This banjo belongs to a good friend that helps me here at the store.  It was his mother's and he wanted to get it back to playing condition.  It was missing the 5th string tuner and the bridge and the neck was pretty loose.  We cleaned it up, installed a new 5th string friction tuner, found a bridge that fits PERFECTLY and WOW, were we thrilled with the result.  This banjo plays up and down the neck like butter!

Now I have to give it back to him....bummer.  But that is OK, he will be thrilled!

This was a project we had sitting in back for awhile.  It did not require alot of work, just a few parts to replace the missing.  Rather than try and find original spec parts, we decided to use new parts to make a better playable instrument.  The tailpiece was missing.  The new tailpiece increases the break across the bridge and improves the sound.  The 5th String Tuner is a new friction tuner that works well.  A new 5/8" bridge, a little cleaning and polish and we are ready to play!

Chicago banjos were produced by the Harmony Company in the 1960s.  Check it out on our "Inventory For Sale" page.

This is another project that will be a long process.  The body has been refinished, sanded down, but amazing enough, the person who sanded it had enough foresight to leave the serial number on the back of the headstock intact.  The pickups are currently being rewound by Lindy Fralin.   Hope to have those back soon.  

This cool little guitar has had a rough life as well.  This one will be a long project to get it back to playable condition.

This Guild 12 String came in pretty rough.  Someone has done some pretty good repair work in the past, removing the back and repairing cracks on the back as well as working on the braces.  The finish is rough and we plan to leave it that way.  This one will not be meant for show, but will hopefully be made to play once the repairs are complete.   Just finished re-glueing the pick guard to the body this afternoon.  Will get an updated photo shortly.

04/05/2012
Charlie glued the pickguard back on, built a new saddle and installed a string to see what was next - can you say "neck reset?"  We should have this done in the next few weeks.

This guitar will require a great deal of work, but will be a really good guitar once it is made playable. 

This is my pet project (its my guitar).  Like most things, we work on our customers stuff and get to ours when we have some free time.  I am hoping to have some free time soon.  The guitar has some loose braces on top, the top has settled a bit and needs to be re-braced.  Still a very cool guitar.  I'm a sucker for archtops with a soundhole.

A good friend of ours brought this guitar in several months ago and asked us to slowly bring it back to playable condition.  He had stripped it down and refinished it, so all we are doing is installing some new EMG pickups, electronics, making some adjustments and getting it ready to play.

We picked this guitar up a few weeks ago.  It has led a sheltered life and is in great condition, but needs a neck adjustment and some minor bridge work.  This guitar, once complete, will make a nice addition to someone's collection.  Check out the article on these guitars in a recent "Acoustic Guitar" magazine article ( http://www.acguitar.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=26561).

Our customer brought this one in with a split top.  Unfortunately we did not get a before picture, so we get to show the finished product.  This one came together nicely, you cannot tell the split except for a slight feel in the top and the seam (between the end blockt and the bridge - center seam split).