Smiert Spionam said:
Gilded,
Most recently, I've had work done by Bill Giebitz. He did the frets and bridge on the X-440, refretted my ES-175D, and did a refret, neck reset, and some bracing work on an old L-00. His shop always has some very cool stuff in process -- herringbone Martins, vintage archtops, etc. He's phenomenal -- I'd trust him implicitly with any vintage guitar. I also like the feel of his fretwork -- nice shape, well-crowned, perfect fret ends over binding, etc.
He's not cheap, and can get pretty backed up -- but for a premium guitar it's worth it.
He works out of a home shop, but mostly uses South Austin Guitars for his storefront (although for special stuff you may be able to deal with him directly).
I've also had a couple of guitars worked on by Chris Forshage, who recently moved his shop up north -- somewhere around Pflugerville, I think (he used to be on North Loop across from the Music Exchange). He did refrets on my first Guild (a '53 X-50) and the CE-100D that Bill D. Light now has. Also excellent work -- maybe not at BG's level of vintage restoration craft, but quite good. A bit more affordable, too. He also builds some amazing archtops and electrics of his own.
SS, thanks for the info. I'm up in Fort Worth. I've heard a lot about Bill Giebetz, and also a guy named Ed Reynolds (though I don't know if Ed's in Austin anymore).
I have another friend in Austin who used to work for Michael Stevens in Austin a million years ago. He still does fine work, every now and then, but sad to say he's Fallen from Grace by becoming a Mathematics Professor at some of the local college campuses. It's such a terrible story, I'd rather not use his name on the Internet....... :wink:
I use a couple of guys up here in the general Fort Worth area, Kerry Cash in Bedford and Mark Cigainero in Fort Worth.
Mark and I have done a lot of work together, from re-topping a '57 D-28 with Adirondack and advanced-X bracing, re-bracing an acoustic Super 400C (someone butchered it when they threw in Humbuckers; ruined the bracing, causing the top to fail, etc.) to tons of refrets, neck sets, bridge replacements, etc. Lots of refins, lots of touch-ups. Mark really understands how to put busted-up wood back together.
I'm bringing the G312 that I got in the mail today over to him in a few minutes, to reglue the bridge and do a basic set up.
The most recent repairs he's done for me are: plane and refret the neck on a '53 175D, resetting the neck on a Guild
JS II bass, pulling white Krylon spray paint off of a '66 Starfire Bass (see, Guild content!!) and putting a Framus archtop back together for me (talk about Bad Habits).
Kerry is a wonderful repairman, too. His fret jobs are absolutely great, as well as a broad skill set that includes neck sets, crack repair, brace repair, etc. He does a fair amount of small area finish work (I don't think he's set up for complete refinishes, though typically he'll work out a deal with Mark to do that for his customers; both of these guys have been good friends for 30 years), plus he's restored almost as many discombobulated, torn-up old flat tops as Mark. My fave story is the one where he restored the LG-2 that landed in a tree in a tornado...... His web address is:
http://www.kerrysguitarshop.com/
You might want to check him out.
Both of 'em do a fair amount of work for out of state customers. I guess their repair rates are lower than the National Standard, so it works out for shops to ship Fender necks for fret jobs, etc. Go figure.
One out-of-state collector sent Mark a '30's O-18 about six months ago for a neck reset. Turned out the neck had already been reset, but the job failed because the 'Original Repairman' used lined notebook paper for the dovetail shims (I guess he should have used 'unlined'). Right now, the same collector has a D'Angelico style B over at Mark's for a 'look-see' at an old Neck Break.
Okay, sorry for the thread hijacking. Back to Bigsbys..........
