repairs in Texas? - I recommend James Hewett

[GerryJ]

Hello, I am a fairly new member, and one of the reasons I joined was to look for a luthier who could repair a carved archtop I had, where the original builder disappeared. The body was good, but the neck became warped and it became clear over time that the builder had picked the right woods and made a decent body, but didn't understand (or properly build) necks, especially for an archtop (which is quite similar to those other 'archtops' known as violas, cellos, etc).
The original builder went off the grid, so I was stuck with what could have been an unplayable wall decoration for a coffee shop - or a cowboy chord 3-fret stage prop for a Hank Williams tribute act (not a joke). Understandably, most luthiers would not want to touch another person's misadventure, but James said send it in. He reset the neck to the proper angle, the proper joint (dovetail rather than flat glued), resurfaced the ebony neck, refretted, new bridge.
Now this thing plays and sounds like those 5-figure git-tars made by those Italian guys on the East Coast .
Plus...I found him here by doing a search on the Acoustic Guitar forum. So I wasn't the first.
He also builds guitars (flat tops and archtops) from scratch, and if he can turn my Yugo into a Lamborghini, his own builds must be incredible. But anyway, wherever you are, if you have a potentially great instrument but it's giving up the ghost, send it to James. Any questions, feel free to post or PM me.
-Gerry

http://hewettguitars.net/