Vintage Harmony Archtop – Custom Pickup Mod
This tale may ruffle the feathers of vintage purists. Would you rout a 50's Harmony archtop for a pickup? As a rule, we and others in our profession have an unwritten standard that says you don't do irreversable modifications to vintage guitars unless you absolutely...
Vintage Gibson Les Paul Junior Headstock Rebuild
*Beware: another one of those 'I found this vintage Les Paul in my dad's closet' stories follows. I like to think that if my dad had one of these in his closet I'd have found it by now. This 1956 Les Paul Junior belongs to a friend who, yes, found this guitar in her...
Vintage Gibson SG Junior- Headstock Reglue & Touch up
Watch how we restore a vintage guitar that was quite literally "trashed." If your 1963 Polaris White Gibson SG Junior had a broken headstock, you wouldn't throw it in the garbage would you? Well the lucky new owner of this guitar found it sticking out of a Chicago...
Taylor Acoustic Guitar Top Repair
See how we improved another shop's repair gone bad and learn how to prevent this damage to your own guitar. A beautiful Taylor 914CE acoustic guitar came to us with two top cracks that had opened up after being 'repaired' by another shop (that shall remain nameless.)...
Another Martin Guitar Repair in Chicago
It's hard to say how many times we've repaired a guitar that was damaged by airline baggage handling. It's a big number though. This Martin 000-15 had a rough flight and split open like a can of beans. Unfortunately the damage was bad enough that sizeable pieces of...
Vintage Gibson Dove – Neck Reset
If you really think about it, a steel string acoustic guitar is trying to break itself from the first time you string it up. It's two pieces of wood (a body and a neck) that are glued together with metal strings tied to the opposite ends of both pieces. When you...
A Blueshawk Bass With Custom Electronics
Okay Blueshawk fans, we know what you're thinking; there's no such thing as a Blueshawk bass. Well, thanks to a tag-team effort, there is now. This was truly one of the most challenging electronics customization projects we've ever done and it turned out great....
Vintage Gibson L47 – Brace Repair
Sometimes braces come loose inside guitars as they grow old and dry out. When there's a big circular soundhole to reach through, those repairs are easy enough. But in this guitar's case, there are a pair of slender F holes and one brace that's come completely out. The...
A Neck Repair With Touchup
Here's something you don't want to see when you open your case! This is a really nice Hamer made of korina that teaches us three lessons: 1. Pop for a true-fitting hardshell case rather than an ill-fitting plastic one 2. Easy does it loading your guitar into the tour...
A Different Kind of Stompbox
One of the guitar instructors from the Old Town School of Folk Music came to us with an interesting idea. He performs solo with an acoustic guitar and stomps his foot to create a sort of woody bass drum effect. He wanted us to help him design an amplified box that he...