The Hub

Howdy folks, I'm a 2026 graduate of the two year guitar program at Red Wing (Minnesota State College Southeast). Between my two years at Red Wing I worked at Collings Guitars in Austin, TX for two years in the acoustic neck department, shaping and finish sanding ~2000 necks, radiusing and gluing ~750 fingerboards, and pressing ~100 sets of frets. I also spent a couple months in the finishing department level sanding and pore filling ~300…

So today, while restringing a guitar, one of my techs dropped a .012 e string that slid down the wall and landed on a plug that was just slightly loose from the outlet. It landed just right and made a huge spark. No lesson to be learned here but a crazy thing to happen! We are changing our name to Sparky’s Guitar Service. 😬

Straight Frets in Austin has an excellent full-time position opening up soon. The job pays by the job, and equates to $70-85K a year for a tech that does: *neck resets *structural repairs *bridge making/reglues *refrets *headstock breaks with splines/airbrush We work on about 1,350 guitars a year (about 28-30 a week) and have had work shipped in from 22 different states at this point. We also teach setup classes on…

Hi all, I am a newer guitar tech and after dozens of repairs this particular Simon & Patrick Luthier Cedar top SP6 acoustic dreadnought from the 90-ies with a bolt-on maple neck has been an incredible challenge. It came with a maxed out and stuck truss rod with a considerable up bow in the neck, extremely low saddle with barely any string break angle, so it needed a neck reset. Later on I figured out that it also has a pretty dras…

Hey all. I apologize if this type of post isn't allowed here but wanted to share anyway. I've been building a tool called Looth specifically for luthiers and repair techs, and I'm looking for a small group of interested looths to help shape it a bit more before it goes public. I got tired of managing spreadsheets and decided that it could be simpler and more automated. The core idea is simple: one place to track every build…

Hi Everyone, I believe this may be my first post here, so just a quick introduction — I’m Andrew in Milwaukee, WI. I’ve been building a few years. My luthier eyes were opened first by Charles Fox in Portland which led me to the Gallop School. I recently retired from a tech career and I am now based in Milwaukee, WI focusing on acoustic builds. I’m currently exploring wood-body resonator guitars, and I’d love to learn more from t…

Almost a year ago I complete a certificate program and became a journeyman luthier/ guitar tech. Looking to continue my education and I was wondering if there were any weekend workshops or anything similar in the north east/ tri state area that anyone would recommend? Thanks in advance! -Vinny

What do I need to look for in getting proper insurance for my business? I'm a solo guitar tech working out of my house in Texas. Any insurance company recommendations? What kind of coverage do I need to be looking for?

A customer brought me a new Hummingbird with fret buzz a few weeks ago. After performing what may be the best levelling job I've ever done, the buzz was reduced, but still noticeable, though it sounded different than normal fret buzz. When I noticed that the sound was worst when playing F2 (on the A string or D string), I did a frequency analysis and discovered that the main top resonance was at 163.9 hz, and it all made sense. Those…

Hey all, I am really enjoying digging through the looth group. I have not yet watched all the ding kings vids or read all the amazing comments and articles here, but I've been appreciating some of the loothing for dollars stuff, seeing other people's intake sheets, discussions about dealing with customers, and it led me to this question: How do people deal with customer expectations, liability, and the inevitable accidents that can happ…

I had a client dropped off his Suhr JM Classic for a pot replacement yesterday. The fretboard extension hangs over the pickguard on these a little so I flipped it over to loosen the neck screws a tad. I found what looked like 3 missing neck screws and only one screwed in place. The one screwed in place was bright and shiny. I removed that screw and the neck would not budge at all. I focused a pin light into the neck pocket holes to find…

Hello all, new member here. I've been working as a touring tech for 20 years and just noticed this section of the forum was empty, so I figured I'd give it a kick. Are there any topics\questions\ideas\etc that people would be interested in hearing about or discussing from a touring perspective? If so, drop a comment here and I'll see if I can address it or post any relevant photos\content. I'm leaving Wednesday for a month in Europe fol…

I have a BC Rich Mockingbird (Bronze) that I am practicing my tech skills on. I refretted it and that came out pretty good. I pulled off the old rusty wrap around bridge and am replacing it with a Wilkinson preset. I'm in the process of trying to locate the studs/bushings and I thought I had a good idea on setting the scale length but then I was watching this super elegant repair, where Dan comments to add 9/64ths(?) or so to the scal…

Hi everyone, I’m sure this has probably been asked before, but I am new here and fairly new to the trade and I’m extremely eager to learn more. I’ve only been working on guitars for the last few months. Got started for the same reason as a lot of people (i think)… I was just finding it difficult to find a good tech around me, so I decided to learn myself and well, here I am. I’ve learned to do basic set ups and am dabbling in a bit of fr…

Back story: I work as a Repair Tech at a Guitar Center in Florida. A gentleman brought in a 50-year-old vintage banjo where the tuning peg on the neck had broken off. I don't have the equipment in-store to do this type of repair, and I told him I'd try to find him a shop that does. I'm looking to refer him to someone experienced in these repairs where he'd ship the instrument to you (i.e., you don't have to be in FL) for evaluation, quot…

Hi everyone, I was hoping to get some advice on training opportunities. My background and situation (briefly), I’m a self-taught guitar tech and electric luthier with 3 years experience (after 20yrs office work). I have a job in a high volume guitar shop doing setups and quality checks on outgoing/sold guitars. The store does repair work but I have not been included in this, despite many requests. I do not believe this is due to skill le…

Straight Frets started an expansion into a second city with a second Plek machine at the start of 2024. The initial spot had the wrong landlords that would not honor their HVAC agreement, and subsequently the failing HVAC units made prior to 9/11 never allowed the Grand Opening Event to happen. After bailing out of the wrong spot 7 months later, we are now up and running in a much cleaner location with a brand new HVAC, much closer i…

Gibson R&R in Nashville is looking to expand our repair team. To learn more and to apply, please visit the job post on our Careers page. https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Careers/9200654307272_1/Repair-Technician-Repair-and-Restoration