*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 »

This is such a cool guitar.  It’s always fun to restore a family treasure like this.

This short-scale National Model 1122 Cosmopolitan has been in the owner’s family for a long time.  He remembers his dad playing it for the family when he was a kid. It had a few odd part replacements through the years and our mission was to find replacements that made it 1. playable again and 2. looking at least close to the way it used to. We should have taken some ‘before’ photos, but among the pieces we had to find were: Continue »

 These two basses launched more conversations than any others that have hung on our walls.

We see a lot of interesting guitars around here, but it’s pretty rare that we see something we’ve truly never seen before. But a customer recently brought in two fretless basses that stopped us in our tracks. How can we describe them? -Unusual? Rough-hewn? Quirky? The woodworking is quite good at times and, um, hurried and homemade looking at others. They seem to be made from a combination of  exotic wood species like purple heart and odd driftwood-looking domestics.   Both instruments buzzed quite badly and required heavy fretboard leveling. But once that was done, it became evident that the builder had done something right. They actually sounded great and the owner was soon using the 5 string, which he nicknamed “Big Nasty,” in a recording session.

The pricetag for both of these USA handmade instuments? Less than $500 apice! The manufacturer? A North Carolina maker called Wishbass. Take a look at more photos below and see what you think. 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 »

Seizing the lead in our long-distance-traveler competition, this Vintage Gibson Mandolin arrived from South Africa in desperate need of a good refret.

We were more than a little surprised to learn that  this 1930’s era Gibson A Style mandolin (which was built a mere 100 miles away in Kalamazoo, MI) traveled more than 8,000 miles to get here from South Africa. Unfortunately, the instrument repair options there must be pretty thin, as it had one of the strangest looking attempts at fretwork we’ve ever seen. We cleaned it up and gave it a proper refret along with a new set of tuning buttons for the original tuners. Take a look.

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Autographs on a guitar can disappear over time. Here’s how we make sure they don’t.

I’ve got a baseball behind my workbench signed by 1970’s Cubs outfielder Jose Cardinal (my favorite player as a kid.) I don’t play ball with it because I know that autograph would disappear quickly. Baseballs are cheap, so I play ball with another one.

This Schecter Synyster Custom was played onstage and autographed by the members of Avenged Sevenfold. The owner wanted to keep those autographs safe so he had two options: hang it on the wall and never play it OR have us finish over the top of the signatures to keep them protected. He wanted to play it, so we opted to spray a few clear coats of polyurethane over the top. 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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Here’s a reprint of last-year’s guide to humidifying your acoustic guitar.

Chicago winters kill guitars. The weather gets dry and cold, so we turn on our furnaces – drying out the air in our homes even further. Many will see their indoor relative humidity drop below 20% . That’s 25-30% lower than the factories where guitars are made and the wood just doesn’t like it. Like the skin on our fingertips and the seams on our hardwood floors, dry guitars can split open without ever being dropped or otherwise mishandled. Other symptoms we see include:

• rough fret ends that stick out past the edge of a fretboard
• loose bridges and braces
• loose neck joints
• separations along the many glue joints that hold a guitar together
• dramatic changes in playing ‘action’

So what can you do to prevent costly repairs to these problems? There’s so many choices hanging in guitar stores that it can be hard to tell which one to buy. We may kick ourselves for giving away the secrets that keep us in business – but here’s a look at the products that will best help you keep your guitar healthy and happy this winter. You’ll also find a simple formula for how to effectively use them. Continue »

Hang on…something doesn’t look right here.

A neighbor of mine brought us this 1960’s Epiphone Casino that he was thinking about selling. But he was rightfully concerned that a few obvious alterations would make it hard to sell at its full value. The first concern is the out-of-place humbucking pickup that someone installed to replace the original P90. The second concern is the missing pick guard. We helped locate appropriate replacements for both that will make this guitar more valuable and  more true to its original look and sound.

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