Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

[bearballz]

Hey all,

Just a topic off top of my head. Every guitar/bass player has their favorite "tech" guy or shop for the quality of work and of course service and price.

Here's mine: Specimen Guitars- 1240 N. Homan Ave.Chicago www.specimenguitars.com

Ian Schneller's a great luthier who makes all kinds of interesting guitars and amps. His prices are great and works on guitars and amps for a lot of the local musicians in the Chicago area including Billy Corgan and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

here is central maryland : John Thurston (who works out of his own shop as well as taking in pieces from Appalachian Bluegrass) is outstanding with guitars ...

Precision Audio Tailoring is the only place i'd take a tube amp ... he worked on SRV's stuff as well as many other name players ...

 

[joelap]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

Jeff Seal :notworthy even though he's far from my area...

 

[mrid]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

Joe Glaser in TN just happens to be right next to the best amp man in TN, Mark Ferguson.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

These's guys New York Music Repair

 

[Sabe]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

Hey KMC
I second that emotion for NY Music and Repair. Those guys really know their stuff, and they perform the "best repairs on the planet"

-sabe

 

[Dirtyking]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

I have this local guy named Torin here in Bakersfield, CA. retube my amp(pre and power) and switch out pups for me. He's very quick and informitive and doesn't BS me for a profit. He's my second source for any music info I need. He turned my whole rig from average to insane. I'd kill for this guy (J/K).

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

I think my brother Bruce in Denver is one of the best amp techs in the world. http://www.missionamps.com

I think I do great guitar repairs and set-ups and pickup and wiring tweaks too when I have the time and my eyesight is good. Time is the problem for me...I'd rather go mountain climbing than work on someone's Epiphone Les Paul.

As for acoustic guitar work, Harry Fleishman in the Denver/Boulder area is fabulous and maybe my local favorite. The other would be the head tech at Uncle Kit's Old Time Pickin' Parlour in Old Town Arvada, Colorado. He's reset the neck on my wife's Martin D-18 and reset the neck,refretted and fixed up my '53 Gibson Southern Jumbo for me...same guitar as the Everly Brother's used on Wake Up Little Suzie and thier early classics.

Lew

 

[RGN]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

I think my brother Bruce in Denver is one of the best amp techs in the world. http://www.missionamps.com

I think I do great guitar repairs and set-ups and pickup and wiring tweaks too when I have the time and my eyesight is good. Time is the problem for me...I'd rather go mountain climbing than work on someone's Epiphone Les Paul.

As for acoustic guitar work, Harry Fleishman in the Denver/Boulder area is fabulous and maybe my local favorite. The other would be the head tech at Uncle Kit's Old Time Pickin' Parlour in Old Town Arvada, Colorado. He's reset the neck on my wife's Martin D-18 and reset the neck,refretted and fixed up my '53 Gibson Southern Jumbo for me...same guitar as the Everly Brother's used on Wake Up Little Suzie and thier early classics.

Lew

I may be on your ignore list but I wanted to ask you if you know the guys at Drumcityguitarland in Wheat Ridge. That is a GREAT store IMO.

Welcome back and hope you enjoyed your vacation.

 

[some_dude]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

I actually go to JohnJohn's competition.....

...Oddly enough, his name is John too...

 

[Closed Eye]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

Larry Horwitz at Century Music in San Antonio, Texas.

Great guy who does a great job installing pickups and his setups are the best in the city.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

MY close and dear friend Cris Mirabella. I have respected his work for a long time. Cris is more of a builder than a tech. He really does restoration work on fine vintage guitars as well as repairs, but primarily builds Archtop guitars, electric guitars, and acoustic flat tops. I do most of my own setups. He taught me how. He recently did a repair on a Les Paul that was once owned by Pete Townsend. Pete threw it out of a window and the guitar smashed on the ground. There was a whole story on the repair in 20th century guitar last month!

