Have you got a guitar, bass or piece of equipment you don’t use anymore? Join us in supporting Chicago’s Intonation Music Workshop by donating it through our shop. We’ll fix it up nice and pass it on to some kids who will put it to good use!

You’ll find a new page on our website starting today, titled “Guitar Recycling.” It marks the beginning of a new endeavor here at Chicago Fret Works. We’ll be accepting donated guitars, basses, or other musical equipment (in working or near-working condition please) for Chicago’s own Intonation Music Workshop. We’ll clean them up, restring them, and pass them on. When you think about it, every time you repair a guitar (or anything else,) you’re recycling and reusing.  But this is even more exciting; you can put your under- or un-used instrument back to work making music and help out some great kids at the same time.

To quote our own most recent blog post, guitars are meant to be played and enjoyed. And here’s another truth; not everyone can afford to take up our favorite past-time.  If you’ve got an instrument that you don’t use anymore, how about putting it back to use and donating it to the kids at

Intonation Music Workshop!

Click here for a nice video story about this project from Northwestern University/Medill News Service.

This well-worn 1957 Martin 000-18 has definitely earned some ’spa treatment’ – a neck reset, refret, and side crack repairs.

Guitars are meant to be played and enjoyed, so it always makes us smile to see one that has clearly been doing just that. This 1957 Martin 000-18 wouldn’t color its hair to hide the gray; it wears its age proudly.  So we put away the airbrush and the buffing wheel  and focused on getting it structurally stable and playing better than ever. It took a neck reset, refret, and some sealing of cracks to get it there, but the results were worth the effort. Continue »

Kel Kroydon guitars were no-frills, economical instruments made by Gibson during the Great Depression. This is a good example of how we re-fret a guitar.

When this Kel Kroydon  arrived in our shop, it was suffering from a case of excessive relief, or “front-bow” where the tension of the steel strings has pulled the wood into a slightly curved shape. With most modern guitars, this condition is easily corrected by a turn of the truss rod. However a guitar like this one,  made between 1931 and 1933, doesn’t have a truss rod. So we have to pull the frets and re-level the fretboard to ensure great action and clear-sounding notes. Continue »

After more than 25 years, a favorite old friend comes home with a little help from Facebook!

We have a love/hate relationship with Facebook around Chicago Fret Works. But one of the great things about the site is how it helps old friends reconnect. In this case, the two old friends are a 1978 Washburn Falcon and its original owner.  It’s one of those “I never should have sold that guitar” stories that actually has a happy ending. Continue »

A great reason to check out estate and garage sales. You never know when you’ll find a 1950’s Epiphone Devon archtop for a song!

Here’s a project with humble beginnings that grew into a full vintage restoration. The owner picked up this very old Epiphone Devon at an estate sale (along with several other groan-worthy items I won’t even tell you about.) It had been rather sloppily stripped and refinished and the binding had entirely peeled off. Initially, we planned only to add the binding to the body and unfortunately didn’t bother to take pictures. So the photos here begin after the new binding was already in place, when the owner decided he’d like it completely refinished to look like it did originally. It was a good decision.

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Well obviously this is a custom refin (not done here) and obviously it looks more like a Tele Custom than a Tele Deluxe, but it’s pretty cool looking either way!

Somewhere along the line, this Tele was modded with a Bigsby and a wide-range humbucker. The current owner liked the guitar overall, but not the sound of the neck pickup. So we installed a Lollar Special T in the bridge position and a Lollar Imperial humbucker in the neck position. Because of the smaller size of the new neck pickup, we mounted it in a chrome pickup bezel and it looks great. I find it hard to look away from this orange soda/dreamsicle-looking guitar.

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This pair, a four string tenor banjo and an eight string mandolin banjo from the 1920’s, needed new heads and bridges and some TLC. They came to the right place.

Here’s a Gibson MB-1 and (maybe an enthusiast will help me out with this) a TB-1 or TB-3. They both feature rim-mounted pickguards and hinged backs that are able to be either closed or propped open with a small latch. When they arrived, both clearly needed new bridges and heads.

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Sometimes we have to get a little creative with refinishing. Here’s what happens when someone wants an unusual color for their guitar.

We had a couple of unusual projects recently that required some creative work with color. The owners of both this 70’s Fender Precision Bass and a modern Gibson SG knew they wanted to refinish their instruments, but wanted to do something a little more unique than just choosing a standard Fender or Gibson color.  Interestingly, both ended up with colors more reminiscent of  vehicles than other musical instruments. Continue »

In this post, see how we made some ugly previous “repairs” look right and brought a great vintage Gibson back to life.

This 1960 Gibson Les Paul Jr. is a terrific playing and sounding specimen. But it sure didn’t come in looking this great. After the owner picked it up in an auction, he emailed us some rather scary pictures of some truly scary looking “repairs” he hoped we could correct. We assured him we could make it look great and, more importantly, play great again. When it arrived from Florida, we took some deep breaths and assessed the damage. Continue »

Okay Tele Deluxe fans, what looks different on this guitar? And no, we don’t mean the flower tattoo.

That’s right! It’s the… Continue »