Woodinblack Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) Today a group of 6 of us (5 from here) went to see the nice Ben Crowe of Crimson Guitars, as aranged at the last Dorset and Somerset bass bash, with some basses in hand to learn how to do some of this stuff ourselves Bens workshop is down a twisted set of roads in the country end of dorset by Piddlehinton (yes, that is fairly normal for a town name down here) and for very little money we got 4 hours of tuition and a free BBQ thrown in in the lovely sunshine (cooked in the barn due to the lack of sunshine!). We got a tour around the place and pretty well personal tuition from him and his apprentices on fret dressing and truss rod adjustments. We could have actually done with more time. At the end of all that we got a deal for everyone on bass chat to get a decent discount on the cost of tools, which he is working out now! Heres some views from the inside The start of fret dressing [url="http://s405.photobucket.com/user/alienrat/media/DSCF1079_zpsdb6240dd.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://s405.photobucket.com/user/alienrat/media/DSCF1077_zpsd272fb1e.jpg.html"][/url] More attention than a harley Benton deserves [url="http://s405.photobucket.com/user/alienrat/media/DSCF1075_zpsa8e6df8d.jpg.html"][/url] Neck relief [url="http://s405.photobucket.com/user/alienrat/media/DSCF1074_zps4a308482.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://s405.photobucket.com/user/alienrat/media/DSCF1071_zpsff9c23f4.jpg.html"][/url] Very good day out for a rainy saturday in dorset. Edited April 5, 2014 by Woodinblack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 That's fantastic, and I've just tweeted this thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Ben Crowe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBollock Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 That looks amazing. I would love to be able to have such an experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 He charges £220 for the 4 hour workshop and you get 20% discount off any tools you buy. 6 people attended so £36.60 each with a free BBQ too! I'm sure he'd repeat this if others are interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 (edited) We paid 40 a head but we went over the 4 hours quite a bit. Worth every penny. And he got in trouble with the landlord for having the BBQ in the barn Honestly it is a great experience. Although I am happy with basic intonation and all the electronics, I never dreamed I would have taken a file to my frets. Having done so, I can't imagine that I would really be that keen to get someone to set a guitar up any more unless I had a space issue, it is so much fun to do it is worth doing anyway. As £40 is less that the cost of having your frets redressed anyway, it is a net saving straight away Edited April 5, 2014 by Woodinblack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 [quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1396716286' post='2416732'] Ben Crowe [/quote] Thanks - updated his name in the original post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 So glad it went well and you all had a great time. Would like to have attended but Sat and Sun are house-search days.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBollock Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 With the discount on tools, what sort of cost would a basic set of tools, for the jobs you learned to do, be? £40 sounds perfectly affordable for such an experience, but how much is it really likely to cost in the end? I hope that doesn't sound negative, just do trying to be practical. I know you end up saving money in the future, would just like an idea of how much I would have to save up to come away with the skills and the tools for the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 They do tools on the site, but he also recommends where you can get additional tools from general supplies where necessary. The only tools that are really needed would be: Fret leveling file ~£23 Fret dressing file ~ £11 a straight edge, wet and dry paper, cleaning block at around a fiver, and a tube of autosol. So less than £50 if you want to buy all the bits new, which will last for ever. Its perfectly practical to know how much it works out. The other costs are strings etc, but they are fairly normal. The plus side is you set up when you want, you don't have to take the instrument anywhere, and beyond all that, it is actually very enjoyable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingBollock Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Excellent, thank you. I was thinking, for someone like me, who would be doing it as a way to save money, as much as pure interest in the subject, £100 would be perfectly reasonable and well worth saving up for. Unfortunately I can't make it that far from here, but now I know such a thing exists I will keep an eye out for more local events. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 For more info, Ben has a whole set of videos on how to do all of this stuff: https://www.youtube.com/user/CrimsonCustomGuitars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamT Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 I really enjoyed the day and learned lots! Great fun and a good laugh with the other guys from BC. Highly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Fantastic day and I learnt loads! One question though, what was that riff that Jim played that I said would be in my head all day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Always been a bit daunted by guitar maintenance as I'm not a tinkerer but after Ben & Howard's excellent tuition I'd have a go at anything now. I'll be running through the YouTube tutorials on the Crimson Guitars website as well. Great way to spend 4 hours & got sausage in a bun as well! Nice to see You guys again & meet Mornats too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Good times by chic, wasn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimrs2k Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 Yea, good times, kind of summed up the day really. Have to say those basses looked stunning at the end, great tuition from ben and howard and the indoor BBQ was nice. Just need to start saving so i can get the bass thats in my head into my hands and i know where its going to be born. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted April 6, 2014 Author Share Posted April 6, 2014 So you going on the luthering course jim? It would be rather tempting to make one yourself there! Thats a point I should make, they do a course where you get individual tuition on building guitars from start to finish. When you see what some of the people have built themselves it is very impressive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamT Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 OMG! Build-it-yourself GAS! I have been suffering too... Very many thanks to York5Stringer for co-ordinating the day. I took my Hohner B-Bass that I fettled on the day and strung with flatwounds to band practice last night - lovely action but greatly disappointed with the sound. I had to turn everything up to have any presence in the mix. I had hoped for a double bass stylee sound but it was all muddy. Back to roundwounds then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimrs2k Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Hi graham, Ive had the same problem, a bit of upper mid boost a crank the volume will get you there. If you need more volume come see me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimrs2k Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Woodinblack, i dont know yet, will need to save some cash and a few brownie point with the mrs first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 Yesterday I went to the Yandels open day, where they had lots of woodworking stuff, and Ben and Howard were there so I bought some tools, fret dressing file, big fret file, neck stand, little metal triangle thing and the polishing stuff. Having bought that stuff, it is common for me to not do stuff, but I thought I would give it a try, so took one of my guitars with frets like the royal families teeth and stripped it all down, and went through the same process as last week. A lot of effort (like last time) and a bit nerve wracking as it is a nice guitar and there was no-one to fix what I broke, but in the end when I restrung it and set the action, I got it down to 1mm without any choking or problems with the frets. If I had paid money for someone to set it up I would have been very happy with the result of how it is now. The fact I did it myself has astounded me. Not only that, it was actually enjoyable and not that hard. I think the next step for me is to go on the guitar building course and build my fan fretted 32-35" bass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 I need to buy some tools and get to work on my other Tanglewater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 I didn't want to get chance to forget it all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Top effort, that man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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