Hi Everyone,
YOUR GUITARS ARE SAFE AND WELL ABOVE THE FLOOD PLAIN!
Words fail.
I started moving things out of the shop on Thursday, and all that is left in there now are some of my own bits-and-pieces and humorous knick-knacks that are there as jolly diversions for you to browse while I deal with other customers.
If you have a guitar with me, please rest assured that it is well above flood-level and quite safe. I have storage way up above the flood-plain.
As it was with the last flood, it will probably take me at least a few weeks to get the shop back open. There are protocols regarding drying and mould-reduction that have to be followed, and it will take me a week or so after that to get my poor little shop back into some semblance of order.
I know that some of you would dearly love to have your guitars (completed repairs) back ASAP, but that might take a while. I DO have a storage facility way up on the hill, but during a flood evacuation the instruments get stored (stacked) as they come to hand, and not in some kind of either booking, completion, or requirement order.
Sorry 'bout that. But thanks to my five (actually six) trips into town with the aging Commodore wagon to cart each one of your guitars to higher ground, we won't have any guitar casualties.
So. Please contact me via email (the phone will not be working) about your repairs and I will get back to you. This may take a few days. Sorry.
YOUR GUITARS ARE SAFE AND WELL ABOVE THE FLOOD PLAIN!
As we get past this, either Lisa or I will contact you about collecting your completed repair.
Repairs booked in but not yet completed may take a little while yet to finish. Apart from the obvious complication of the flood, I was already dealing with a large backlog of repairs and may be playing "catch-up" for some time!
Next plan is to buy a Hiace (or similar) van. This way I could do the exodus in one single trip, and wouldn't have to worry about being cut off by flash-flooding (as happened in 2017).
I don't want to move the shop. It is a well-known and seemingly well-loved space. And loved by little-old-me especially.
And when I moved here from Sydney in 2005 the idea of having a guitar-repair shop smack-dab-in-the-middle of the biggest town in the region seemed to be a no-brainer! A good thing for you guys!
When I set up the shop back in 2005, and organised the required mandatory insurance, I asked about flood insurance and every single insurance salesman laughed in the very same spooky cackle!!
YOUR GUITARS ARE SAFE AND WELL ABOVE THE FLOOD PLAIN!
If you have a guitar with me then please email. My shop 'phone answering service will be out of order.
Stay safe, keep well, and we'll talk on the flipside.
AK
