Guitar Tech Corner
Drop Off and Pick up at Almighty Guitar Planet
1822 E. Main Street
Ventura, CA 93001
It's important to have a 'guy'.
At least, you should have someone who can fix the things that you can't. I have a contractor that I trust, a mechanic that I trust, and a guitar repair guy that I trust.
I came across Tracy Longo, the owner of Guitar Tech Corner, a few years ago when I had bought an Arts and Lutherie Ami guitar on eBay. A parlor size guitar that is similar to a Martin, the Ami is solid wood and made in Canada, dating from 1997 and it needed some attention when I bought it. But it only cost me $77, so with a list price of around $350, I figured that if I didn't spend too much on repairs, I'd be okay.
I dropped the Ami at Guitar Planet, a great guitar shop that I'll give it's own post one day, where Tracy picks up and drops off his repairs. I guess his actual shop is in an industrial part of the east end of town. Tracy called me to give me an estimate-$95 which I thought was more than reasonable. I picked it up a few weeks later, and the Ami played great!
About a year later, I bought a Sigma 12 string Japanese acoustic guitar on the Heritage Auction site for around $100, which I then brought to Tracy for repairs. On that, he did something that I didn't expect. He called me and said that though he could fix it, it wouldn't really be worth the cost when there are plenty of newer guitars that would play just as well and cost less. He suggested I sell it because there were a lot of 'kitchen luthiers' out there who would be able to fix it on their own, and even suggested the things I should point out about the guitar to get the best price. And he didn't even charge me!
At that point, Tracy got a customer for life.
So when I came across this vintage koa wood pineapple ukulele, I figured that if I could get it for the right price, I could probably have Tracy do the repairs for me. As I've documented here, I've done some repairs on guitars and ukuleles, but the online description led me to believe that the repairs would be beyond what I was comfortable with. It had some cracks in the back, the bridge was unglued, the soundboard had some major cracks, and two of the tuning pegs were missing.
Still, it was vintage, and it was koa, so I figured if it was cheap enough, it'd be worth it. My limit was $80, including shipping, and I was able to score it for $76. When it arrived, it was pretty, but needed some tender love and care. I opted not to even try things that I thought that I'd be able to do, and shot Tracy an email and a couple of pictures, and he said that he'd be happy to take a look.
Still, it was vintage, and it was koa, so I figured if it was cheap enough, it'd be worth it. My limit was $80, including shipping, and I was able to score it for $76. When it arrived, it was pretty, but needed some tender love and care. I opted not to even try things that I thought that I'd be able to do, and shot Tracy an email and a couple of pictures, and he said that he'd be happy to take a look.
When he finally saw it, Tracy remarked how much it looked like a vintage Kamaka (My dream ukulele), and said he could get it up and running once more. I emphasized that I really wasn't in any rush (since my repair budget was a little tight), but if he thought he could get it working, to go ahead and fix it. I said that it was okay to change the tuning pegs to geared machines, but he quickly disagreed, saying the he could find wooden ones, and that it was much more in keeping with the vintage vibe, and I said if he felt it was best, that was okay with me.
It took almost three months, which I was totally okay with. I figured that Tracy's shop was at the proper humidity for wooden instruments, and that would help the koa. He described his shop (when repairing my Ami, which appeared very dried out when I bought it), as being like a spa for guitars, and spa time for what appeared to be an 80 year old instrument seems like a good idea.
I picked it up today, and the ukulele was beautiful, much prettier than when I took it in. In my initial playing, it seems a little muffled, but I've notice that ukulele's need time to open up, and nylon strings really need time to break in, so I'll put a sound sample up in a few days. A Kamaka of similar style and vintage is much more than the approximate $250 that I put into this, so though I'm going to hold my final judgement for a month or two, so far I'm pretty happy.
Very pretty indeed.
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