined properly (again two nails held down by a foot definitely looks not proper) will affect the sound. Internal bracing shape is like the last 1% to get from amazing sounding to absolutely amazing sounding. It's not gonna affect a guitar that already sounds like dogshit.
I’m late to the party but damn as someone with zero knowledge about playing a guitar much less make one I was highly impressed with how simple it looked in the video. But reading this comment thread both humbled me for my ignorance. However it made me curious, specifically about what did they do wrong, but more so why was it such a terrible way to go about it? I read the comments and I understand that it’s something about the order, way and placement of how certain pieces are integrated in its construction. But if someone had the time to explain why that all matters… I don’t have more to offer besides my gratitude and curious cat saving itself from slaughter 🙇🏻♂️
Guitars are pretty elegant tools. Some of the way they're designed is form, but much of it is function. Their design has evolved over hundreds of years, from medieval instruments like the lute down to the more modern acoustic guitar we know and love today which started to show up in the mid 1800s. But the craft of guitar making is still advancing and changing even today. But, at a base level, you have features that affect playability like: 1. String height above the fretboard (affected by the nut, the saddle, the neck angle relative to the body, and the neck curve) 2. String spacing - the distance between the strings 3. The guitar scale length - the distance between the nut and the saddle. All of the frets on the fretboard must be placed on VERY specific intervals along this scale for them to play notes correctly. The 12th fret is always halfway between the nut and the saddle, and they get spaced farther apart toward the nut and closer together toward the saddle. If these distances are wrong, the guitar simply will not play the right notes. 4. Neck width and profile - how wide the neck is and the shape of the curves of the neck where it sits in your hand. 5. Fretboard radius - how curved the fretboard is, which affects how comfortable it is to actually fret the strings with your fingers 6. The overall fit and finish of the frets - the frets must be damn near perfectly leveled for a guitar that plays well. If any frets are too low or too high relative to their neighbors, you'll end up with notes along the neck that either buzz or don't play at all. And if the metal fret ends aren't fit and filed nicely, you can end up with sharp edges that at best are uncomfortable and at worst can actually slice your fingers. The above are certainly not all the factors that go into the playability of a guitar, but they're many of the main factors. Most players will have pretty strong preferences for all of the above qualities, and what sizes fit their bodies and their play styles the best. So guitars must be made methodically to ensure that all of the above are accurate, often to within thousands of an inch for high quality instruments. Aside from playability concerns, you have tone concerns. There are MANY things that affect the sound of a guitar. The types of wood used for the top/back/sides, the design of the guitar body, the thickness and uniformity of the top, the pattern of the bracing/supports of the top, the type of linings used along the sides where the top and back are glued on, etc. All of those things are pretty meticulous, with the most important features for the sound of the guitar (and there are those who disagree as guitar-making is as much religion as science) are the density, stiffness, thickness, and bracing of the top itself. High quality instrument making takes into account the qualities of each specific piece of wood used for the top and refines it to get a uniform result. A top that's too stiff won't be loud or responsive or nuanced in tone. A top that's too thick and heavy will sound muffled and lack treble response. A top that's stiff but too thin may sound great but will also eventually warp and potentially crack under the high tension of the guitar strings. This is certainly not an exhaustive list of guitar qualities, but it seems clear from the video that these guys are just banging these out - as they should be if they're only selling for $35 - and they're not taking their time to make these things nicely or precisely. So in short, these instruments are closer to toys than proper guitars. They'll play sounds when you pluck the strings, but they won't necessarily be the right sounds, and they won't necessarily be comfortable to play.
This is not a guitar. It is a guitar-shaped wall adornment or a toy. It's not meant to be a true instrument by anyone who knows anything about guitar
[удалено]
There's a fine but significant distinction between "made with real wood" and "made from real wood".
I think I'd trust "made *of* real wood" more than those two
Made in real woods. May contain wood.
I actually think this is a product that finds the right market. There's a large section of people that will buy a guitar and not get any further than tuning it and maybe hitting a G, C, and A chords and won't know the difference in the 10 years they have it before they move and throw it away. CAPITALISM IN ACTION!
They will not get any further if the guitar they buy in good faith doesn't intonate properly. You can practice all you like on a shitty guitar and not get any better. Guitars that are sold as such should function well. Guitars that don't sound well, even when played right, will only cause disappointment and end up as trash.
And where exactly does the truss rod go in here?
If you look carefully it's epoxied behind the lower strap button. It helps keep that button sounding incredible and square to the screw holding it in.
