Hey Porter! New Handmade Pickups!
Affordable pickups, hand-wound in the USA? We found 'em. Welcome Porter Pickups! You've got yourself a nice electric guitar that feels comfortable, looks great, but sounds... meh... The thing to do is get some new pickups in there. It's an upgrade we love to do...
A Word About Changing Tubes
Amp technician Patrick McKeever offers a few thoughts on those mysterious tubes. Most serious guitarists today prefer to use tube amps. People have long struggled to explain just why they sound so much richer and expressive than solid state amps, but to most ears they...
Times A Changin’
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...
1952 Les Paul Goldtop – Headstock Rebuild
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...
“Binding” A Les Paul Studio *
*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...
Featured Guitar – Vintage National 1122 Cosmopolitan
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...
Wishbass – Musical Folk-Art?
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...
Vintage Gibson Les Paul Headstock Repair
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...
Ibanez Refin – None More White
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...
Vintage Gibson Mandolin – Refret
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...