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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Doubleneck Redux
A Return to Glory for “Jerry”
In 1977, I was doing guitar repair in Big Rapids, Michigan, and my services included picking up and delivering repair instruments for several stores. One was Schafer Music, in Mount Pleasant; every couple of weeks, I’d stop to grab whatever they had for repair and hang out with owner Jerry Schafer. He and his wife,…
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Dan Erlewine
Round-Up Range
Rolling on a Post-Pandemic Project
Five years ago, I started making a Tele-style guitar inspired by the Gretsch Roundup. When Covid hit, I was up to my ears in repair work and lost my shop help, so I was forced to put the project aside. But the time is now right to complete the build. 1) My creation has a…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Fixing an Upright’s Downfall
Jumbo Job
In a professional repair shop, neck re-sets are a common part of restoring a guitar’s playability, especially with old acoustics; instruments stored long-term under full string tension and/or in less-than-ideal heat and humidity suffer the consequences. On a neck, the damage manifests in a bow that makes the guitar unplayable and can’t be remedied with…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: A ’57 Strat Goes Under the Knife
Battle-Scarred
B.K. Vaught recently walked into my shop with a vintage Strat that had been modified and refinished. While its changes represented a bit of American history, the guitar deserved to be restored. B.K. got it in the spring of 2022, while helping sort the estate of an uncle who had passed away. Among his belongings…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: A 1955 Gibson Touch-up
Team Effort.
To keep work flowing in my shop, repairs often become a group effort. Recently, Gene Imbody, T.K. Kelly, Paul Schmittauer, and I worked to repair a beautiful ’55 Les Paul Special and GA-30 amp belonging to Jake Curtis, who inherited the set from his grandfather, Vernon Benschoter. They’re both in very good condition, and Jake…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Finding An Old Friend, Part 2
What Goes Around…
In the September, issue I told the story of the ’58 ES-335 I sold to my friend, Al, for $225 in 1966. Al passed away earlier this year and left the guitar to me. He’d modified its electronics, so I’m restoring them, and I’ll complete the job with my repair buddy, Gene Imbody. A master of…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Finding An Old Friend
What Goes Around…
I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I learned to play guitar during the folk boom that, for me, started with the Kingston Trio in 1959; their music led me to all the great folk and blues musicians that came before them. In ’63, I started playing electric guitar in bands and for the…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Reviving a ’56 Duo-Jet, Part Two
Ugly, But An Oldy
In the March issue, I introduced you to my apprentice, Blake Burkholder, and the restoration he was doing to a ’56 Duo-Jet. Blake, who operates Peach Ridge Guitars, in West Virginia, called this a “big-boy repair” because it was a complex job. Complex is right! Last time, we showed the poor repair work that had…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Reviving a ’56 Duo-Jet
Ugly, But An Oldy
Blake Burkeholder, a repair expert in my shop, has always wanted a Gretsch. So, when he found a ’56 Duo-Jet fixer-upper at a reasonable price, he grabbed it. Like other old Gretsches that have passed through here, it had severe neck-joint issues – maybe the worst I’ve seen. But, Blake knew he could return it…
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Dan Erlewine
Dan’s Guitar RX: Adding Master Volume to a Les Paul
Plus One
My friend Alex Aguilar recently asked me to do something most guitarists would consider sacrilegious – add a Master Volume pot to a Les Paul, and put it in easy reach of his pinky. You might recognize his name as founder of Aguilar Electronics and co-founder of Aguilar Amplification. He was also a design engineer…
