Our Work

Obviously, we can't display all of our work on a single web page, but please check us out on Facebook and Instagram to see more of our cool projects. As you can see below, we are not just limited to guitars! If you play the violin (Blake calls it a fiddle), banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, or any other stringed instrument bring it to us for restrings, repair, maintenance, or service!

Found By The Road

Spencer Carlisle is a talented singer and songwriter who is making a name for himself in Nashville. He brought us a banjo that he literally found by the road where someone had thrown it out with the trash. It's an old Strad O Lin banjo, probably not worth much if you tried to sell it, but that is completely beside the point. For a young musician starting on their journey, every nickel counts. We cleaned, oiled, and polished it up really good, polished the frets, cleaned the head, adjusted the neck to specs, re-glued a brace, stabilized a crack in the resonator, replaced the bridge and tailpiece, put new strings on her, and sent her on her way. Spencer is also the son of a Marine veteran who served in combat which we deeply respect, so there was no charge. Our only ask for Spencer was to introduce us to some our favorite Nashville artists when he makes it big. If you are in Nashville, check him out.

Down From the Mountain

A customer brought in an old handmade dulcimer he found at a garage sale that hadn't felt any love in a long time. Turns out it is a scroll head dulcimer made in 1973 in Mountain Home, Arkansas "for Becky." It was crafted with tapered wood friction tuners which can be a bear to work with but are authentic to how our mountain ancestors made them. We loved the opportunity and jumped right in.

With old instruments and aged wood, especially hand made gems like this one, less is often more. We gently blew fifty years of dust out of the sound hole, put it in a humidity controlled environment for a few days, let it speak to us, then conditioned the very dry wood before polishing the frets and installing new strings. The hand carving marks in the saddle and nut are easily visible, and we decided to not adjust or modify anything else as this pretty girl has earned the right to speak for herself.

Tele Story

This beautiful tele was purchased new, had never been played, but the setup from the factory was less than ideal. The tone and action were off, and the frets had a few sharp ends. The neck pickup was set too low, and we adjusted the nut and gave the neck a little more relief. Now it sounds great with D'addario strings (our FAVE) played through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe IV.

Born Under a Bad Sign

This Takamine G330 was signed by George Strait and given to a well known music store in the 1980's by Takamine to promote their guitars. It was promptly put on display by a window and never played. There is some fading on the body from exposure to sunlight. The company went out of business and it sat unceremoniously in a corner of one of the owner's houses for many years before it was found. We put her with some friends for a few days in a carefully controlled humidified environment, VERY carefully cleaned her up, then put her in a proper Gator case before sending her on her way (We LOVE Gator Cases).

Every guitar is unique, every guitar has it's own story. Sometimes less is more.