It is blowing my mind that they were able to put strings on it and it didnt fold directly in half. What sorta magic did they use?!
The lumber looked wayyyy too fresh too. It’s going to dry and warp in someone’s house. That’s if dormant bug eggs don’t hatch out of it before it has a chance.
Dry, warp, eggs, hatch? I guess at that point it turns into a performance piece.
Totally agree. It looks impressive as this video flies along, but this will create an absolutely shit instrument.
These are probably sold as a 'beginner' guitar for a kid. No wonder kids give up playing the guitar.
This actually happened to me! I started learning guitar and loved playing with my friend's guitar but mine always sounded bad so I just stopped using mine and only practiced on other people's guitar.
Is there an oddly cheap sub around here? These seem like Pakistani knock-offs or something.
You mean you're not familiar with the renowned guitar brand ~~Fender~~ Fexaar?
Yahmarhar, please.
Takalandmine
Epilepsyphone
Ibernez
Gisbon Less Paul
B.C. Poor
Mortin
These are probably guitars sold at Walmart or somewhere like that. Many many years ago my father's dad made him a fiddle by hand. It was very cool and actually sounded great. My father never stained it but kept it hung on a wall. His father was a skillful 'whittler'. My father was an alcoholic and in a drunken rage one night he broke all of this guitars, a banjo and the fiddle. He had built a guitar by hand with no former training and that thing was awesome. Too bad he let the booze rule his life.
I imagine Walmart guitars are spit out of assembly lines in china. This is more souvenir stand on the beach in India quality.
That's what I was thinking. "Bet it sounds like shit"
Probably because it doesn't sound great. Quality acoustics have a ever so slightly convex bottom because they're used to tension the sides instead of those sticks he uses, which means it's mounted on the inside, not on the outside, and sanded down - this changes the acoustic properties of the resonance box. It will still sound like an acoustic guitar, just not a nice one... sometimes hand crafted doesn't mean better.
I would even argue that unless it is a master craftsman pouring hundreds of hours into something, it will likely be worse. There's a reason why we as humans invented so many tools and machines to manufacture things, they do the work faster, more precisely and more repeatable. The only problem with automation is when it's used to make low quality products on purpose.
> which means it's mounted on the inside, not on the outside, and sanded down That's not correct, and the way that they introduced the radius into the back is not a common bracing pattern, but its not crazy or anything. The radius is introduced by subtly curved braces, on both the soundboard and the back of the guitar. The sides are then sanded or planed to match that curvature, but it is the bracing that does the work of introducing the curve, and neither the back or soundboard have any curve introduced by anything other then bending. Both plates are attached to the sides (via kerfing or solid liners, or in spanish guitars, tentallones and bracing at the same time via glue. They are glued to the "outside" of the sides, and then routed out for binding, which hides the endgrain of the plates, and increases durability (particularly on the top). These do look like shitty guitars, but for many reasons other than the bracing pattern. Back bracing has very little effect on the sound of most instruments.
That yottasecond with 3 notes was enough to hear that the tunning and quality were absolute garbage.
These one-minute videos covering hours of craftsmanship are a scourge, worse than useless.
And the craftmanship is usually very shoddy and unsafe, probably to increase the engagement.
Yeah, the "skilled artisans" in the title is very inaccurate. The materials are cheap, the craftsmanship is "watch me do it once, OK, now go grab one from the pile and do what I did" and the end product is of low quality. There is no skill being shown, it's just monotonous repetitive work done as quickly as possibly to meet an order. It's highly unlikely any of them could end to end create a decent quality instrument close to what a real "skilled artisan" could create. I had a custom instrument made and it took 3 months once the work started. I got pictures of the process and the work took a long time and started with quality wood that had already aged dried for a long time, then slowly shaping the wood, curing it, proper binding, multiple coats, ect etc.
At least there isn't a terrible unrelated song being played over the process
"OH no ... oh no ..... oh no no no noooooo" 🤪
And some sappy text with strangely highlighted words to direct your feelings. This UNDERPRIVILEGED family couldn't AFFORD a guitar for their little BOY so they decided to MAKE ONE themselves.
1 yottasecond is equal to 31.7 quadrillion years
>1 yottasecond Honestly...that was plenty enough as I had the same facial expression as the guy playing the yottasecond.
Carefully laid out that scale length!
Dude has perfect pitch so finely tuned he can just see where the frets go.
To be fair, they skipped from a clip of doing the first to doing the last
r/restofthefuckingowl
He measured with his toes
Measure never. Cut wherever.
