This Tremsetter installation was requested by the customer so that he could easily replace a broken string on his Charvel whilst gigging, without upsetting his tremolo setup. There are several variations of this device on the market but I reckon this one is one of the easier ones to install and setup. Basically, the middle…
This 2004 Taylor 214 guitar repair came about because the guitar was brought in about 10 years ago for a pickup installation. The 2004 guitars were made with solid Sapele mahogany back and sides and a solid spruce top whereas later models were made from laminates.…
This neck repair on a Martin acoustic guitar was necessary because the owner had stored the guitar in his garage, in its case with strings on for a couple of years. When he got it out to use it, the action was sitting at around 5mm at the 12th fret. He knew the neck had…
Winding a set of Johnston hand-wound humbucker pickups for a customer. This set are the Riveter type with zebra bobbins. You’ll see from the photo that I like to keep the tension on the coil wire using my hand. This gives me a better feel for the tension and I can make minor changes to…
I’m afraid I’ve neglected the website for a while now so, just to get started again, here are some recent guitar repair jobs that have been completed over the past couple of weeks (in addition to the normal routine setups on Strat, Les Pauls etc) This is a Blueridge acoustic/electric that came in with the…
Recently a customer asked me to build him a 1-off Johnston acoustic guitar. And so the Johnston acoustic guitar build began. Although I have a guitar repair workshop well stocked with tools for such jobs, I don’t have specific jigs nor go-bar decks etc that might be used by someone who regularly makes acoustics. I…
This 5 string banjo restoration job started off with the customer bringing the banjo to me to have the G string tuner and the broken G string guide replaced. The banjo was, shall we say, in a well used condition. However, when I got it onto the bench, it quickly became clear that this…
This job came in from a regular customer who got this Epiphone Les Paul as a Christmas present. Although he loves the guitar, he decided he wanted it to have a road worn look and also have a new set of pickups made for it. It always makes me a bit nervous when I’m…
This Ibanez Jem came in for a custom paint job to make it look like a Steve Vai signature guitar. The job amounted to painting the lion’s claw at the Floyd Rose Tremolo cavity bright pink. Doesn’t look like much of a job but it’s tricky enough to get a clean line around the edges…
This Telecaster neck refret job came in as a straight forward neck refret plus supplying and fitting a new hand-cut bone nut. The customer wanted jumbo stainless steel frets fitted. However, when the guitar arrived it soon became clear that there was more than just the frets that needed fixing. The neck appeared to be…