the reset

It sometimes happens that the neck and body of a guitar begin to gently fold up into each other, requiring what is called a "neck reset." In this process the neck and body are separated, the areas where they meet are carefully prepared and the pieces reattached. Tim is carefully separating the neck from the body of this early 1960's-era Gibson ES-125. Tim enjoys his work.

we're early adopters

Back when the Plek machine was first introduced, it seemed like an idea that was almost too good to be true. A device that could mill frets in one quarter of the time it took to do it by hand with 100 times the accuracy as well as the option to make adjustments based on thousandths of an inch. After almost 3000 passes on this machine it's clear that it works very, very well. Of course it has to be operated by someone who knows what they're doing. The picture above shows Gary and the device. Ask anyone who's had this work done on their guitar.  Or you can visit their website: www.plek.com.

Before we get too technical...

...it feels relevant to mention that, while some rather well-known (one might say "notorious") guitar players depend on us to keep their instruments in excellent working order, we also care about whether or not beginners (both young & old) enjoy playing guitar. To that end we want to make sure your guitar plays as well as it possibly can. 

saturday is shopping day...

It's hard to get away from the rock guitar stereotypes...today we've had a number of rather dense modification jobs.  One of which the person decided they were not, at this moment, ready to sink multiple thousands of dollars into bringing a truly classic solid body American electric guitar from the Fifties back to life. He may change his mind in the near future (we've seen it happen before) but for now, at least he has a clearer picture of what the work entails.

Currently we're listening to the solo lead vocal track of David Lee Roth singing "Runnin with the Devil."  The guy really brought it. It's like a psychic palette cleanser to the room. The helpless laughter is a good tonic, too.

Aaaa

Welcome to Gary Brawer's Guitar Repair Online Journal

This is the Gary Brawer Stringed Instrument Repair shop online journal about (wait for it): guitar repair! Here you'll find posts about the daily workings of our 23-year old shop on Lafayette St., in the South of Market area of San Francisco, California.  This shop does everything from restringing your guitar (why would you want to pay us to do this?) to set-ups to electronic work (both simple & complex) to refrets, all the way up to complete restorations on vintage instruments.

We work on electric and acoustic guitars and basses. We don't work on orchestral instruments or ukuleles or banjos or mountain dulcimers or santours...you get the picture.

This shop is also a warranty station for almost every major (and many of the minor) guitar manufacturers. There's decades of experience here and we can likely find a solution to anything that may ail your guitar.

Give us a call or stop by, contact info is on our lovely little web site: www.brawer.com.

Thanks!

Gary & the crew