My repair bench area. On the wall above left to right are a fancy inlaid Gibson Mastertone 5 string banjo type neck, a recently restored 1928 L-5 Gibson, a 30s National wood body resonator guitar (resonator cone is on bench)ready for a new nut and various other repairs and an old 1940s Roy Rogers flattop needing total reassembly). On the wall to the left starting at the lowest point are a 1954 Gibson Country Western (suffering from incorrect past repair work) a Harmony 000 mahogany body (mid 60s), an interesting homemade copy of a Dobro (using no factory or replica parts) and an old Harmony Sovereign arched top from the late 50s era.

I have tinkered with stringed instruments since not long after I began playing them as a small child. In the 60s and 70s my job at our family music stores was to keep instruments on display working to optimum. We were known for our great playing guitars. Nothing was simply taken out of a box and put on display. Every single instruments was checked for specs and tweaked if needed. After that they were regularly checked and strings were changed as necessary. I had actually set up many thousands of stringed instruments by the time I was of legal age. After we closed our retail music store locations in the mid 80s I continued to service our customers instruments at my home shop. Then in 1989 I made it known to all of the area music stores and former customers that I would be doing instrument repair work on a regular basis again. It was to be a supplemental business to my performing but in the first year I did around 1500 instrument repairs and setups. I have continued a healthy repair schedule ever since then. I also did a regular Tuesday and Thursday repair shop schedule at B&B Music in Camden from 1989- 99. I still do restoration work and structural repairs for them as well as most stores in the area. Over the years I have done repairs for customers all over the U.S. Though I work on lots of electrics, one of my specialties is acoustic guitars. I am listed as a C.F.Martin Guitar Service Center. A regular performing multi-instrumentalist on both electric and acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar and violin, I know what is expected of instruments for critical live performance and recording. Call or E-Mail me with your instrument maladies.

To E-Mail me about stringed instrument repair issues click here

Regular repairs done by my shop

Set-ups and re-strings on all stringed instruments.
Nuts made for guitars, banjos, violins etc.
Acoustic guitar saddles made.
Body cracks, loose seams, bridge cracks, fingerboard cracks.
Re-frets on all fretted instruments
Electric guitar component replacement, mods etc.
Heads on banjos, installing pickups in acoustic instruments.

Below are an old student bass being rebuilt(yin-yang)and a Fender flattop in the process having it's braces repaired. Next to them is a finished banjo restoration job. (An old early 50s Silvertone 5 string banjo originally made by the Kay company). Above are a Weymann mandolin from the 20s getting it's bowl back repaired, a G&L ASAT custom hollow body and a Fender Limited Edition "thin skin" 52 Telecaster with custom shop no-caster pickups. To the right of that is a 2001 Rickenbacker 360-12V-64. A reissue of the famous 1964 model used by George Harrison and other British Invasion rockers. That one also has the vintage TV type knobs and has been upgraded to the 12 saddle bridge.