Hi, folks! Welcome to the Repair Shop here at Mass Street Music. The shop is currently one of most important (and busy) parts of our store, and various luthiers have been fixing and restoring guitars in our shop since Jim Baggett first opened up the place in 1978. We're committed to making sure that every guitar that leaves our store is set up to fit each individual player, and we're extremely conscious about the historical impact of our restorations. In short, we like to think that some of the best repair and restoration work currently being done is happening right here in Kansas!
Repair shop hours:
11am-6pm Central time, Monday through Friday.
10am-5pm Central time on Saturday.
Closed Sunday. Please call for holiday hours.
Mike Horan has been the Shop Manager here at Mass Street since 2000 and has been fixing guitars since 1994, doing everything from the simplest of setups to the most complicated restoration work. He also is a member of the Midday Ramblers. Not only snappy dressers, they also play some mean tunes, which you can buy right here. For performance dates and more check them out on their website at www.middayramblers.com. Click on Mike's picture to see the following repairs:
1931 Martin 0-18 (image 2): This is a 1931 Martin 0-18 that Mr. Horan just completed for a customer. When the guitar came into the shop, it was in need of some serious restoration work. It had been sitting in a case for fifty years because the bridge was broken, which explains the amazingly clean and flat out beautiful finish. After making a new bridge and saddle, performing a complete neck reset, and reseating the bar frets (Whew!), Mike has this old guitar playing as good as new. And for a guitar that hasn't been played for fifty years, this Martin is amazingly sweet sounding.
1930s Gibson L-00 (images 3-6): Mike recently finished a restoration on a customer's 1930s Gibson L-00 which included a neck reset and refret. As is common on many instruments of this era, Mike also had to fabricate a new bridge to match the old one that had been sanded down to compensate for the original bad neck angle. The finished guitar plays and sounds great, with a warm tone that compliments fingerstyle playing.
Ibanez Artcore (images 7-10): Semi-hollow guitars have a wonderful, distinctive tone when plugged in, but it sure can be a pain to alter their electronics. Depending on the model of the guitar, the electronics often can only be accessed through the f-holes or the pickup holes of the guitar. Not fun. This customer wanted to be able to access the electronics with ease, so Mike routed out a very neat-looking control panel and mounted some small blocks to affix the panel to. The end result meets the criteria of modifications of this type: namely, that the guitar looks like it came that way from the factory.
Jim Baggett, the owner of Mass Street Music, opened up the store (then called Michigan Street Music) back in 1978, and he's been doing repairs on every instrument imaginable since then. Currently, you can see Jim in action on PBS's Antiques Roadshow as one of the stringed instrument appraisers. (We like to call him Jim "Hollywood" Baggett, just to get his goat). Simply put, Jim knows as much about vintage guitar repair as anyone in the country. He also has an incredible collection of pre-war vintage Martins that he lets us play from time to time. Click on his picture to see his work on one of them!
Pre-War Martin Neck Clamp (image 2): Here's a picture of one of Jim's pre-war Martin restorations. Jim is gluing the fingerboard back onto the neck that he has been working on using the Maximum Amount of Clamps Per Inch, (or MAC PI). Jim has been working on this particular guitar for a quite a while now, but he swears that the end result will be worth the effort. ...And if this guitar ends up sounding like any of Jim's other pre-war Martins, it most certainly will be!
Josh Baldridge graduated from Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in 2001. From there he worked at Lakland Basses in Chicago for a couple of years, which has given him more than a little knowledge about all the details that go into making and repairing high-end instruments. Josh came to Mass Street Music in 2003 and now you can find him repairing all kinds of instruments in our shop. Click on Josh's picture to see some of his repair work.
Les Paul Neck Reset (images 2-5): Here's a few pictures of a Les Paul neck that Josh has been re-gluing. The neck pocket was completely shattered, and it took four separate clamping procedures to get the thing back together. Josh likes to get pretty artistic with his clamping jobs, as you can see. His clamping jobs look like some sort of modern sculpture.
Matt H. is a recent graduate of the Galloup School of Luthiery in Big Rapids, Michigan. He apprenticed with Bill Moll at Moll Custom Instruments, building both archtops and flattops. He also worked for a time at Springfield Music, in Springfield, Missouri.
We're delighted to welcome back Mike Runyon who worked here previously from 1999 to 2003 after which he ran his own repair shop and excelled at being Mr. Mom. He's a graduate of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, just like Repair Shop compatriot Josh. We're glad to have him back.
A Setup looks at the guitar playability as a whole, adjusting many variables to give the desired result- a guitar that plays its best for the individual musician.
Here at Mass Street Music, one of the main reasons customers prefer buying from us is that we take the time to set up every new guitar for every guitarist, whether it was purchased here in Lawrence or on our wesbite. Where most large instrument retailers are content to ship you a guitar right off of the warehouse shelf, we take pride in the fact that all of our guitars have been set up to be truly ready to play.
Here are some of the main points we look at on your guitar as we set it up.
In addition to this short list, there are dozens of other things that may need to be addressed before we feel the guitar is ready for you.
Well, why do most people play guitar in the first place? Because it's fun! And there's nothing less fun than playing a poorly setup guitar. The strings hurt your fingers, the dang thing won't stay in tune, and to top it off, there's the dreaded buzzing.
Doesn't the guitar manufacturer make sure the instrument is in top shape?
Most guitar companies will do cursory adjustments to their instruments as they leave the factory, but their large tolerances coupled with the sheer number of guitars being produced means that most guitars are simply not ready to play out of the box.
Do all guitars need a setup?
All players require different things from their instrument. High end guitars like Collings and Don Grosh come to our store with a great standard setup already, but not everyone is looking for a standard setup. Our staff will get to know your needs and that knowledge allows the pros in the shop to individualize the guitar's action to your playing style.
Shop Email Guidelines - Please Read Before Emailing!
Here at the Mass Street Repair Shop, we pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service. We are, however, extremely busy with repairs every day, and would greatly appreciate some leniency on our customers' part when it comes to email response times. It might take a week or so to hear back from us, but we will try to answer repair queries in a timely manner. Due to our constant workload, we are not able to serve as a resource for repair hobbyists, and would kindly refer all "do-it-yourself" or "how-to" questions to Frank Ford's website, www.frets.com.
It is practically impossible to offer accurate repair estimates over email, so please remember that estimated repair costs are ballpark figures only, not actual repair prices. Email the shop at .
