Hi,

it's been a year since I retired from repairing guitars, but I wanted to confirm that I'm still breathing! And hopefully some of you fine folk still check this web-page occasionally...

Since retiring I have had hundreds of emails, some from customers who didn't know that I'd called it quits and plenty from folk asking advice or wanting to check some aspect of a repair that I'd previously done for them. I have comprehensive records of almost all of the repairs that I have done.

Lisa and I no longer live in the Northern Rivers, but I am just as available for free advice about anything to do with guitars as I was when you could drop by into my shop.

So, if the combined talents of Professor Google and Doctor AI have left you still wondering, you are most welcome to drop me a line. I don't know everything (who does?) but forty-five years fixing every kind of guitar has given me a few clues! 

Fond regards and best wishes,

AK 

 

 

 

ALL THINGS MUST PASS

 

Dear Everyone,

I am no longer taking on any repairs and my shop will be closing at the end of July.

The shop will remain open for collection of completed repairs until then. And after that I will retire.

                                                                        *

This makes it exactly 20 years since I opened the shop in Lismore. It’s been a privilege to meet so many wonderful people and to work on so many wonderful (and some not so wonderful!) instruments.

Before I moved to Lismore I had spent almost 25 years doing this gig in Sydney, working out of other people’s guitar shops. To have my own “shop” was one of the reasons I moved here.

It’s been great. Being able to explain the repair process to you (rather than having a shop assistant book it in) has taught me a lot too! In Sydney I was almost always the “back-room guy” you never got to meet.

And meeting all of the players and chatting about music and guitars and all kinds of other stuff has been fun.

And I’m pretty sure that I made a lot of guitars play a lot better. And fixed quite a few broken ones as well!

I also hope that I have passed on knowledge that you will be able to use in the future, perhaps when dealing with other guitar-repairers.

                                                                        *

One of the things that running a shop like this has taught me is that you make a lot of friends. OK, we might not go to the pub together or invite each other (and the wives) to tea, but there are “customers” that become much more than that. The regular guys that you hit it off with beyond the usual transaction, the folk that come in every week, and the chaps that turned up to help clean up after both floods. Fond regards to all of you. Sincerely.

I will not vanish. I will still be available for online advice via my website.

                                                                        *

Those of you that know me or have followed some of my posts on this page, will understand some of the difficulties introduced by my wife Lisa’s ongoing illness. This is the reason for my “retirement”.

For her privacy (and mine) I won’t elaborate on this.

                                                                        *

But I will still remember you all. The laptop never lies! If you ever need details of a repair that I once did then I should have all of the facts on file. And please feel free to contact me about any guitar stuff - advice, as always, will remain free!   My email portal will remain open, and I should be easily contactable.

                                                                        *

This has been a difficult decision in many ways but is the right one. I will miss you all. 

                                                                        * 

Over the last 20 years I have tried to pass at least some of my knowledge onto prospective guitar repairers at the local shops, I know that I have left more than I have taken.

                                                                        *

The Andrew Knight Guitars shop closed for incoming repairs on 30.06.25, but completed repairs booked in before that are still available for collection. Please call or email for precise times. If you call you may get the message bank. If you have a guitar with me then please leave a message.

                                                                        *

Any instruments not collected after my shop has closed will be available to be collected at Planet Music Lismore. I will leave this link long after I have closed.

                                                                        *

Peace and best wishes to all of you,

AK

Hi again,

apologies for this, but I am NOT be taking on any new work at the moment.

I have a large backlog of jobs to deal with, and a shop full of uncollected completed repairs. I'm full.

My shop remains open for collection of completed repairs. I (or Lisa) will call you as they are completed and you can come and get them!

Andrew 

 

 

Hi again.

My shop will be closed for a couple of weeks while I catch up on a backlog of repairs.

Those of you who are long-time customers will know that I have to do this once or twice a year to stem the incoming jobs so that I can finish the outgoing ones.

I'll be back open on Tuesday June 17th.

I will respond to emails every day.

Andrew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MYSTERIES

 

The world is full of mysteries and questions that can’t be answered:

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Where does your lap go when you stand up?

Why does a loaf of “sandwich” bread always have an uneven number of slices…?

Why can’t Martin stick the binding on properly?

We may never know the answers, and it may even be pointless asking “why”? The older (and hopefully wiser) I get, and regarding some of the deep mysteries of the universe (especially the guitar universe), the more I realise that “Y” is a letter, not a word.

For example, I will never know why, that for the last twenty years or so, Martin have been unable to stick the plastic binding on to their guitars properly. They have used several different glues but, seemingly, not the one that actually works – cyanoacrylate.

