Jul 28 2021
New Orleans humidity is rough on things. It’s relentless grip on the Gulf South is unforgiving of most man-made objects not designed for swamp life: houses, vehicles, books, anything electrical, and definitely guitars. The combined string tension at standard tuning is about 160 pounds of constant pressure on the soundboard – which means acoustic guitars …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/repairing-a-collapsed-acoustic-guitar/
Apr 13 2021
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/installing-fender-lsr-roller-nut/
Apr 07 2021
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, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/defretting-a-bass-guitar/
Mar 08 2021
Broken Gibson headstocks are very common, and we’ve repaired A LOT of them over the years using various techniques such as backstrapping, laminating multiple-layer overlays, routing reinforcement splines, and sometimes a combination of everything. We see so many broken Gibson headstocks that we’ve developed our own proprietary tooling to give us repeatable and reliable reinforcement …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/repairing-a-broken-gibson-headstock/
Feb 08 2021
Our primary focus at the shop has always been to service the local New Orleans music community. Being gigging musicians ourselves, we’ve put a lot of stock in the symbiosis of the music scene here, and it’s been very important to us to do our part in helping it thrive and to develop meaningful relationships …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/restoring-mike-campbells-vintage-gibson-dove/
Jan 12 2021
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/the-secret-of-the-plek-machine/
Jan 04 2021
This one’s for my fellow woodworking nerds out there: converting a bolt-on to a set-neck. Our pal, Anders Osborne comes into our shop with unique requests on a fairly regular basis, but this one takes the cake. He had a custom Delaney guitar built for him using some cypress siding from his house that he’s …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/converting-a-bolt-on-to-a-set-neck/
Dec 14 2020
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/making-a-brass-nut/
Nov 22 2020
“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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/guitar-is-out-of-tune/
Oct 15 2020
I’ve been intrigued by the sustainability of reclaimed wood as a guitar building material for years, so my interest was piqued when one of our clients, Brian, approached me with an idea regarding some wood that he had come into. He was driving through the French Quarter one day, and as he was passing the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/maret-guitars-reclaimed-wood-custom-guitar/
