Hi Everyone,

my shop will be closed for two weeks after Christmas, and will re-open on Tuesday 9th January.

As always, I try to get as up-to-date as possible in the weeks leading up to the break, and did pretty well this year. I still have a few major restorations to finish, but I am in the final stages of all each of them.

I still have a few flood victims on the workbench (almost two years after the event) and a couple of them are responding well. More than a few other jobs to complete as well.

But I will begin 2024 with a relatively clean sheet! Not completely, but close.

So you are most welcome to call me or bring in repairs from the 9th of January.

2024 will be my 44th year in the guitar industry. Yikes!

Happy holidays and I hope to see you in the future!

Andrew

 

 Hi again my friends,

 jeepers! This has been a nasty bug! Still no confirmation that it was the famous one, but it has certainly knocked me around...

They say that as you get older you become more susceptible or less defensive against bugs like this, and perhaps that is the case. It's been been about five years since I had even a tiny sniffle, so this thing came as a bit of a shock.

I am back in the shop this week, but I'm stuck between seconds and third gears.

Please bear with me as I fight this thing.

Andrew

Hi,

just in case you have visited my website rather than calling on the 'phone or dropping by my shop, here is an update:

I am currently off sick and the shop is closed.

Not a serious illness but a nasty bug that won't go away. Not "that" bug, by the way...

I was hoping to be back on track this week but that's not happening.

I'm going to follow doctor's orders and just make sure I recover as well as I can.

Hopefully back next week - Tuesday 28th. 

AK

 Hi Everyone,

my shop will be closed this week (9.10.23 - 13.10.23) for family reasons.

I will be back open on Tuesday 17th October (Tuesday week).

Andrew

Hi Everyone,

my shop is open again!

Usual hours - Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm

Did I catch up completely...er, no.

Did I make great progress! Yes!

I finished most of the spray-painting on the big restorations projects I have, and made progress on the smaller ones.

I am pretty-well up to date with the regular stuff (set-ups, lifting bridges, wiring, fretwork etc.) so, if you have any of this stuff that you'd like me to do, the bring it in. If you have bigger jobs that you'd like me to fix for you, then the turnaround time is shorter than it would have been a month ago!

OK, keep well, and I hope to see you  soon.

Andrew

Hi there,

it's me again...

I have to close the shop for a few weeks so that I can, a) finish about a dozen long-term and quite major restoration jobs that the continous flow of regular work has somewhat stalled, and b) get some of the domestic stuff back on track.

As many of you probably know, my wife Lisa has been seriously ill for a couple of years and this has meant that routine home stuff has been de-railed, and consequently I have to take time out to do stuff such as fixing the deck, trying to get rid of the lantana (!), and generally doing the stuff that you normally do around the property. 

Lisa and I used to tag-team this stuff, but her immobility makes that impossible.

I will re-open on Tuesday the 4th of July.

If you have an instrument already with me, and you want to either collect it or check its progress, then shoot me an email. I will check 'phone messages every few days, but email will get a quicker response.

If you have a job that you'd like me to do, then thanks in advance for your patience - please feel free to contact me to "book it in" for when I re-open. I should be pretty-well up-to-date by then.

Been a weird couple of years - with the whole covid thing, Lisa's illness, the flood and long recovery, as well as the maniacs at the Reserve Bank. It would be nice if things could get back to normal. Or at least what passed for normal a few years ago...

Hopefully the re-opening date (fourth of July), and its association with re-birth and independence, is some kind of positive sign! 

Er...I might be clutching at straws there, but nevertheless my little shop and all of the stuff I do for you guys will definitely be back to "normal" next month.

Andrew

 

 Hi everyone,

a couple of interesting jobs this week, among the dozens of routine ones.

Just in case you're new to this page, or have never had a real-life chat with me, the notion of "routine" is GOOD!! Standard, routine jobs, that turn out exactly as predicted, are what all technicians love! These jobs may be simple or complex, can take five minutes or five hours, but if everything that you anticipated was able to be dealt with accordingly, then it's a "routine" job.

