Guitar Repairs

Electric and Acoustic Guitar Setups and Repair in the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh

Acoustic and Electric Guitar Setups

I have been making, repairing, performing setups, refrets, glueing broken necks, rewiring pickups, refinishing and anything else yo care to mention for pro and amatuer players in the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh area since the 70's. If you're looking for repairs to your instrument please give me a call to arrange pickup of your instrument or a visit to my workshop near Innerleithen. I'm happy to accept repairs from the Scottish Borders, Northumberland and Edinburgh / Lothians area which is around 45 minutes from my workshop. Please see a sample of the repair or upgrade work I can carry out for you below.

A lot of stringed instruments can benefit from a final setup. New guitars often have the action (the string height) set high to cater for a multitude of players. Careful adjustment of your new or used guitar can greatly improve the playability of your acoustic, electric or bass guitar.
I can adjust the instrument to your specifications and check for faults such as:

  • Fret buzz - Worn or badly finished frets can impair the playability of the guitar greatly and result in annoying buzzes or choking. Solutions can range from a good clean and polish through to a partial or complete fret replacement where all frets are levelled, re-crowned and polished.
  • Poorly seated frets - As above. I'll check for poorly seated frets either through careless manufacture or wear and tear.
  • Sharp edges on the edge of frets - Poorly finished fret ends can result in sharp edges.
  • Poor Neck Adjustment - The neck angle can be adjusted to compensate for all of the above. Should there be a requirement final adjustments to the truss rod can be done.
  • Poor intonation - If your intonation is poorly set the guitar will be out of tune on various areas of the fingerboard even if you have tuned the open strings.  
  • Tremelo Setup - The whammy bar can be set to your preference. Emphasis on tuning stability, smoothness and feel.
  • Sticky Top Nuts - Strings can stick here resulting in frustrating tuning problems. Adjustments to the top nut slots and height or material can help here. From re-cutting the existing slots to manufacturing a replacement from brass, bone, tusq or ebony can be performed.
  • Pickup and Pole Piece Heights - Symptoms such as imbalanced volumes from different pickups or mechanical pull (strattyitis) can result from poorly adjusted pickups. These can be set to preference or replacements suggested if required.
  • General Electrics Health - All instrument controls such as switches, sockets and pots can be checked for faults and cleaned, adjusted or replaced as required. A full rewire can be undertaken if required.
  • Vintage Guitar Restoration - Complete overhaul, stripdown and refinish if required.

Repairs and Modifications to Acoustics, Semi-Acoustics, 12 Strings, Electric Guitars, Bass Guitars, Mandolins, Lapsteels...

  • Broken Necks and Headstocks - All makes and models assessed. Refinishing work undertook if required.
  • Scalloped Fretboard - Starting with a very shallow scallop from the octave increasing in depth as you climb the neck.
  • Pickup Upgrades - Faulty pickups replaced or alternative options catered for including routing out and rewiring if required.
  • Bridge Faults - Reseating loose bridges from acoustic guitars.
  • Tremelo Systems - Repairs and conversions of all tremelo systems.

Headstock repair on and electric guitar - glued and refinished.Scalloped ebony fingerboard, gradual increase from the octave to the 24th fret.Guitar electrics repaired and modified.