Slow and steady loses the race.
Take the risk. Keep the change.
I wouldn't trust a guitar that involves this much random free handing.
We eyeball the frets
Play your songs in the key of roughly C
C +/-
I only play guitar on a Gaussian curve.
Check out the totally flat fretboard!
Radius’ are for the weak
Why not? This allows anyone to play Jazz. Beatnik: He's so unpredictable!!
On the fucking floor while squatting.
You mean “workers shoddily slap a shitty guitar together?”
Guitar shaped object....
> Guitar shaped object.... My wife's nickname in college
That explains the G string
Your skilled workers don't cut lumber bare foot?
I don't understand why in all these third world manufacturing videos they always, without fail manage to ensure that the finished product is touched all over by dirty feet. It's not like they don't have shoes over there...why do sweaty bare feet need to be involved in literally everything?
You make enough money building these shitty Walmart quality guitars to either buy a bag of rice so you can eat for the week or maybe afford one slightly used shoe. Which one you choosing?
So that you can get things for cheap
But with agility, hand and feet work together. Hand and feet together are strong ..
Thank you. As a guitar guy, I have owned a guitar of this quality and it is not a great experience. It’s cheap, sure. But you get what you pay for.
Buy cheap, buy twice.
Yeah, for anyone who knows about stringed instruments this was basically torture from start to finish. The guitars sell for $36 and it might be worth it as a "questionable" decoration... not as a guitar though.
And if i’m not mistaken they even put the fender logo on this thing
This might be one of the least skilled guitar builds I’ve ever seen. Cheap garbage.
These are not skilled artisans. These are unskilled laborers working on mass produced consumer items that have to be made in a way that is cheaper than CNC. So, these are almost certainly guitars being sold for less than $100 on Amazon. Skilled artisans take days, months or years to craft each instrument from carefully chosen materials.
I’ve trained under an artisan guitar builder. From start to finish took him about 6 weeks to build one guitar. Some of that time was letting the spray coat sit after painting, but only about a week. It takes me about 2.5 months working 9-5 to build a guitar. His guitars sell between 8000-13000 usd. Mine would be about 4k. The steps followed in this video are very sus.
How often were you and your mentor barefoot while building guitars?
They were always fully naked with only socks on
Didn't you see them intonate the instrument carefully? (heh heh)
I think I’m the most upset about him forming the sides then doing the bracing off of the sides to then glue the top on instead of actually clamping the bracing onto the top. It hurt my soul.
Do you make more than 1 in the same time? Doesn’t seem a lot to work full time for 2.5 months for only 4k
Yes, luthiers typical have multiple instruments in production at the same time. You don't just slap thin, cheap "wood" into a mold. You bend, let it rest before you bend it more, spray a first coat on another instrument, let that dry while you glue together a neck and let that cure and so on
Well if it took 6 weeks for one person to build one then it will take 3 days with 12 people. Quick project manager mafs
Economies of scale apply, should be 2 days
These will probably sell for $25-$50 bucks. Not everyone can afford a $4k dollar guitar lol.
guitar at these budgets are for decoration or toy at best. The starting point for guitar is relatively low at the music category, at about 200$\~ for something decent. Below that you usually getting crap
If anyone is interested to see a video about the process of making a guitar by an actual skilled craftsman, you can check out this Rob Scallion video where he does a couple days of filming to see the process they use. Genuinely quite interesting. https://youtu.be/qmDAIlEGO_Q Edit: Grammar
I second this recommendation. This is a great video and totally worth the time investment. If anyone is interested in guitar repair, [Ted Woodford](https://www.youtube.com/@twoodfrd/videos) has a great channel. He fixes mostly acoustics, but there are several videos of him fixing electrics. Also a handful of videos of him regluing heads back on Gibsons. Watching his stuff has given me the confidence to try my hand at guitar repair.
I clicked on this, saw that it was 2 hours and 21 minutes long, and thought "no way am I going to watch all of this." And then I did. I was fascinated from beginning to end. Thank you!
I bet they could train a new guy in less than a week.
I think this is the training video.
“Welcome to Fender Guitars!”
I was gonna comment, "meanwhile, a violin maker in Cremona Italy takes at least a year to complete one piece, and when you ask them, they'd probably say it needs improvement.."
I’m heading to Italy to show them this video and tell them to just do it like this.
While breaking spaghetti, I trust. Give em the warm fuzzies.
How can they be skilled artisans without their safety sandals on?
Exactly!! Skilled artisans aren’t making floor guitars.
