Martin Neck Resets - Who’s doing them?

[TennesseeWalker]

Recently I came across an aging Martin guitar that clearly needs a neck reset.
Thinking that if I could pick it up for the right price and maybe put a little time and money into it, might be a nice addition and fun to play.

So, I contacted several local well known, large shops, all Martin dealers with repair facilities,
one in LA, one here in the OC and one in San Diego and each one said no to any type of neck reset at this time.
I was quoted between $800 - $1500 if and when they should they do one.

Went to Brian Kimsey’s site and his services are offline at this time - - -

Who is doing high quality neck resets on all the aging Martins, SCGC etc. guitars these days?

Would appreciate a few good names and shops as referrals.

[cliff_the_stiff]

I contacted Martin regarding a guitar I needed work on, Schoenberg in Tiburon did my reset for me, and they’re a official Martin repair shop.
while it’s not my business, and I don’t feel comfortable quoting prices based on work done over a year ago- They were significantly less expensive than 800-1500.
In fact, they are the most reasonable shop for repairs that I know of.

[Sasquatchian]

I have my 00-17 in at Boulevard Music in Culver City for a neck reset and new bridge. Doug Graham, the repair person there already did an exemplary job on my '47 000-18 reset. He's not fast but he's more detail oriented than anyone I've come across. And since it seems like you're somewhere in Lo-Cal, Boulevard is freeway close - two blocks off the 405 at Culver.

[TennesseeWalker]

Thanks guys -

In So Cal I came across Neely and in Los Angeles, Doug Graham at Boulevard in Culver City and Tucker at James Hood in Escondido.

Spoke to the latter two and they both seemed pretty sharp.
Hunting around for good professional is a bit of an adventure.

Was quoted $750-800 for a neck reset plus any unexpecteds and aesthetics work would be on an hourly basis.

[Mr. Jelly]

Here's a thought for you people in big city high price areas. Ship it to cheaper areas to get the work done where the prices are lower. A Martin repair man in Sioux Falls South Dakota is just as good as one in L.A. I take mine to him.

[TennesseeWalker]

I appreciate that Jelly - thank you for the thought here.

I'm pretty sure that by the time I pay for shipping to and from, the cost would be about the same.
Plus, I like to walk in, see a person and come to terms and an agreement on work to be performed with a professional in this manner.
I'm sure there are many good luthier/techs out there that can do the job, just would prefer to find one close to home if at all possible.

[Methos1979]

Those prices seem ridiculously high, even considering California prices AND post-pandemic inflation. I had one done a few years back by our local master Martin guy - Pat Diburro - and it was just under $500 and that included some fretwork and pickup work. But Pat is retiring soon and has a shop full of guitars so he's taking no more work on. I'm not sure who in our area (New Hampshire) will be the next go-to guy. I've made the conscious decision to not buy guitars that will need neck resets!

[Sasquatchian]

Doug Graham's standard operating procedure includes a complete re-fret, and if you want the best job possible it's better to let him do that unless you've just had a re-fret, but sometimes a previous luthier might have missed something that's going to cause issues later on, like maybe the fretboard needs a slight planing, which of course mean the frets are coming off anyway. So yeah, that does drive the price up, but I see it as worth it. I don't even ask how much a repair is going to be because I know he's fair and worth whatever it takes to do it right. There are a lot of repairmen who do a half assed job, and that's one of the reasons that 00-17 is with Doug - to fix everything that Westwood Music (RIP) did wrong when I didn't know the difference between good work, and let's just call it, not so good work. Plus he's a super nice guy and he encourages me to do minor repairs myself - like fret leveling and crowning, or plugging screw holes to re-drill for new tuners or buy that little Stew-Mac mini vice to hold your saddles for intonation. The more you learn how to do yourself, the more you appreciate what a good luthier can do for you and you start to recognize when you're dealing with someone who actually knows what they're doing.

[pagedr]

I had a neck reset done at Patt's Guitar Repair in Culver a year or so ago and they did a great job, also were surprisingly quick. Dennis Berck up in Eugene has also done neck reset work for me in the past and generally has very reasonable prices.