Welcome Guitar Geeks, to our humble online abode.

Here you will find the widest range of vintage, restored, repaired, reloved and revived stringed instruments. From 1890 parlor guitars to our brand new Custom Wallpaper Tele’s, we got it all. Check out our Guitars, Banjos, Mando’s, Ukuleles, Basses, Solid Body’s, Hollowbody’s and a wide range of Pencil Crayons. Click the about us pages to see a little of our story so far, our friends page to see who we rub elbows with and of course take a look at all our fancy stringed things.

Well Hello
so these are our new digs. you like? yes it has been long overdue but we were finally sick of being reminded of all the guitars that we had to see go. Â So here we are with a brand new website for your viewing pleasure. Stick around, have a nosy about, and we know you will like what you see. oh! by the way stay glued to this page for lottsa, lottsa new stuff. But don’t be afraid to drop in and say hello ‘coz what you see here is only a small portion of the wonders and joys that live inside The Guitar Repairers.

The Story of the Tempo 12 string…

This guitar represents the essence of what the Guitar Repairers are all about. It’s a short story, however I think you’l like it.

June of last year one of our regular ‘irregulars’ the Rev. Justin Petrie wanted to give us a guitar that he had sitting in a cupboard for nearly ten years. Several ‘consultants’ had been deemed the guitar worthless, irrepairable and worst of all, these same folk had told him to chuck the old girl in the bin!. We could see great potential in this old gem and I gave Justin 150.00 for her as that seemed the right thing to do. I now realize that a thousand dollars would have been more appropriate!

Once we had restored and modified certain aspects of the Tempo, she just sang. A big fat bottom end and woody midrange was a real surprise and took us all on a short journey back to those great blues legends like Big Bill Broonzy. Note from John………Hendrix’s “Here My train A Comin” really rocks on this guitar.

We were honoured to have Mark Lizotte (aka Johnny Diesel) )(Diesels’ Site) buy one of our Harmony ‘Gene Autrey’ cowboy guitars and one of our semi acoustic ‘Hot rod’ P90 monsters which he tells me is all over his new album. He really took a liking to the Tempo and said that someone he knew back home in Sydney would be very interested. A few days later we found out who that somebody was. Getting a morning call from Jimmy Barnes (yes, that’s right kids, that Jimmy Barnes)(Jimmy’s Site) is a really cool way to start the day. Anyways, Jimmy ended up buying the Tempo, a 1943 Walielea 0 Size guitar and A beautiful little 1935 Rickenbacker lap steel. Needless to say that He loved them !!. Now, here’s where it gets interesting, please, please please read on.

Jimmy has a show on Music Max called ‘My first Gig’(My First Gig). Jimmy has special guest artists appear on his show to talk about the earlier parts of their vocation, such as first bands, first cover songs they learned etc. The first guest finished the show by playing ‘Lola’ on the trusty ol’ Tempo. He loved it and wanted one just like it. A few days later I get a call……..’Hello this is Mark……Jimmy Barnes sent me’. ‘Hi Mark how’s it going blah blah blah’……it took about a minute for ‘Mark’ to intervene in the conversation to humbly inform me, ‘Sorry John, the name isn’t Mark, it’s actually Neil…..uhmmm Neil Finn’ Neil $%^&*Finn!!!!!!!(Neil’s Site) Two National Treasures in two days!!!! Neil wanted another 12 string like Jimmy’s. We did have something similar in the form of an beautiful old Stella 12 string . Neil also bought a mid 1920’s Regal parlor and a 1967 Guild 12 String that he gave to Son Liam as a Xmas present (Lucky Liam!)(Liam’s Site). We had to fast track the restoration and stayed up half the night packing them all up in order to get them to Neil, before Xmas. However, The icing on our already overflowing cake was this….. Neil really needed these guitars because he gets ’special’ songwriter friends to fly in for a week over the Xmas/New years break. Each individual is paired with another that he/she has not worked with before. The result is an album and a three night tenure at a 2000 seat theatre in Auckland. These performances help cover the cost of the project…….. so who were these ’special’ friends????? KT Tunstell, Johnny Maher (ex Smiths), two Chaps from radio head (citiation needed) and two from wilco (citation needed). The last band being in our collective top five best ever bands! Are we happy? Are we proud? Should we be telling you this story?? We think so!. And to think it all started with Mr. Lizotte and a Tempo 12 string guitar that none wanted.
This is our Tempo here as Neil Finn and Jimmy Barnes play “LOLA”

