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A few years ago, Martin released some guitars with a new adjustable neck - the "Sure Align" neck system. This operates quite like shimming an electric guitar neck, and requires shims that Martin calls "Elevation Plates". The system is quite unlike Taylor's adjustable ("NT") neck system. Unfortunately it is very difficult to acquire the Elevation Plates in Australia: they are sold by Martin as part of a maintenance kit in the US, but Martin doesn't ship directly. The local d

The CW80 (still made by Maton) is an iconic Australian dreadnought, popular with country musicians in particular. This 12 string version is from 1970, and came in with an unplayably high action, and no way to adjust. The neck construction on this instrument (a "French neck") precluded removing the neck from the guitar body (Maton also confirmed that this was not possible), meaning there were only 2 viable options for fixing: cutting the neck off and converting to bolt-on, or

Lovely old Martin J40 in for binding repair: Luthiers love tape :0

The Importance of Bridge Regluing When it comes to maintaining the quality of a guitar, bridge reglueing is a crucial process. A well-secured bridge ensures the instrument's longevity and enhances its tone. This blog post will take you through the steps involved in reglueing a bridge on a beautiful Taylor 616 guitar. Removing the Bridge The first step in the reglueing process is removing the bridge. This must be done carefully to minimize any tear-out or damage to the guitar'

Meet Diane. She has been with our customer since being rescued from a hippy house in 1970s London. She's in for new tuners, side dots and a brace re-glue: First dot going in Leo Kottke once said that anyone who says that guitarists don't use the dots is a liar :) Loose brace It's a squish to get clamps into tiny sound hole.

A nasty crack all the way through the top on this beautiful instrument. Glued, cleated and sealed. Some cosmetic repairs and binding...

We recently had one of these quite unusual guitars on the bench for a "resurrection" - not quite a restoration, but not far off. The...

Installing a very impressive and affordable Journeytek under saddle transducer pickup (similar to K&K) on a lovely European parlour guitar:

Rewire/pickup swap (Tonerider pickups - sound great!) and fret level and dress

Two beautiful Fenders in this week for setups and some other repairs - a beautiful cream MIM Jazz Bass that needs some fret work and a...

January 2025 Taylor neck construction led the world to bolt-on necks for quality acoustic guitars...making the instrument serviceable...

February 2025 Two Jackson shredders in from our customer who plays in local metal band. The requirement was to swap the pickups -...

January 2025 A genuine '70s goldtop in for new Frailin P90s (swapping out Gibson mini humbuckers) and an Obsidian Wire kit ...this one...

The X brace had come loose on the upper bout (treble side): Clamped up with quik grips and Music City Bridge AxeJack All done: Setup and...

Shielding pickup and control cavities can reduce the amount of noise you notice (especially with high gain) from your guitar. That's...

The nut is the most misunderstood part of acoustics and many electrics. A well-fitted nut helps with not only tone, but with playability...

One of the prettiest, best playing guitars I've worked on. A Kiesel custom order from California. Gorgeous flamed maple body and neck. ...

Some really interesting old instruments in this week. First up, a 50th birthday present for my customer: a beautiful 50 year old Tele in...

January 2025 This 70 year old beauty needed a neck reset. Of course, a new saddle was also part of the work done - came out playing...