I am a guitar tech and founder of Strange Guitarworks. I am a fairly decent bassist and a pretty lousy guitarist. I create experimental music under the moniker of UFO Death Cult, utilizing microtonal instruments of my own design (which are always pink, for some reason). I also practice Shotokan Karate, so look out man!
Benjamin Strange
New Orleans, LA
Author's posts
Apr 25 2018
Restoring a Harmony Sovereign for The Brian Jonestown Massacre
We were recently contacted by the mercurial musician Anton Newcomb of The Brian Jonestown Massacre to restore his Harmony Sovereign acoustic guitar. To say this guitar was beat up is a vast understatement: the neck was pulling almost completely off and was horribly bowed, the frets were a disaster, the back was cracked, and almost …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/restoring-a-harmony-sovereign-for-the-brian-jonestown-massacre/
Mar 18 2018
Replacing a broken truss rod
Most people think of the truss rod as the smoking gun regarding an instrument’s playability. Action too high? Tighten the truss rod. Action too low? Loosen the truss rod. This kind of advice runs rampant on forums all over the internet, and it’s dead wrong. Guitar necks have an optimal relief of between .1mm (.004″) …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/replacing-a-broken-truss-rod/
Sep 01 2017
It’s our five year anniversary!
On September 1st, 2012, Strange Guitarworks was born. It doesn’t seem like that long ago – this has been so much fun that I’ve hardly noticed that five whole years have slipped by. To be honest, I don’t really know exactly how to remark upon this admittedly small, but perhaps significant milestone. When I consider …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/five-year-anniversary/
Apr 17 2017
Mr. Fred’s weird banjo thing
Our friend, Mr. PH Fred, always has the oddest guitars, and the oddest requests for modifications of those guitars. Last time, he had us turn an acoustic guitar into a Stratocaster (check it out here: Elvis Meets Nixon). This time, he made what seemed like a pretty easy request, to install a Lollar Charlie Christian …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/mr-freds-weird-banjo-thing/
Mar 07 2017
Elvis meets Nixon
The most requested document from the National Archives isn’t the Bill of Rights, nor even the Constitution – it’s this photo: Elvis meets Nixon. Yeah, it really happened. A bizarre moment in American history, to be sure – and one that inspired a madcap project here in our shop. Some background: one of our regular …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/elvis-meets-nixon/
Jan 28 2017
Benjamin’s Fender Hello Kitty microtonal Strat of Doom™
I have an oft-repeated mantra at the shop: “Intonation is a social construct”. Over the last several hundred years, western music has largely standardized into an equal tempered system, dividing the octave into twelve notes with a ratio equal to the 12th root of 2 (12√2 = 2 1⁄12 ≈ 1.059463)(12 tone equal temperament is also known as …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/benjamins-fender-hello-kitty-microtonal-strat-of-doom/
Jan 03 2017
Now open on Fridays!
By popular demand, we are now open on Fridays! We’ll be here Monday through Friday, 12-6, making the world a better place, one guitar at a time. Come on down and say hello!
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/now-open-on-fridays/
Dec 23 2016
2016 year in review
No doubt many of us will be glad to put 2016 behind us. This has been a wild year for our world, our nation, our city, and even our tiny little space at Strange Guitarworks. While we know 2016 has been full of negativity and loss outside of the shop’s walls, inside we have striven to …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/2016-year-in-review/
Oct 24 2016
Making an acoustic bridge for a vintage Martin
Building a great acoustic guitar is tricky business. One has to find the perfect balance between two opposing ideas: build a guitar that sounds good, or build a guitar that lasts. If the guitar is too solidly built, it won’t have any resonance and will sound terrible; if the guitar is too flimsy, it will collapse …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/making-an-acoustic-bridge-for-a-vintage-martin/
Aug 10 2016
Strange Guitarworks welcomes Dunlop Strings!
We are proud to announce that we are now an official dealer for Jim Dunlop strings! We restring a LOT of guitars, and we’ve found Dunlop strings to be among our favorites. They’re built really well, are extremely consistent, are generously long (handy for long scale & hollow body instruments), made in America, and the …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/strange-guitarworks-welcomes-dunlop-strings/