Benjamin Strange
New Orleans, LA
Author's posts
Ten years ago I was fired for the first time in my life. I was blindsided, in complete and utter shock, and I suddenly found myself unemployed and quickly going broke in San Francisco. I had been becoming increasingly disillusioned with San Francisco, and had been yearning to move back to the city that most …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/ten-years/
When I was 17 years old, I had already become bored of the same-old, same-old approach to guitar design. My jaded teenage eyes were already sick of seeing Strats and Teles over and over and over again. I thought these were grandpa guitars, and I yearned for something new. Then I discovered the Parker Fly, …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/replacing-the-output-jack-on-a-parker-fly/
Left handed people have never had it easy. Lefties have been burned at the stake, bump elbows with righties at the dinner table, and struggled with scissors in elementary school art class. Left handed people also have limited options finding a guitar that suits them. Left handed people comprise of 10% of the population, yet …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/converting-an-acoustic-guitar-to-left-handed/
Whammy. Whang bar. Vibrato bridge. Wiggle stick. No matter what you call it, they are going to knock your guitar out of tune if it’s not set up properly. The main culprit for guitars going out of tune is the nut– strings catch and bind in there, and they don’t return to pitch. While a …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/installing-fender-lsr-roller-nut/
I have been playing bass guitar 29 years, and for almost that entire time I’ve been an exclusively fretless player. I first defretted my bass in 1998, after only playing for five years. I remember that ordeal quite well: I yanked the frets out of my Peavey B-Quad, and filled the slots in with bondo, …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/defretting-a-bass-guitar/
What is a PLEK machine? What does a PLEK machine do? Is the PLEK machine worth it? There are lots of questions out there regarding this machine, and even more bad answers. Who in 2021 would believe that the internet would be rampant with mis-information? The PLEK machine is a complex tool, and I will …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/the-secret-of-the-plek-machine/
The nut on your guitar is often overlooked, yet it is one of the most important lynchpins in making your instrument play it’s best. Since every neck is slightly different, one can’t just buy a nut and expect it to fit – they have to be made from scratch, every time. We make a lot …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/making-a-brass-nut/
“Intonation is a social construct.” If you’ve hung around our shop long enough, you’ve probably heard me say this, as it’s one of my favorite aphorisms. What do I mean by this, and what does this have to do with your guitar? Well, your guitar is out of tune. In fact, EVERY fixed pitch instrument …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/guitar-is-out-of-tune/
Acoustic guitars can be designed to sound good, or can be designed to last – it can’t really be both. Most builders try to find a middle ground, and many are very successful at finding a perfect balance. However, guitars are mostly made of wood, and sometimes wood just won’t cooperate. Occasionally we see this …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/acoustic-bridge-coming-off-fixed/
We rarely see Kahler equipped guitars in our shop – I don’t remember seeing any at all in the last seven years. Yet over the last two months we’ve seen at least five (three of which we removed and returned the guitar to stock, like so: http://www.strangeguitarworks.com/filling-a-kahler-route/). A few weeks back our friend Gregg asked …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/installing-a-kahler-into-a-prs/
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