I saw him replace a missing piece on the top of a 1942 D'Angelico Archtop. When he was done you couldn't even tell that the piece was missing!!!
Check this out!

http://www.mirabellaguitars.com/d'angelico_resoration.htm

 

[Wattage]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

MY close and dear friend Cris Mirabella. I have respected his work for a long time. Cris is more of a builder than a tech. He really does restoration work on fine vintage guitars as well as repairs, but primarily builds Archtop guitars, electric guitars, and acoustic flat tops. I do most of my own setups. He taught me how. He recently did a repair on a Les Paul that was once owned by Pete Townsend. Pete threw it out of a window and the guitar smashed on the ground. There was a whole story on the repair in 20th century guitar last month!

I saw him replace a missing piece on the top of a 1942 D'Angelico Archtop. When he was done you couldn't even tell that the piece was missing!!!
Check this out!

http://www.mirabellaguitars.com/d'angelico_resoration.htm

+1

Funny how great minds think alike!

 

[B2D]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

In Orange County, CA these guys are far and away the best of the best... www.theguitarshoppe.com

The work they do is immaculate and the prices are very fair.

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

My fav amp-guru is Zoltan Hack here in Budapest who was involved in Diezel VH4S designing (output tranny and 4th channel) and about to start his amp /Hackman/ custom shop. He's kinda pretty gifted, while he heals your amp in a glance you can always get a hint or two from brain surgery tricks through some revealed secrets of making Stradivari violins to making special precision space-age ceramic tools for your car in your kitchen. He knows anything and everything about amps, including puzzled MIDI brains because he repaired our hopeless ADA midi bass preamp (there was no replacement part in the market so he built in a new front panel MIDI switching system that suits the MB-1 digital brain, it is a "littlebit" more challenging task than biasing a tube amp I guess) and the most important for me: he really knows what "high gain" is about. He also mods Mesas. If there is no hope that you can find a vintage output tranny for your pre-historic amp he can make it and it will be at least five times better sounding than the original.

 

[Curly]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

I'm bummed since Tracy Sands moved to Las Vegas
I originally went to Tracy because he could work on my Music Man amp

he was great with tweed Fenders ... never did more than what was needed to get it sounding good

I know he was working for a while at Bad Cat when they started up, too.

a great amp tech ... very knowledgeable about Rickenbackers, too

 

[stratsandaks]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

here is central maryland : John Thurston (who works out of his own shop as well as taking in pieces from Appalachian Bluegrass) is outstanding with guitars ...

+1 for John Thurston.

T4D, have you ever played a KT (Koonz/Thurston) guitar? They're very nice.

 

[rspst14]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

I'm not really sure when it comes to guitar techs, as I do all my own work, including fretwork. But I've heard really good things about Chris Boyle at Swissvale Music here in Pittsburgh. He's also a Buzz Feiten certified installer. That's not cheap or easy to do, so I know he's not a hack guitar tech. If I ever needed any work done that I couldn't do myself, I wouldn't hesitate to take it to him.

My Peavey Classic 50 abruptly stopped working a few years ago, so I made the hour and a half trip to Chirchiglia's House of Music in Youngstown, Ohio. Their amp tech had it fixed in less than a week, and his prices were very reasonable, as I would later discover when modding the amp myself...those Peavey's are a bitch to assemble/disassemble. I can't remember his name, I know he's an outside contractor that does electronics work for the store. I would definitely recommend him, and I will go back to him if my amp ever needs serviced again. I'm told there are some good guys up in Cleveland as well, but I've never tried them.

If you live in Pennsylvania, Greg at BCR Music in Lemoyne is one of the best luthiers in the country. His store is about three and a half hours from me, but I wouldn't hesitate to make the drive if I needed something major done.

Ryan

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

Rob At Rossi Music in Canandaigua for instruments

John Nau in rochester for everything amplifiers

 

[aleclee]

Re: Who's the best guy/guitar repair shop in your area?

It depends on what I'm looking for.

If it involves touching a trem, Doc Dryer is my guy. He's da bomb for repairs/setups.

For fretwork, Chris Herbert is supposed to be tops in Denver. He did a fine job on a recrown a couple years ago. That said, all my PRS refret work is going to John Ingram. He was the sixth employee at PRS but recently "went solo". He did a phenomenal job refretting my '94.

For amps, I'm lucky enough to have Lord Valve local. My Soldano is currently in his shop getting tweaked.