This can be a jack socket replacement on a Squier Strat, or a neck-reset on a $25,000 Martin!

Earlier this year I took on the restoration of a PRS guitar that had been damaged by a ceiling fan. Ok, firstly don't laugh. I've had more than a few guitars come to me that have suffered the same trauma!

This particular guitar was owned by a well-known and respected Australian guitarist (I actually have some of his records!), and was previously owned by a VERY well-known Irish guitarist.

The ceiling fan drove a sharp slice into the side of the neck. Nothing structural at all, but a hideous gouge! 

I was able to fill the gouge and repair the difficult finish (pearl white) using Tamiya acrylic lacquer. It took perhaps an hour or so of labour, spread over about a hundred ten-second spray coats and some sanding!

The result is great! Much better than I'd even hoped. Almost invisible. A satisfying job if there ever was...

And today I spent about the same amount of time trying (and eventually succeeding) to remove two dead and very bloated AA batteries out of a horrible D-Tar pre-amp in a nice Guild acoustic.

I have to clean it up further, and so still don't know if it's going to work. Horrible job.

So that's my line in the sand. I have had a notice on the shop wall for years saying that I don't work on acoustic guitar electronics other than to replace them, and from now on that's a strict policy.

I fix guitars. And I despair that manufacturers fit cheap electronics to guitars that will far outlast them. Every day I see guitars that will last for 50 to 100 years that have been fitted with complex electronics that may last for a tenth of that. Even the major manufacturers such as Martin and Gibson are installing electronic stuff that will certainly fail perhaps decades before the guitar itself needs work.

You surely know how your mechanic sometimes refers you to an auto electrician?? Well, that's my approach regarding complex electronics in guitars. Simple, passive electronics, such as those in your Strat, Tele or Les Paul are easy - I do that stuff in my sleep. But if there is power (either mains or battery) or a PC board involved, then you need the equivalent of an auto electrician - a specialist electronics tech.

I fix guitars, not the stupid rubbish electronic gadgets that the manufacturer's marketing guys assume that everybody wants.

If you want to amplify an acoustic guitar then my recommendation has always been to buy the guitar that you really want, and then fit an unobtrusive, replaceable system such as the LR Baggs Element or Anthem.

Andrew

Hey Everyone,

more-or-less back to "normal" now. I've caught up big-time with the long-term repairs and restorations (although not quite "finished"), so I'm very much open to taking in the regular work again. Pretty-well back to the usual one-week turnaround on smaller jobs, such as set-ups and similar fixes.

Shop is open as usual. Yay.

Having said that, there will be a few random days when I have to take Lisa to various doctor's appointments - these specialist appointments are like gold, and sometimes become available with just a day's notice. So if you turn up to the shop and there is a "sorry" note on the window then that's the reason. Apologies in advance...

Lisa's illness also means that as well as having to care for her I also have to spend more time on domestic chores, so some of the longer jobs - the ones I have to do in a number of stages over a period of time - may take a bit longer than usual.

But we are edging our way to the way it was pre-covid, pre-illness, and pre-flood. Yay again.

My "Shop" page hasn't been up-dated for ages,but that is about to change! I will be up-dating it over the next week or so, and there will be LOTS of interesting things there for sale.

I've decided to sell off some of my personal collection. And, if you know me, you will know that it is all very good stuff.

I know that I WILL regret letting some of it go - but that's how it is. Lisa's ongoing illness, and her continuing inability to work, means that we have to consider ways to supplement my guitar-repair income. I'm always pretty busy, but Lisa's work as a medical secretary always paid as many bills as my job did! So some of my "superannuation" is now for sale.

So. If you are interested please have a look at the shop page. It will be a few days before the first up-dates appear, but after that I'll try to update it regularly.

Meanwhile, keep well and hope to see you soon!

Andrew

 Hi there, it's me again.

It has actually been a month since I asked you all to please give me two or three weeks to catch up on the backlog of repairs before bringing any new work in. My answering machine has been playing receptionist.

