Musical instrument repairs can be a difficult subject. Often, in the case of a breakage the owner of the instrument is quite sure that the poor Guitar/mandolin etc. is beyond the help of the ingenuity of man. I suppose sometimes they are but in my experience it is very rare that nothing can be done. Sometimes, especially with mass produced instruments, once the repair is complete and the instrument has been set up by hand it plays better than it ever did.

There are really three types of breakage that occur which require different treatment. the most difficult is an internal breakage. This is sometimes caused by a pressure being placed on the front of an instrument. The symptoms vary from an obvious collapse to loss of tone and volume or a buzz that you cant seem to locate. The damage may be just a strut unglued from its position. In this case it just needs to be carefully reglued into position.

More serious is a broken or split strut. This will need to be repaired or patched in situe and can test ones ingenuity a bit. I have repaired instruments with this sort of damage which have sounded better than they ever did before after being repaired. It is safe to say though, you can expect the sound to be as good as it was before the accident.

Splits in or damage to the outside of the body are more of a problem in some ways as there is the question of restoring the original finish to the repaired area. this can be quite simple but in the worst case may require a complete refinish. However the repairs, weather in the form of re fixing together the edges of splits or actually inserting patches are it least in easy reach.

The third type of break is in the neck. This is usually simply a gluing matter and not too much trouble. The only real problem is if there is involvement with the finger board. Then it may need re fretting in order to get the frets level again.

So now I have re assured you that your guitar will be OK and all you need to do is bring it to me. Let me suggest that it might be a good idea to bring it to me when it is not broken.

Many mass produced guitars are very well made but by the nature of their origin don't have the time spent in attention to detail that it needs to fine tune the action and the intonation. The retailers should attend to these things when selling the instrument but I can tell you that many don't.

If you are a learner and find that playing your instrument isn't getting any easier then it might be worth bringing it to me for an evaluation. I do have to say that this can be hard for me because every now and then I have had to tell someone that it isn't worth spending any more time with their particular instrument as it is to all intents and purposes un playable and un reclaimable. I do not charge for that evaluation.

So you may feel confident that when you bring your instrument to me that I will return it to you playable and beautiful. I will give an estimate of the cost if you require it.

Please bring a new set of the strings you like to use with you . I am not into replacing second hand strings.