I’m not a carpenter. I’m not a repairman or an electrician.
I am a marketer.
And as a marketer, I don’t have a lot of background in fixing physical things (although I have fixed a website or two). But I am passionate about instruments – mostly guitars, but I also occasionally dabble in ukuleles, mandolins, and banjos. Therefore, I’ve had to learn a lot about how guitars, instruments, and electronics work.
I absolutely love this industry (if you want to call guitar repair an industry, that is). I love it for many reasons but first and foremost for the open sharing of information. There are a lot of “teachers” out there. Some good, some better. But all are uniting the industry with the common objective – Fix it, don’t throw it away!
When I started, I really just wanted to learn how to take care of the instruments I had. Then I wanted to build my own instrument. Then I wanted to save as many instruments as I could. So I had to learn a lot. I figure there are others out there that want to do the same, so I’d like to share a shortcut to learning how to learn how to fix the instrument of your choice.
There are 3 main sources of information that I use:
1. YouTube
No surprise here. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world next to Google. But with 60 hours of video uploaded every minute, you’ll have to cut through some of the noise to get at the good stuff. I like to follow those that really do good work. For example, the other day I was researching various methods of repairing a broken off head stock and came across this video from Flame Guitars. He does an exceptional job highlighting both the “why” and the “how” of the fix. Because of the high quality of the advise given, I quickly subscribed to his channel to ensure that I can get more high quality fix-it content.
2. Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are a phenomenal place to find really detailed expertise on either broad or niche topics. I am a member of several groups and have found the advise given on questions I ask to be top notch. That said, you have to ask the right question to the right group. For example, I’m a member of both the “Electric Guitar Builders Resource” group and the “Partscasters and Frankenstrats” group and I had a question recently about water slide decals. I was installing my first one and was wondering if I could use Tru-oil both before and after installation. I opted to ask in the Partscasters group because I knew there were a lot of people with water slide decal expertise there. Within a couple of minutes I had an answer! Best thing to do here is to do a few searches for whatever it is you are looking for. I’ve found a ton of value in niche groups like “Vintage Framus Guitars” and “Vintage Japanese Guitars”.
3. StewMac.com
Stewart MacDonald (known as StewMac in the industry) is a company dedicated specifically to guitar and stringed instrument repair and building. The face of the company is Dan Erlewine – who may be the most famous guitar repairman in this galaxy. Many musicians entrust their prized axes to the care of Dan, and Dan alone. While you can buy pretty much any specialized guitar tool you can think of here, I find the most value in their “Online Resources” videos section.
Here you can browse the whole collection or filter to specifically what you need. I highly recommend keeping this bookmarked for your future needs.
Also, if there is a tool that you need for a repair, I’d recommend checking out StewMac’s Amazon Store first. You get the specialty of StewMac with the ease and familiarity of Amazon.
Best of luck to you all out there making your repairs. I hope these tips help to point you in the right direction.
Is there anything I missed? Feel free to drop me a line in the comments below!
