About Us

I’ve been hanging around music shops since my big brother Todd started taking bass lessons at age 12, which would put me around 8. I originally started out as a drummer at that age but after Todd took me in 1970 to see ‘Woodstock: The Movie’ I ran to the corner music store and plopped down fives bucks and bought a nylon string guitar which I proceeded to drive everyone crazy with banging on a open E chord for weeks till Todd gave me one of his old chord books.

I’ve always done my own work on my guitars and when my knowledge falls short I can rely on big brother Todd (a 50+ year music industry veteran) for the answers I need to ‘put things together’. Most of what I know about music and fretted instruments I learned from Todd.

Aside from doing my own stuff and some setups for buddies I’ve always had this penchant for buying old beat up gear, rehab’ing and either putting into my stable or selling.

In 2010 I started a project that I was sort of horrified of – repair a cracked headstock on a 1962 Gretsch 6119 – that took me down an interesting road! Now my basement shop is loaded with airbrushes, polishers, little bits of #2000 sandpaper all over the floor. The scent of Nitrocellulose Lacquer and Rubbing Compound fill the air.

Quite a few jobs later it turns out I’m pretty handy with an airbrush (maybe just the paint fumes I like though…) and looks like I’ll be doing a lot more of this type of work for some local stores that can’t handle these kind of repairs. I won’t say that I’m fearless now, but I have a lot less reservations about sticking a fifty year old Les Paul under the bit of my drill press.