Martin make wonderful guitars and have done so for almost two hundred years. They basically wrote the template for how steel-string guitars should be made. Almost every acoustic guitar, regardless of brand, is either a direct copy of Martin’s design or at least owes a very serious debt.

I am a Martin fan. I currently own and play three and have owned several others in the past. Almost all of the great music that you have heard, that featured an acoustic guitar, was played on a Martin.

The current build-quality of Martins, especially the traditional models, is exemplary and so close to the quality of the guitars that were truly hand-made by craftsmen in decades past that it is remarkable. Especially as they are making LOTS more guitars that they did thirty, fifty, seventy or more years ago.

I have had the privilege of working on many hundreds of Martins that were made across more than a century and the quality of woodwork is astonishingly consistent. Yes, they now use some modern technology, but all tools need to be operated by a skilled craftsman whether it be a chisel or a CNC machine. They continue to make great guitars.

So why can’t they stick the binding on properly?

Every other manufacturer, great and small, has managed it.

It’s not just local issue – a quick scoot around the internet will confirm that this is a global problem.

If you have a Martin guitar that has had the binding become detached then this is clearly a manufacturing problem. If you bought the guitar new, from a Martin dealer, then you surely have a warranty claim.

Mysteries…

Hi again,

the shop is back open regular hours - Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

Yay!

 Hi all...

For perhaps the twentieth time in twenty years I have again emptied the shop and taken all of your guitars into safe security 150 metres above the flood plain.

With all of these potential "flood events" there is a projected time period that gives me enough warning to clear the shop. This hasn't failed yet.

But I'm getting older! And emptying and re-fitting the shop is a lot of work.

I have never been overly-vigilant at chasing-up in-collected repairs. I always figured that you knew where your guitar was and that you would drop by to collect it when it suited you.

But I'm going to have to modify that rule and call some of you who's guitars have been here for a while.

Moving un-collected repairs in and out of storage is not just a hassle, but takes time and within rights I an able to charge you for that.

Just come and get your guitars...! 

Andrew

 

 

 3.3.2025

Hi,

seems like we may have another "weather event" on its way...

My shop will be closed this week as I (once again) move all of the instruments to my storage shed high upon the hill. Aargh.

If you need to contact me then shoot me an email. 

Andrew

Hi Everyone,

my shop is closed for the Christmas/New Year break. I will re-open on Tuesday January 7th.

Take care out there.

Andrew

Hi there my friends,

I'm back open after the brief sickness, nothing sinister - just that famous bug that you have probably all had and which I, somehow, managed to avoid for four years.

So. Back to "Normal"! Whatever that means!

But my shop is open again for any and all of the repairs that you would trust me with.

Andrew

Hi Everyone,

trusting that you and your guitars are well and dealing with the extraordinary humidity. Been here for nineteen years now and this is the worst.

But finding ways to manage it, and side-track it! A few workshop modifications have worked well.

This year I'm going to post details of a lot of interesting repairs and restorations

Last year I received a '61 SG that had been refinished in white, over its original "cherry". Not a great job, and with holes drilled for a cheap Asian bridge and tailpiece. Aargh. The white-paint guy also sanded the bevels so that the edges were rounded over. Aargh. One of the nice thing about the first few years of SGs is how sharp those bevels and cutaways are. Over the years they became much less clear and defined,

The other thing (a warning sign) is that any Gibson refinished in a a solid colour (such as white) usually means that the new colour is there to cover a break, either headstock or heel. I stripped this guy back to wood and...no break!

 So, after LOTS or work srtipping, sanding, plugging, patching, carving and dressing I had the old Gibson ready for re-finishing back to the "original" cherry-stained red. Worked nicely!

 

 

 Rather pleased with that one!

This very valuable guitar is still a "re-finish", but it is now a pretty-good refinish rather than the previous horrible one. This guitar would be worth about $25,000 in perfect original condition, and would have been worth maybe 20% of that at best after the BAD re-finish.

The new refinish will add significant value. Rule-of-thumb is that a guitar that is refinished well should be worth perhaps half to two-thirds of a perfect original one

But the best thing about this job is that the guitar looks as it should! Plays and sounds great!

I'm always happy to do even the smallest jobs to keep your guitars playing. But being able to bring a guitar like this back to how it should be is very rewarding and quite a privilege.

Andrew

 

 Hi Everyone,

back open for another year!

I got nicely up-to-date before the Christmas break, so back to "normal" turnaround times.

Hope you all had a decent break and are slowly getting back into the swing!

Andrew

 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