kits, cats, sacks, wives....

There are thousands of guitars and each guitar can have anywhere from fifty to three hundred parts. When you, dear owner, inquire via email or telephone about the availability of a particular (non-vintage) part for a particular guitar ninety-nine times out of one hundred we will beg to see the instrument. Though it takes up some of your valuable time the diagnostic or recommendation is free (you only need pay for the part) and you get to enter into our cave of musical toys.

the vestigial limb

Lying, momentarily forlorn on the workbench, at an odd angle and still in the neck-rest, does this neck, awaiting reattachment to its body, still feel, like an amputee, itself as a complete instrument?

the alchemical mage

Here's Tim calling down the spirits in his sekret lair while retorts bubble and the jacob ladder fizzes quietly in the background. The steam in the foreground is for breaking the bonds of neck and body on an acoustic guitar. Tim manipulates materials, bending the elements to his will.

personal expression taken to extremes

This decimated Telecaster is the result of the owner becoming excited during a performance. When the smoke cleared, appalled by what remained, he quickly became contrite. Tim spent a little time with the pieces and judged that it was possible to reassemble and refinish, though the trained eye would still see some evidence of the repair.

D.I.Y.

Here's Gary taking matters into his own hands regarding an upgrade being foisted upon a recalcitrant iMac. While we love our Mac network (we remember our 512E w/ no hard drive!) we also recognize that, like love, a certain amount of capricious whimsicality is involved ("Macs Happen") and occasionally are inspired to take steps.

the wood burned Aztec basses

Here's Tim (all the way below) holding a wood-burned bass destined for stages around the world (see man onstage). The man liked it so much he brought us another one to do the same thing once again (the other three).

Tim applied the burst style finishes by hand with a special blend of shellac and dye. Once the finishes are complete he installs all the hardware, wires it up according to the owner's unique tastes prior to a computerized fretmill on the PLEK machine.

These instruments play like cheese dreams.

see notes

Here Gary has taken detailed notes and loose estimates based on the owner's desire to have the wiring harness, pickup system and hardware of one of his custom instruments perform certain tasks in specific ways. Thankfully Gary can decode as well as encode. An attractive frame may set off the piece to maximum effect...say, displayed near the guitar wall.