Inspection
First things first…
Seeing a guitar up close is usually the only way to give it an accurate assessment and quote a price for the work required.
We will always find time to invite you over to the workshop with your guitar before coming up with a suitable plan with you. Come in for a chat and tell us all about your guitar and what you need from it.
We’ll make checks, take measurements and jot down any useful notes whilst you’re with us. Before you leave the workshop we’ll usually have worked out which level of service your guitar will need.
Most likely something along the lines of…
Basic Service
£65 + Strings
If your guitar is brand new, or in reasonably good shape but possibly in need of a spruce up or some improvement in the setup, then this is the work we’d be likely to carry out…
- Remove old strings & clean up guitar
- Clean & recondition fretboard
- Check, adjust & lubricate machineheads
- Check, clean, adjust & lubricate control pots, switches and jack socket
- Reshape/soften sharp fret ends where possible
- Fret polish
- Fretboard clean up & wax
- Restring guitar
- Adjust truss rod tension
- Re-cut any high nut slots then polish & lubricate
- Adjust action to discussed preferences
- Set intonation
- Set pickup height
Standard Service
£100 + Strings
If your guitar has visible signs of wear in the frets or an unmanageable amount of uneven frets causing buzzing, string choking and intonation problems then a full fret level will usually help. We find that most guitars (yes, even brand new ones!) will benefit hugely from this type of work.
Everything relevant from a Basic Setup is included here as well as…
- Removing any dings, pits and flat spots from the frets
- Full latitudinal & longitudinal fret leveling
- Recrowning frets
- Reshaping fret ends
- Seven stage fret polish
Fully Optimised Service
£150 + Strings
If the frets in your guitar are very worn, they can often still be rescued without the need for refretting. Obviously, there are limits to what can be done but our trusty StewMac Erlewine Neck Jig is amazing for tackling nasty neck issues. It can even help us identify and fix minor neck warps! Some guitar techs won’t level frets any other way. That’s understandable when you’ve played a guitar before and after this type of service. We view it as another very useful tool in the workshop. If used expertly and combined with an accurate setup it can help to massively improve playability on almost any guitar. When you need your guitar to play cleanly with the lowest possible action we highly suggest the Fully Optimised Service.
Includes everything relevant from our Basic and Standard Services plus…
- Fret leveling work at simulated string tension & playing position
- Longitudinal reprofiling or “Fall-away” applied after leveling
As Nige always told us…
“Fully optimised guitars will not make you a better player but they will allow you to play your best far more easily.”
Guitar “Spa Day” Service
£500 + Parts & Strings
If you’d like to see what we do up close and witness the processes that go into fretwork, maintenance, servicing & setup we’re happy to spend a day with you and your guitar. We’ll answer as many questions as you can fire at us whilst giving your guitar the full works. Whatever we can find to improve without replacing will be done. We can even do upgrades and modifications within reason.
If you’d like to understand your guitar better and learn, or improve on, some of the skills needed to adjust your setup confidently then we’d be happy to help.
Get in touch to arrange a pre-appointment where we will inspect your guitar and design a day specific to your requirements.
Bridge & Tremolo Rescue Service
From £35
Guitars with tremolo systems can be a pain to keep in tune. Every decent guitar tech will have ways of getting the best out of them and we have a few methods of our own. All tremolo systems will take a certain amount of use before they start to wear out and become unreliable, especially if they’ve not been looked after very well. Some are better than others but we find that most decent quality units can be rescued with a bit of TLC.
We strip them down to their constituent parts and clean each piece up. Where possible we’ll sharpen the pivot blades, file/polish any wear out of the bridge posts & claw screws then lubricate all the relevant parts and put it all back together.
Certain tremolos such as Fender offset style (Jaguar/Jazzmaster etc), Bigsby’s and the PRS version of the vintage tremolo have their own idiosyncrasies and we adjust our servicing methods to suit.
Valuation Service
From £35
If you’d like to have your guitar valued, we can help in a few ways.
We work closely with vintage guitar & amp dealer Russ Parker. He’s always on hand for any questions we can’t answer. If you want to sell privately, through a shop or by auction we can point you in the right direction.
We are happy to write up letters of valuation for insurance purposes after inspecting your guitar.
Please contact us to arrange an appointment.
