Have You Ever Tried Fixing Your Own Guitar?

[daza152]

Hey do you ever try fixing things on your own guitar or give it to a Luither(?) I am sure most major things would need to be done by a professional but what about smaller things, like dings or cracks? Is refretting major or minor? Where do you draw the line, I guess someone like me who has never done anything other than change the strings, wouldn't stand a chance even thinking about repairs......But what if I thought I would enjoy doing this as part of my hobbie other than playing, where would I begin? If you have done minor repairs how did you get into it? Maybe buying a really cheap broken guitar could be a good way of trying to learn on? Any advice or your thoughts will be great. Thanks.

Daza.

[Krab]

I did a headstock repair when I was like 15. I did have someone who did it for a living checking my work. It held under standard tuning. I have been working on learning refretting. It is medium difficulty. With the right tools and taking your time it can be done.

[Bob Womack]

I've done all kinds of repairs over the years. Probably the hardest was a snapped headstock with loss of wood on a Gretsch Corvette. The latest was a simple grooted out strap pin hole repaired with a toothpick and carpenter's wood glue. However, the nicer the guitar, the less chance I'm going to muck about on it. There's an excellent luthier here locally who does the refrets and setups on my guitars. He describes himself as a "playability specialist" and I agree. He does so well that it doesn't make any sense for me to do more than rudimentary tweaks to tide me over until he can set up a guitar for me. After playing a guitar setup by him, I realized his work was clearly in a league way beyond anything I could do.

Bob

[zabdart]

Yep.
I'm not qualified. I've been lucky to find good repairmen in Cambridge, MA. greater New York, Bergen County, NJ and York County, PA. But in some cases, it took some doing.
I've learned my lesson: leave it up to the pros.

[Kabalan]

one of the good things in mexico: luthier repairmen are relative chip!!
good for us!
Eblen

[marioed]

I do many of my own repairs. I started many years ago with fairly simple things like fixing cracks, replacing pickups & bridges on electrics, making nuts & saddles and doing simple setups. This was pre-internet and the book " The Guitar Player Repair Guide" by Dan Erlewine was my major resource. Frank Ford's site http://www.frets.com/ is now probably my main resource for repair info. For major work like neck resets or fret work I'd take the guitar to a local luthier.

I would work on my own guitars and do repairs on friends. At some point I decided I wanted to learn to do more so I made a deal with the luthier I'd go to for jobs I didn't feel I could do. I'd come in to his shop on my days off and on my vacation to work with him for free so I could learn more. I learned to do fret jobs, neck resets, and finish work among other things.

He got me interested in building guitars so these day in addition to doing pretty much all my own repairs I've also been building guitars. I get referals from friends whose guitars I've worked on and now pickup a bit of extra cash doing repairs. If the repair is something I don't feel comfortable doing I refer the person to other guitar tech's or luthiers I know.

If you're interested in learning to repair and setup work start with simple things on your own guitars. Dan Erlewine's book and Frank Ford's site are great resources. See if there is a local repair guy you can make the same kind of deal with that I did. You'll find out quickly if you have the "touch" to do it or not. Jim, the luthier I worked with, told me that you have to have the feel for the wood, the "touch" to be good at this type of work.

Regards,
Ed

[chitz]

After a few dealings with the local "Luthiers" and discovering a real lack of talent. I now do all my own repairs and setups with the exception of neck reset (only b/c that situation hasn't arisen).

None of it is rocket science, and there's more than enough great info out there on the intrawebs (& books) to guide you.

I decided if my guitars are gonna be hacked up, I'll be the one doing the hacking, not some wannabe. So far... Looks like I do good work!

So GO-4-IT!

[zabdart]

Originally Posted by chitz creek

After a few dealings with the local "Luthiers" and discovering a real lack of talent. I now do all my own repairs and setups with the exception of neck reset (only b/c that situation hasn't arisen).

None of it is rocket science, and there's more than enough great info out there on the intrawebs (& books) to guide you.

I decided if my guitars are gonna be hacked up, I'll be the one doing the hacking, not some wannabe. So far... Looks like I do good work!

So GO-4-IT!

Well, this assumes you have some sort of background in basic woodworking skills and a bunch of tools in your workshop. For those of us not so gifted, I would advise not making your problem any worse.
"When you are exploring the unknown, by definition, you don't know what you're doing."

[HHP]

A repairman I used at one time used to post his hourly rates. The rate schedule was "$25 an hour, $50 an hour if you try to fix it first"

[Howard Klepper]

I suppose it's becoming a lost cause, but a 'luthier' is a constructor of stringed instruments. Some luthiers are also repair technicians, and vice versa.

[gitnoob]

Originally Posted by daza152

If you have done minor repairs how did you get into it? Maybe buying a really cheap broken guitar could be a good way of trying to learn on? Any advice or your thoughts will be great. Thanks.

Yes, there's a large supply of cheap guitars. Acquire one or two that appeal to you, and have a go at it. The internet provides a wealth of resources, so it's not like you have to blaze any new trails yourself.

Easiest: basic tune-ups. Work on nuts, saddles, and frets. Replace tuners.

A little harder: crack repair.

Harder still: finish repair.

Hardest: neck reset.

In addition to repair, you can try improving guitars. That's why I bought a couple of Silver Creeks. The materials and build quality are fine, but I reshaped the neck, revoiced them, and I'll refinish one of them as well.

You can make some significant improvements if you start with all-solid woods.

If you want to try a neck reset, make sure you get a vintage guitar put together with hide glue -- pretty easy to get apart. Pre-1975 Harmony guitars are great for that, and all of them need a neck reset.

[Big.Al]

I'll do nuts, saddles fret replacement and setups. I make my own bone saddles from blanks. (I actually plan to make another saddle this afternoon.) I made and installed a bridge doctor for a friend. I'd feel comfortable re-gluing a brace or fixing a crack. I haven't tried a neck reset yet. I've often thought about building my own guitar, but I'm always too busy fixing things on my 100 year old house to find much time for anything else these days. Frets.com and Dan Erlewine's book are my friends. If I read up ahead of time and work carefully, I find that my results are quite good . . . but I've always been a hands-on guy, working with wood or metal, fixing homes or cars . . . or more lately, guitars. I do have a real luthier in town now. He builds guitars and repairs anything with strings on it. I bought a bone saddle blank from him this morning. His rates are really reasonable and he does good work, so maybe I'll use his services more in the future.

[JRB]

When I was in college I used to hang out in the repair shop of my local store (Mass Street Music). Jim Baggett and Leo Posch were incredibly nice to me, enduring all of my questions and letting me spend a lot of time there.

Twenty years later I threw caution to the wind, quit my job and went to Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. Now I do repairs on other people's guitars in addition to my own.

When I tackle new types of repairs (on cheaper guitars I bought for just this purpose) I usually have Erlewine's book on one side of the bench and my laptop on the other side of my bench with Frets.com pulled up in the browser. That and I post questions on www.luthiersforum.com, where there a lot of people very happy to help out.

[Tony Burns]

Sometimes for fun i like to do minor set ups myself -stuff like lower the action , make a new saddle etc- ive even fixed a crack here and their -did a decent enough job . But on an exspensive instrument or something i have no knowledge of - i hand it to an experienced luthier .

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

I suppose it's becoming a lost cause, but a 'luthier' is a constructor of stringed instruments. Some luthiers are also repair technicians, and vice versa.

I continue to use the title for my local guy because he is both.

Bob