My name is John, and I live in York, PA. I've played guitar for over 45 years, and ukulele for the past 5 or so.
I learned guitar repair through quite a bit of trail & error, born out of frustration with the quality of the repair work that I was sometimes having done by others. There were a few instruments that I had work done on that, when I got the instrument back, the work was sloppy.
In March of 2017, I spent a week up in Hegins, PA taking a building class with John Hall of Blues Creek Guitars. He guided me, step by step through the building process. At the end of a very intense week, I had a wonderful 00-size 12-fret guitar, and a new friend and mentor.
That summer, I approached my employer about switching to part time (kind of like semi-retirement), and my guitar repair business began. I worked 2 nights a week, and the rest of week I set up shop. Then COVID-19 happened. Because the transportation industry was considered essential, and my wife's job was possibly in limbo, I returned to work full time.
I changed my shop name and configuration from "Guitar Repair" to "Guitars and Ukuleles" and that's what I do now. I built my first few ukuleles from kits for friends and family. All but one were tenors. Then I built my first custom tenor ukulele for a friend. Now I'm turning my attention to concerts and sopranos.
The building goes slowly because of my work schedule, but slow progress is still progress.
That's a lot of info. If you made it this far, thanks for your interest.
Peace.
I learned guitar repair through quite a bit of trail & error, born out of frustration with the quality of the repair work that I was sometimes having done by others. There were a few instruments that I had work done on that, when I got the instrument back, the work was sloppy.
In March of 2017, I spent a week up in Hegins, PA taking a building class with John Hall of Blues Creek Guitars. He guided me, step by step through the building process. At the end of a very intense week, I had a wonderful 00-size 12-fret guitar, and a new friend and mentor.
That summer, I approached my employer about switching to part time (kind of like semi-retirement), and my guitar repair business began. I worked 2 nights a week, and the rest of week I set up shop. Then COVID-19 happened. Because the transportation industry was considered essential, and my wife's job was possibly in limbo, I returned to work full time.
I changed my shop name and configuration from "Guitar Repair" to "Guitars and Ukuleles" and that's what I do now. I built my first few ukuleles from kits for friends and family. All but one were tenors. Then I built my first custom tenor ukulele for a friend. Now I'm turning my attention to concerts and sopranos.
The building goes slowly because of my work schedule, but slow progress is still progress.
That's a lot of info. If you made it this far, thanks for your interest.
Peace.
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