We Love sound hole pick ups! I personally believe the LR Baggs M1 to be one of the most brilliant pieces of acoustic amplification technology to come out in the last 20 years. Our vintage parlor guitars however are a little different in their requirements. For one, many have sound holes that are too small to accommodate the commercially made products. Secondly, even when they can be fitted they tend to take away the antique vibe and look of the guitar. So we thought it best to come up with our own. This pick up has six calibrated pole pieces for even response, can be used with or with out an acoustic preamp and is compatible with our custom made piezo pick ups. RRP 175.00

Aren’t they BOOODiful?! These hand crafted straps are the result of the many hours put into them by there maker John Regan. John is a very colourful character to say the least. Born in Galway, he immigrated to Australia where he made a success of himself as an actor (both stage and screen), the leader of legendary 60’s and 70’s rock band “Regan’s Rebels and proud father of one Scotty Regan of Brisbane musical institution “The Gin Club”. John returned to Galway a few years ago for the quiet life, however as you can see idleness is not something that comes naturally to him. Straps start at 125.00 with custom orders also available.

We decided to give you a selection of various custom basses made to the needs and desires of our customers. These basses all feature 2 piece light swamp ash bodies with Canadian maple necks with the option of Maple fingerboard or East Indian Rosewood fingerboards. Ebony is a further option. The choice of pick ups is up to the individual. Prices for these basses range from 1500.00 up to 3000.00 depending on finish, electronics etc.

More coming soon

Disclaimer. The views expressed below are my views (Uncle Johnson). We will quite happily make you a nut and/or saddle in any material you like with the exception of compressed bat guana,

For the last few years I have been trying to find alternative materials for making nuts and saddles. The traditional materials such as bone and brass have been proven over time and the more widely used modern materials such as Corian, Micata and Tusq are also very good……So why do I want to re invent the wheel? Because…….

1. Bone makes the work shop smell like an industrial dentist’s surgery when shaped and sanded. I also find it very difficult to get a regular supply of consistently hard, non porous bone. The tone can sometimes be a little too bright and even bit harsh depending on the application, and lastly it can be quiet “sticky” when used to make a nut, thereby causing strings to “click” or “creak”. This can affect the tuneability and tuning stability of the instrument.

2. Brass attracts heat and burns my poor little fingers when I’m shaping it. I like it in certain applications and in some cases, as with bone I will recommend it. However, like bone it is quiet “sticky”.
3. Corian, Tusq and Micata are all wonderful materials, however I get a little worried for my health (not to mention my staff) when shaping it, as all these composite products smell kinda toxic.

Right then, this is what I had to ask myself.

1.The “new” material has to be super, super resonant.
2.The “new” material has to be hard as buggery and super long wearing
3.The “new” material slippery enough to allow easy string travel.
4.The “new” material has to be consistent
5.The “new” material has to be easy to shape
6.The “new” material has to make my workshop smell good and be, within reason, non toxic.
7.Lastly, it has to look good and make my clients happy so they keep coming back to me.

The material (Blood Wood) is an exotic timber from Brazil which has only become available in Australia in the last 12 months. Hearing is believing. Everyone of us in the workshop is amazed by this discovery. It has taken 3 years of experimenting to find it, however it has been worthwhile.

The “other” discovery we found is that by laminating the blood wood with ivory (slips) taken from the keys of donor pianos we get a gorgeous look nut or saddle with the combined benefits of both materials.

Pics coming soon

How could we resist these little wonders. They are very durable, very compact, and best of all they look fantastic. Yours for 35.00 and just to really add that final touch we can stain it for you in a myriad of different colours for an extra 15.00

Ever driven yourself insane trying to get the open chords of your guitar to all play in tune and then once you’ve found an acceptable compromise you find the bar chord suck ass? Well this can help. When you look at your guitar, do you notice that the bridge saddle/s are further away from the neck on the bass side and closer to the neck on the treble side? This is called compensation and it is designed to compensate for the thickness of the strings so that they are as close to being a perfect octave at the 12th fret. The 1000,000.00 question is how do you get them to be in perfect pitch over the rest of the finger board? Answer. You can’t, OR…….you can if you intend having individually calibrated frets for each string (that’s roughly 132 mini fret lengths). And that isn’t easy to do, although I really would love to try one day. Now having said this, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that a little bit of dissonance is not a bad thing in any musical instrument, because without dissonance you would not have tone (wanna know more? Please ask). Now back to the compensated nut. It works in the same way as the bridge saddle/s, only it does it from the other end. Now there has been an upsurge of interest in this type the nut mainly through the marketing of several companies claiming to have virtually invented it themselves. Sorry fellas, no disrespect but luthiers going back as far as the 17th century were applying the same idea to gut stringed instruments. Musicman and ESP also have this concept on many of their guitars. The nut is especially useful for those folks who like to use a capo and also you metal heads who love nothing more than a guitar tuned down to B. The average price of this modification is 75.00 and for many it will be money well spent.

