Downtown Devil by Molly Bilker It’s 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon, and the workroom of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery is alive with sound: hammering noises, scraping, footsteps. Students move from workbench to drawers against the wall, outside to sand down a guitar neck or body, back inside to the sink, around again to the workbench. Roberto Venn […]
Guitar Repair
Guitar maker to restore Elvis collection
Guitar maker to restore Elvis collection by Andre Gallant Online Athens Athens guitar maker Scott Baxendale will begin in February making trips to Memphis to repair, restore and document Elvis Presley’s guitar collection. Most of the maintenance on the collection, which Baxendale estimates is less than 25 guitars, is “general,” he said. Baxendale will set up a workstation […]
Guitar Theft – Protect yourself.
We all love and cherish our instruments. Musicians often feel a unique connection with the instruments that they play. That is why it is such a tragedy to us when we have an instrument stolen. Having anything stolen is a terrible thing, but having something as personal as one’s guitar taken from them so callously is […]
Can I convert my guitar to left handed?
In most cases a right handed instrument can be easily converted to a left handed instrument. In fact, on a classical guitar, the conversion may be as simple as restringing it. The saddles on classical guitars typically have no compensation angle, and the nylon strings are close enough in diameter that the nut slots are often […]
Releasing tight or stuck bridge pins
Often times a player will go to restring their guitar, and discover that the bridge pins wont budge. This can be a frustrating experience, and can turn a simple procedure into a struggle. Luckily, there are a few tricks that can be used to make bridge pin extraction as painless as possible. The first thing […]
A quick fix for a bone nut
Have you ever seen a bone nut with a chunk missing or a chip in it? This is a fairly common situation. When this occurs, players often choose to replace the nut entirely, and there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is the best scenario. However, sometimes clients want a quick inexpensive fix. […]