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Guitar Doctor - Whitman, MA - 781-447-4520
 

Repairs and Restoration Services

Below is a short list  of some common problems that we see every day and some possible solutions.

Repairs

Guitar repairs at Guitar Doctor - Whitman, MA
Guitar Doctor has over 35 years experience in fixing, modifying and improving guitars, bass guitars and all stringed instruments.

We will make your guitar play its best so that YOU can play your very BEST.

Maintenence

Guitar Maintenance at Guitar Doctor
Just like any tool, instruments need to be maintained in order to play their best.

The combination of wear and tear, humidity (or lack of it!) and age always cause guitars to become less than best.

Restoration

Guitar Restoration at Guitar Doctor
Either by replacing worn tuners, securing loose braces, properly gluing body cracks or whatever your "experienced" guitar might need, Guitar Doctor can bring it back to life.

The instrument's value may also be enhanced.
This page is not meant as a do-it-yourself guide but as a general description of what could be wrong and what the cure might be.

We can't include everything that can go wrong with an instrument or all of the possible fixes, but this should give all players some insight.

Read below for some common guitar problems and answers or see our F.A.Q. page for more specific answers.

✔ Also see Amplifier Repairs
Too much neck relief, nut slots not deep enough, bridge/saddles too high, or any combination of these.
Neck is back-bowed, nut slots too deep, bridge/saddles too low, or any combination of these. May need fretwork to maintain clean playing if you want to keep low action.
Broken connection at jack, faulty switch, short in wiring, poor solder joint, faulty pick up, bad battery in active system.
DO NOT TRY TO GLUE IT YOURSELF. This will make it much more difficult to fix in the end.

This is a very common injury, especially with Gibson/Epiphone and more especially with Les Paul models and we see it nearly every week and are able to fix nearly every case, much to the owner’s relief.

The best thing to do to bring the guitar in to the shop as soon as possible.

Worn or loose locknut, guitar neck is loose, tremolo bridge pins drifting, strings pinching in nut, too much drag through nut and string trees.
Controls need cleaning or replacement.
Guitar is humidity sensitive and requires seasonal maintenance, especially truss rod adjustment.

May want to purchase in-case guitar humidifier for winter.

Poor or no ground connection, single coil p-u 60 cycle noise is accentuated with high-gain amp settings, shielding may be required, hum-canceling pickups may need to be installed.   

This is microphonic noise and has an abrupt & uncontrollable threshold. Occurs commonly in old and/or single coil pickups. pickups may need to be wax dipped (potted) or replaced
Bad solder connection or switch, hot circuit may be touching ground wire somewhere in controls, corroded jack contacts.
Control will need replacement or "tone circuit" modification or a linear potentiometer instead of usual audio pot may be desired.
This is microphonic noise and has an abrupt & uncontrollable threshold. Occurs commonly in old and/or single coil p-u’s. P-u’s may need to be wax dipped (potted) or replaced
Strings are old and tarnished or rusted, frets need cleaning & polishing, flat or semi-flat wound strings may be desired.
Clamp blocks have been over tightened and are split and spread, locking screws are stripping and jammed from over-tightening.  In standard tremolo bridges, the holes may be too small for the string balls.  Holes will need to be enlarged. 
String is pinched in nut slot, sharp burr at tension bar, string trees, or holes in string posts.
Saddles worn, sharp burr at saddles or string anchor point. Saddle crown too steep or sharp.
Worn or sharp frets; "ding" in frets - strings too old – more frequent string replacement required. 
Stripped or worn screw hole. Hole needs to be plugged with wood and re-drilled.
Guitar can be rewired to suit needs of player.    SEE OUR CUSTOM SHOP PAGE
Bad solder connection, faulty switch, hot/ground short aggravated by vibrations in guitar. Weak battery (active systems) 
Don’t fix it yourself!!!!! Nothing is harder to fix than a bad repair. This is often an inexpensive repair except for refinishing the damaged area on more expensive instruments with colored paint or stain.
Nut slot too wide, not enough back tension behind nut, nut slot cut too low.
This can often be repaired with "dental" style filling and re-cutting, otherwise nut replacement is required.
May need adjustment of saddle(s), bridge, pickguard, and/or controls. Nut will need reslotting or replacement. Difficulty of work depends on guitar.   
Needs careful glue, clamp, refinish and reinforcement on the side.
Needs to be splinted, reinforced & refinished, often after re-humidification.
Fret dressing for mild hump. Re-fret and/or fingerboard leveling for severe cases.
Bridge and saddle profiling for mild case — May need neck reset for severe case
Reset neck on better guitars.  "Salvage" fix on cheap guitars involves penetrating glue and a bolt through heel and neck block, disguised with a strap button.
Frets may be worn deeply from heavy use with open chords – needs fret dressing or partial fret replacement.
Control will need replacement or "tone circuit" modification.A linear potentiometer instead of usual audio pot may be desired.   
Broken connection at jack, dead battery, short at battery cap, broken pickup, controls need cleaning.

 

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Saturday - 10am to 4pm EST
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GUITAR DOCTOR
659 Bedford St. (Rt. 18)
Whitman, MA
02382 USA
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