We’ve seen lots and lots of fretless basses over the years and we’ve also de fretted a lot of basses too. That said, we’ve never heard anything like this guy. You have to hear it to believe it……Example. You pluck the string, the strings sounds and then fades right? Not on this bad boy…. Pluck the string and it actually increases in volume before slowly fading! It’s a bit like having a natural compressor/limiter built in to the bass. Oh! Before I forget, this is a passive bass. No tricks just pure tone. Built in 1980 by the same folks that bought you Ibanez, it sports maple laminate neck thru construction with mahogany wings. All set up and ready to go.

This piece of Japanese Kitsch is so playable that it is hard to put her down. The tone is what you would expect from this style of bass. Big fat woody low end with lovely upper mids. The kind of bass that will be perfect for dub reggae or acid fueled prog.The neck has a cozy 32” scale. We have completely re furbished her and that included a re fret. The strings are Black nylon “tape wounds” or as we like to call them “Disco Strings” …don’t ask me why that is, it just is OK!

There are sooo many old Japanese acoustic guitars out there. Some are lying under beds, some have been bequeathed to younger members of the family and sadly, way too many will eventually end up at the dump. We love nothing more than to get our hands on these under appreciated beauties. Why? I hear you say. Well, it’s like this.

1. Build Quality. The Japanese were for many years the masters of replicating everything from cars to guitars. Their attention to detail was nad still is meticulous, especially when it came to copying and replicating American guitar design.

2. Materials. The timbers used to make these guitars were sourced from every corner of South East Asia. These timbers were “old growth”; in plainer words, the timber was taken from established forests. The advantages of this type of wood are long term stability and strength. Further to this, many of these timbers were species that are now on the endangered list and are therefore illegal to log and/or export. Now, while we consider the cutting down of established “old growth” forest timber a crime, it would be an even bigger crime not to make the most of what is already there. Whilst the build quality of the modern Asian made guitar (i.e. China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc) is exceptional, most of the timbers used are “plantation” timbers or more overly “new growth” timbers. Though this forestation is certainly light years ahead ecologically, it tends to yield timber which is brittle and can be unstable, making many repairs, such as a broken headstock untenable.

The moral of this story is simple, if you have an old Terada, Yamaha, Ibanez, Suzuki, Yairi, Tokai, Takamine, Emperador, Morris, Pearl or Tama (yes! they made guitars to) just to name a few, you probably have a guitar that given the right bit of TLC will wipe the floor with most of its modern competitors, including those beautiful guitars that cost $2000.00 plus. Ok Then, enough of my yacking, enjoy the pictures.

BEFORE

AFTER

This is our very own Handmade GTR Mandolin made by Kallquist Guitars. Back, sides and neck are rose mahogany cut from old VJ’s used once in a Presbytery in Kerry. soundboard and braces are bright spruce from an old German Piano.

“it sounds awesome!, loud, bold full, everything you need in a Mandolin” – Luke Kallquist, 2010

Stay tuned for more in the GTR Line by Kallquist guitars

More Pics coming soon

Up until recently we, like most guitar repair shops replaced bass saddles and telecaster bridge saddles with the best bridge saddles we could find. However I’ve never been that happy with the type of brass used, nor the tone it produced. I researched the historical “why’s” and “where fores” of this and found the most interesting thing. The original brass used by the likes of Fender back in the 50’s was actually a softer compound than that which is available today. This softer brass was cheaper and more available in post war USA owing to the on going rationing in the mineral resources sector. Now here’s another even more interesting thing. The brass “D” mould strips used in old European Piano’s are also a softer type of brass…..Do you see where I’m going here? The softer compound actually gives more sustain, has a woodier, warmer tone and best of all we’re all doing the planet a favour. These saddle sets are on average 140.00 plus fitting

Before

This is a custom order. Pastel Blue, 2 piece ash body, High output vintage style pick ups, all brass hardware and hand milled brass saddles (check these out in the Unique and exciting products section.). Makes for quite the blues machine. We make these guitars to order starting at around 1500.00

This time, we really went for a very “Japanese” vibe. Whaddya think?

this is our custom shop Red and White GT Stripe J-Bass. This has an awesome vintage jazz bass sound and suits any playing style.