While we often focus on the acoustic side of things in our Repair Spotlight posts, the shop also specializes in all things electric. In this edition of the Repair Spotlight we’re talking electronics swap out…all of the electronics. Here Matt Street Luthier Matt H is taking a stock Gretsch G5420T and upgrading all of the pots and switches with gear from our friends at Emerson Custom and … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Gretsch Electronics Upgrade
Up in the Repair Shop our luthiers get unique requests from customers on a daily basis. Whether it’s something standard like swapping pickups, to a neck reset and a complete refret, the shop is more than willing to make musical dreams come true. Cut to a recent request to thin down a neck on one of our customer’s favorite guitars. Originally the guitar had been … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Custom Neck Profile
Underneath a layer of overspray was this beautiful, original Martin 1931 OM-28 bridge, with all the contours and craftsmanship that we admire in these vintage guitars. Jim slowly cleaned out the over-cut string slots in order to fill them with new pieces of ebony to correct the breakover angle. While the shop has fabricated hundreds of replacement belly bridges over the years, and have all … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: 1931 Martin OM-28 Bridge Repair
Life on the road can be rough for the touring musician, but even more so for their instruments! Friend of the store Andy McKee has been jet-setting around the world, playing his unique combination of top-tapping, fingerstyle and percussive acoustic guitar, and his gear has logged some serious miles with him. Unfortunately, the headstock on the bass side of his Greenfield HG Harp Guitar broke off while traveling … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Andy McKee – Greenfield Harp Guitar Repair
From 1-4pm Sunday, Aug. 28th, we’ll be offering FREE restrings at the Mass Street Music booth down in South Park at the Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships! Just bring by your guitar, chat us up while you wait, and in no time you’ll have a fresh set of steel ready for the day. We’ll be using our house brand for the FREE restrings, but we’ll … Continue reading FREE Restrings at Fidpick
The Repair Shop here at Mass Street is always up for a challenge when it comes to satisfying the requests and mods of our customers. This time around Matt H. was tasked with turning a three pickup Stratocaster into a dual humbucker configured guitar. The easiest way to accomplish this was routing out the entire pickup cavity, and creating what’s known as a swimmming pool … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Swimming Pool Route
The Repair Shop sees their fair share of instrument disasters. Dropped, kicked, water damaged, dried out are just a few of the many maladies that can befall a perfectly good guitar. When this particular Gypsy Jazz acoustic showed up in the shop it provided a new level of challenge in exactly how they were going to not only gain access to the top crack, but … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Gypsy Braces
Sometimes bad repairs happen to good guitars, and this 1938 Martin 000-45 on Boss Jim‘s bench was a prime candidate for a repair rescue. This stunning 000-45 had an extra block of wood attached to its bridge plate on the underside of the guitar top. Carefully removing this mess took almost 8 hours, slowly planing off the excess wood until Jim could get some leverage and use a … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: 1938 Martin 000-45 Bridge Plate Repair
If you’ve ever taken an instrument up into the Repair Shop here at Mass Street you know exactly what to expect from this article. Whether it’s restoring a family heirloom, getting your axe modded up, or taking advantage of our Free Setup, the Repair Shop takes what it does very seriously. Now, that doesn’t mean they don’t like to have a little fun! Some of favorite customers love to … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: Mustang Overhaul
There is no end to the unique requests that come through the Mass Street repair shop. Everything from gluing down a stubborn bridge, to restringing an elaborate lute, to performing free setups on new gear, the guys will do just about anything to keep your instruments performing. Sitting less than 10 feet from the shop I’m constantly amazed by the unique instruments that come through, and … Continue reading Repair Spotlight: New Banjo Old Tricks