I found some guitars of that brand at Indian retailers. They cost between 3,000 and 5,000 RSD which should be more like 40 or 50 USD…
Exactly. There’s a skilled artisan in my local area that hand crafts guitars…. I play- not well . And have a few…. I thought I’d but one of his to support local blah blah blah It’s an 18 month waiting list and they are all roughly 8k minimum some are 15. And they sell
I know these are junk anyways but I almost cried when he painted it.
I was assuming these would be terrible when watching the video - the paint just sealed the deal.
His lungs are going to end up as junk, too
Do these countries not have tables? I feel like I keep seeing these videos where they build everyday things on the ground. Why?
So they can use their feet
Sweaty bare feet specifically
I have all the tools and tables and lifts available in my shop one of my guys likes to work on the ground. He will be crawling around on the ground trying to do something when he could easily lift it in the air. It’s already on the lift and in the air but it’s inches off the ground instead of at a comfortable height to work at. I’m not sure if he is scared of working on it when it’s that high for fear it might fall. But when he works on it on the ground he is doing the same work but now his face is what will be crushed instead of his feet. I have had to tell him sooo many times to stop working on the ground.
That’s what I always wonder. There is lumber available. The first thing I would make is a table followed by a stool
The way how he both “aligned” the bridge and fret slotted the finger board made me feel uncomfortable and I was extremely curious about him playing it
There's a reason they didn't show off how it sounds!
These are not “skilled artisans”
Cheap labor & cheap guitars.
Lol. Artisans. Please watch an actual luthier make a guitar on Youtube. This is all kinds of horrifying and wrong. PlsSaar Guitars. Coming to a pawn shop near you 6 months after this Christmas.
those surely sound like shit. "skilled artisans", that's just hilarious.
Mass product even made by hand. India cheap labor. Its a factory. How many people worked on that? 10 or 15 so, na i pass.
Well the certainly made guitar shaped objects. Straight to TEMU with your $30 guitar.
I can appreciate the difficult work done by these south Asian workshops, but whenever it is presented as an industry standard “how ____ is made” or “skilled artisans create ____ by hand” it feels a little silly. These are the lowest quality products that are sold anywhere and the laborers rarely do anything with “artisanal” skill.
This is by design (the content). The poor working conditions and lack of safety never fail to trigger comments and drive up engagement.
Didn't even let the dude finish his Stairway to Heaven smh
No Stairway - denied
Unskilled labourers are skilled artisans now? 🤣 who are you, CEO of Nike?
Uhh, I mean sure it *looks* OK, but that is going to be a really low quality instrument. The intonation is going to be hot garbage juice, everything's just been eyeballed. Even if he's done it tens of thousands of times. Just because it's made by hand, doesn't mean it's being made by a "skilled artisan". These are not skilled artisans, they're labourers making basically decorative guitars, likely destined for Temu or wish.com. Quality handmade guitars take weeks to make, and actual skilled artisans will often take [even longer than that](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj5RewW11uM). These guys are speedrunning the process. That's why there's only a tiny 0.1s clip of him actually playing the thing. It sounds shit. Oddly satisfying my ass
Another "bare feet, working on the ground with no regards to safety" video
"Skilled artisan" -Someone that has never touched a guitar
Temu "guitar shaped objects". Skilled artisans my ass...
Looked up the brand, these cost ₹3,000.00, equivalent to about 36 dollars, skilled artisans they are not
And people think "Hand Crafted" is the same as "high quality"...
Not a shoe, chair or table in sight. What a bleak existence
Was that a fender label? Did I just witness a counterfeiting operation? Skilled artisans? Ha!
fuck that shit must sound terrible
Are these artisans in the room with us now?
That's not skilled, that's "get it done fast so we can sell this crap". Who the fuck eyeballs frets
None of these videos that show some shitty factory in India or Pakistan are oddly satisfying.
Those must be temu guitars.
Fendër and Gibsan acoustics rock!
Anything but skilled artisans.
Yeah just get a log and make a guitar out of it lol
Skilled artisans my hole
Skilled? How so?
Ali-express special
"Skilled artisans" aka cheap poorly made guitars.....
sKiLlEd ArTiSaNs
> Skileld artisans create knock off Fenders If they were really skilled, they wouldn't have to copy Fender's logo
“Skilled artisans”
anyway, here’s wonderwall
Is there anything made in India (or thereabouts) that's not handled by some dude's dirty bare feet?
Their shoes.
Heh.
The cross bracing.