I've tried not to turn anyone away, except for one or two big jobs that I've booked in for next month. So I've still had a few new jobs as well as the ongoing stuff, and I'm not quite as caught up as I'd hoped.

So. Done lots of neck resets, refrets, gluing jobs, broken and flooded guitars, as well as trying to get up to date with all of the smaller stuff. Getting there.

I have a few badly damaged and/or flood disaster victims that I have to make big decisions about - some of them are possibly not fixable. I probably have to review my optimism reflex, and also learn how to tell the patient the bad news. I've always been bad at this. My default setting is to try to fix things. 

Back when I was an apprentice, I leaned a lot from my "master", but one of the things I struggled with (and which he was brilliant at) was the ability to look someone in the eye and say, "sorry, it's not fixable".

And of course, telling them that it's not fixable six months later only delays the disappointment.

I still have quite a few lacquer finishing jobs on the go, as well as a few twisty ones that I'm either still trying to figure out or trying to get obscure parts for, but I made good progress these last few weeks.

If you can give me one more week that would be splendid. I'll be taking new work in again from Tuesday 28th March.Yay!

There is an old adage: "if you want something done well, take it to the busiest guy you can find".

Oh dear...I just made a "sales-pitch"...

Andrew

 Hi,

OK, one step forward two step backward...

It would seem churlish to complain about too much work...but at the moment I have too much work!

My regular friends and customers know that this happens from time to time, and that I usually close the shop for a week or two to catch up.

This time I'm going to play it a little differently. My shop will be open as usual for collection of completed repairs, and for you to browse the nice guitars I have for sale, but I won't be booking in any new work until the backlog of repairs I already have booked in is completed.

Sorry, but that's it.

For over 40 years I have been proud to work on your guitars, to keep you playing happily and in tune, but for the first time in all of those years I'm beginning to be stressed by the workload.

The last couple of years have been tough - some of you know the personal challenges that Lisa and I have been through due to her illness, surely everyone understands the disruption caused by the flood, and then there is Covid and the government's erratic reactions to that.

I plan to keep on doing this gig, keeping your guitars in tune, and fixing the broken ones, for some time yet. 

But I need to take a short "time-out"! 

AK

 

 

Hi there my friends,

my shop is back open as usual - Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

During January I made good progress on the large backlog of major repairs and restorations, and your guitar will either be finished or getting very close to being!

Still quite a bit to do, and I'm booking in new work with respect for the folk who have been patient regarding their ongoing repairs, so I'm asking for a two-week turnaround rather than a one-week turnaround for standard set ups and wiring and all that stuff.

Getting there!

The last year was such a scramble - some of you know about Lisa's illness, and ALL of you know about the damned flood and the consequences thereafter - but I'm almost back on track.

And hoping that the next few years will be rather more uneventful!

Andrew

Hi Everyone,

just a short post to keep you up to date.

I'm making good progress catching up on the backlog of big jobs - neck resets, rebuilds, restorations etc.- all the things that backed up in the workshop during the disorder of 2022.

The weather has also generally been dry enough for me to catch up on the spray-painting part of the restorations!

My shop will be back open from Tuesday January 31st.

Meanwhile, if you have a completed repair that you'd like to collect or have any other enquiries, please send me an email at ak@andrewknightguitars.com.au and I'll get back to you.

Back soon!

Andrew

 Howdy,

it's me again. I guess you guessed that... 

My business is open after the holiday break, but my shop is not.

I have such a big backlog of repairs to finish, including a lot of 2022 flood repairs, as well as a couple of dozen non-flood jobs that were interrupted by the flood ones.

And not having both electricity and telephone for just over five months, in the wake of the flood, also rather disrupted my gig.

I have tried to keep up-to-date with the smaller, regular jobs and that has worked out pretty well.

January is the big catch-up time for all of the big ones. I'm doing pretty well!

If you have a repair with me, then please contact me via this email.

Getting there!

AK