Benjamin Strange

New Orleans, LA

I am a bassist, guitar tech, and founder of Strange Guitarworks. When not working on guitars, I create experimental music under the moniker of UFO Death Cult, utilizing microtonal instruments of my own design. "Intonation is a social construct."

Most commented posts

  1. Barnett Customs — 2 comments
  2. Spotting a fake guitar — 2 comments
  3. Fretwork on a Gene Simmons Punisher bass. — 2 comments
  4. Installing a Music Man Stingray pickup — 2 comments
  5. Making a guitar nut from scratch — 1 comment

Author's posts

Stabilizing a three bolt neck

My buddy Jeff “Guitar” Nelson is not gentle with his guitars. He’s a hard player, bends the strings off the neck, and has very strong hands which he uses to mangle his guitar to within an inch of it’s life. So it came as no surprise that he was having trouble with his three bolt …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/stabilizing-three-bolt-neck/

Replacing a vintage lap steel output jack

This week I had a really cool early 1950s Supro Lap Steel guitar come in to the shop. The new owner, Jeb, had just recently picked it up cheap, and didn’t even know if it worked – because it had a vintage, screw-on type output jack, and the special cord for it was missing. In …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/lap-steel-jack/

Mr. Strange in New York

I’m back! Last week I took some much needed time off to hang out in New York – and as usual, I completely overdid it. There’s just something about NYC that causes me to fill every waking moment with non-stop action. While I was mostly there for rest & relaxation (which didn’t really happen), I …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/mr-strange-new-york/

Replacing Carvin pickups

Carvin Guitars, I have a bone to pick with you. Don’t worry – it has nothing to do with the quality of your product. I admire the fact that you manage to make fairly high quality instruments at reasonable prices right here in America. In fact, I rarely have much to bitch about when it …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/replacing-carvin-pickups/

Martin neck reset

One of the most difficult and complex jobs a guitar tech can be faced with is a neck reset. Acoustic guitars typically need to have their necks reset every several decades or so, as the 200 some-odd pounds of tension pulling on the neck at all times slowly pulls the neck forward, changing the angle …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/martin-neck-reset/

Acoustic bridge reglue, fixing cracks, & brace repair

Vacation’s over and now it’s time to get back to work! Before I left, I finished up a job for my friend John Fohl (who plays with the likes of Dr. John, Gatemouth Brown, & Bo Diddley) on his 1960s era Gibson LG-0. If memory serves me correctly, John told me he picked it up at …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/acoustic-bridge-reglue-fixing-cracks-brace-repair/

Fixing a broken truss rod

There’s rarely a shortage of interesting jobs to showcase on this blog, so typically I’m posting every week or so. For the past month I’ve mostly been plugging away at a bunch of bread-and-butter type jobs: refrets, fret levels, setups, pickup installs, etc.; certainly stuff I enjoy doing, but as I’ve already covered these type …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/fixing-broken-truss-rod/

Installing a middle pickup

The Fender Telecaster is just about the simplest electric guitar out there – a plank of wood screwed onto another hunk of wood with a bit of  plastic and metal thrown in and viola! A Telecaster! It’s simplicity is what makes it great, but what if you want to mess with the formula a little …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/installing-middle-pickup/

Fretless conversion

For many years I was strictly a fretless player. I did my first fretless conversion on my second bass about 15 years ago – a composite necked Peavey B-Quad, which was quite the chore for my younger self! Over the years, I’ve defretted several of my basses, including my now main instrument, a 1974 Ovation …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/fretless-conversion/

Installing a Bigsby

I think that perhaps guitarists are a bit like lemmings – oftentimes the same kind of guitars and the same kind of work all comes in to the shop in waves. This week has brought in wave upon wave of Bigsby work: I’ve installed two Bigsby trems (one Fender Telecaster, one Gretsch White Penguin), ordered …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/installing-bigsby/

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