We’ve been carrying Souldier guitar straps practically since the day we opened our doors. We love that they’re each handmade by our friends here in Chicago, often using remnant and recycled materials. But mostly we love them because they look so great.

Worn by members of Wilco, Aerosmith, Phish, and many many others, Souldier guitar straps make a great gift for the musician in your life or for yourself! They’re locally made, comfortable, and available in tons of eye-popping colors and patters. We love looking at them and pairing them with our customers’ special instruments. 10% OFF UNTIL JANUARY 15, 2012!

Check it out! A very cool Tiesco Del Rey – made copy of the Vox Phantom. Re-fretted and set-up here at Chicago Fret Works.

Not all 1930’s Nationals are created equal.  We thought this 1932 Style O needed a refret and maybe a little neck tightening, but soon learned that a single design factor makes this one particularly challenging.

The vintage National resophonic (or resonator) guitar is undeniably one of the most striking-looking guitars ever. This Style O model that came into our shop went a step further with a Hawaiian tropical scene etched right into the back plating. But there were a few important areas that needed work so it would actually play and sound as beautiful as it looks.

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Three years ago, Steve and Dan opened a one-room guitar shop. This summer we doubled the size of  the shop and welcomed two new faces to Chicago Fret Works.  Allow us to introduce Joe Swierupski and Patrick McKeever.

This winter, we found ourselves stepping over guitar cases and telling our customers that a set-up would take more than a week.  It was time to get some more space and some help. Luckily, the space adjoining ours became available and we decided that if we didn’t take it now we’d probably regret it down the road. It happened to be big enough to house an amp repair station too. Continue »

You don’t saw the neck off a 1952 Gibson Les Paul without fully considering WHY one might do such a thing.  Lots of thought and care went into this repair and the outcome made it all worthwhile.

The 1952 Goldtop is where it all began for the Gibson Les Paul. Guitars from this first year of production have an obvious historical importance and, as with all vintage pieces, the conscientious repairman does not make an irreversible alteration to one without just cause. This one was sold to the current owner with full disclosure of some previous repairs to the headstock. Those repairs were well done, solid, and the guitar sounded amazing (vintage P90’s really are something special.) But they simply did not look right and that’s where we come in.  It took heating, sawing, chiseling, filing, and painting to get there, but this is how we made this vintage classic look and perform the way it’s supposed to. Continue »

*Okay, not really.  Some guitars look like they could use binding, but just wouldn’t be worth the expense of adding it.  Here’s a different approach that we think turned out great.

A customer brought in a new Les Paul 60’s Tribute Studio (not this one – we forgot to take before pictures once again.)  It’s a nice looking guitar with a very tastefully done ‘honeyburst’ and matte top finish.  As with other Studios, there’s no binding but they left the side of the maple cap clear so it sort of implies a line of binding -  like you’d see on a Paul Reed Smith.  It doesn’t look bad, but the owner felt like something was missing and wanted it to look more like a Standard Les Paul. He asked about adding a gloss finish and binding.

The gloss was no problem, but to add real binding the way it should look would require taking the neck off, routing a binding channel, binding the guitar,  and possibly refinishing the top and or sides – and that’s before we think about binding the neck too.  Too much.  …Well what about painted-on binding?

We couldn’t think of a good reason not to, so we gave it a shot and were pleased with the results.  See the pics below! Continue »

Keep looking folks. There are still great old guitars hiding under beds, in closets, and in basements. This one was abandoned in the basement of an apartment building and while it showed up in rough condition, it went home looking and sounding terrific.

This is one scary looking headstock break. The headstock is completely off the neck and with a close look, you can see that someone attempted to repair it with both glue and wood screws! If you do that glue-up right the first time, there’s no need for the screws (which didn’t hold anyway.) The dry glue poses a problem because it seals the broken cells of the wood, making it impossible for new glue to do that.  And that’s just the beginning… Continue »

The owner of this Ibanez wanted something a little more unique. See how we added some flair and some sonic power. How much more white could it be? None. None more white.

The customer who brought in this white Ibanez RG2EX2 wanted it refinished – in white. Yes it’s already white, but this time he wanted it to be entirely white. No black binding, electronics, or hardware. He decided to upgrade all of the hardware, this time in gold and to replace the pickups with a new set (in gold of course.) Continue »

This Les Paul looked very different when we were finished with it.

This late 60’s Les Paul Deluxe has had lots of work done to it over the years. Its original P90 or mini-humbucker pickups were removed and replaced with full size humbuckers, it has had mini toggle switches installed and removed, and its original gold top was refinished as a burgundy shaded burst. The current owner discovered that a hairline crack had appeared in the top, extending from below the tailpiece all the way into the neck pickup cavity. He asked us to repair the crack and refinish it to it’s original goldtop color.

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