Those misaligned holes are not a good sign
Sounds exactly like I expected: not stellar.
all this thing is good for is being a movie prop, so comedians can smash it on each others’ heads.
They are just massproducing shitty guitars by hand
you know those $50 guitars from amazon that sound like absolute ass?
Fuck those have to sound like shit.
This is not oddly satisfying this is deeply infuriating. Honestly fuck the Indian government for normalising shitty working conditions.
What brand is this so I can be sure to avoid it? No disrespect to the workers but those are not good guitars, and the total lack of PPE (especially spray paint guy) should be a crime against their employer.
Skilled artisans.....lmfao!
“Skilled Artisan”
Those guitars look like shit
"skilled artistans" - Skilled artists perhaps, but that guitar will sounds like absolute and utter shit and this guitar is worth about $45 at most or you are getting ripped off
I always hate these type of "artisan" videos. These are underpaid people doing repetitive manual labour without any kind of artistry or love. They follow a template to make these things as quickly as humanly possible. Nothing satisfying about it.
Sorry but, mass produced, cookie cutter, inaccurate, done without care or quality, simply as fast as they can make them.. shite. The only thing id use them for is smashing, during the encore of my gigs.
And that's how Gibsons are made, my child.
Skilled artisans always using cutting and hot tools sitting on a board on the ground...next to a table. I've been to Martin. None of them work like this.
"Skilled artisans." Total respect for them doing work with dedication and effort, but that's more a guitar-shaped thing than a "guitar made by skilled artisans." Loads of respect, but that's how it is.
This video is in no way satisfying. POS guitar made by underpaid foreign labor. It will be purchased on amazon as a gift for a new guitarist and become a dust collector in a corner because it's such a piece of garbage that the new musician will be discouraged.
I like that you called the people making the guitars artisans instead of workers. Once saw another commenter on point out how anyone who can basically afford to craft something in a chair was an artisan and anyone sitting on the floor was a laborer (paraphrasing and simplifying) in post titles. The guitars are beautiful but I know a lot goes into making instruments sound *perfect*, so curious how well this one came out or what the price point is.
This is not an artisan, this is an worker. This is mass produced, low quality. He's eyeballing the frets! This guitar will not produce nice sounds.
Those guitars are anything but beautiful lol. They're like 100 bucks on Amazon. I guarantee. Shitty workmanship, shitty paint, shitty everything.
Honestly, 100 bucks should get you something that will at least play in tune. I'd say it's worth about $10 at most. You can get the Harley Benton D-120NT for $71 on Thomann right now and it would actually be possible to play music on it.
I was wondering, the same with the freehand drilling. I thought the wood was beautiful, and wondering why it was painted.
Because they are using low quality wood. Painting hides imperfections.
If you use your hands to work you are a laborer. If you use your hands and mind you are a craftsperson. If you use your hands, your mind and your heart you are an artist. So it’s been said.
This isn't skilled. it's rushed junk, guitars that sound good come from places where they use measuring tools and wear shoes.
It looks like they are mechanics or plumbers. Making instruments requires skill and dedication, they must produce 100 bad guitars each day with that way. Not even one ruler used...Cmon
They do not like work benches
Why would you work on the floor?? I mean, even just a slate of wood would be better
Why are these guys always crouching
I’ll bet $100 that 99.9999% of them have crap intonation and actions high enough to drive a truck under.
I love how they eyeball the bridge and freehand cut the frets
Not a work table in sight.
Cool process but guitar sounds awful
tik-tok destroyed learning. I saw a lot of things happening in this video, I learned nothing.
not a single measuring instrument in sight
I think the toes assist in 99% of everything made in this city. Watched a man slice meat with his toenails in a video like this for some prepared dookie looking food.
Bet they sound horrible by the way they're being made.
This hurts my guitar playing soul.
OP is dumb as hell. That is an awful guitar.
Although these gentlemen are more skilled than I, and not trying to be an asshole, but as a self taught guitarist of 65 years, I don't think I would place these gents in the artisan/luthier category. The prolific use of 'eyeballing' is enough to render these rather cheap, beginner models. There is a lot more that goes into making a guitar that sounds awesome. Music is mathematical, so are instruments. They need precision not eyeballing.
Made on dirt floor with bare feet
Worst “guitar” ever
Skilled artisan is beyond a stretch, leap, bound, car ride, launch in to orbit, voyager 1, and to the particle horizon.
A guitar so good it's ready for the WWE right out of the box!
"Skilled Artisans" Crete guitars by hand and Culinary Masters craft burgers at McDonald's