Hi Everyone,

for the time being, my shop will be open Tuesday and Thursday, 1.00pm - 5.00pm

If those times don't suit, then please call or email and we'll work something out.

Meanwhile, I'm going to share some repair stories and guitar knowledge with you. I've always intended to do this (with perhaps a weekly post) but never quite got around to it. Hopefully this new situation that we're all in will spur me on to doing it! So here's the first installment, and it's a pretty dramatic one...

BROKEN HEADSTOCK ON A GIBSON OR GIBSON-STYLE GUITAR

Some of you will know that this is pretty common, but it's still pretty horrifying when it happens to your Gibson. The good news is that in at least 90% of cases the guitar is repairable, and will play, sound, and tune just like it did before the break. I use jigs and clamps to align the two halves of the break, apply a VERY strong wood-glue and a lot of clamping pressure, and it almost always works out fine.

Breaks that can't be fixed by aligning and gluing like this can often still be fixed, but may require a serious amount of work.

I've done at least one headstock repair, and perhaps quite on average more than that, every week since I started this gig forty years ago. That adds up to thousands of headstock repairs! None of them are quite the same - the way the wood splinters at the break point is different for each one - but they almost always go back together.

Not all of them are Gibsons, of course, but 99% of them have a Gibson-style angled headstock.

BUT!

Here is the point of this particular blog: This week I repaired a 2017 Gibson SG with a broken headstock. The guitar had "Grover" locking tuners.

Here's the thing: a guitar strung with 10-46 light-gauge strings has about 120 lbs of tension applied by the strings. OK. If this guitar was to fall, that tension would be a factor in how much force would be applied to that narrow bit of wood up by the headstock. But so would the weight of the tuning keys (machine heads).

I weighed the separated headstock. It weighed 87 grams. I then weighed the "Grover" locking tuners and they weighed 266 grams! That is, more than three times the weight of the headstock.

My recommendation is, that if you have a Gibson (or a Gibson-style) guitar that has these tuners, that you replace them with a vintage-style tuner set (such as Gotoh SD90). Your guitar has been drilled to 3/8" (10mm) and you will also need step-down collars. It's a lot cheaper than having a broken headstock fixed.

The SG photos are shown below.

Hi everyone,

it would seem to be that my shop is eligible to be open to the public (ie: you guys!).

I have been working via appointment for the last two weeks, and this has been ok. But I suspect that there have been more than a few folk who have arrived at the shop, seen the sign advising 'phone or email contact, and just gone home.

So.

From next week my shop will be open Tuesday and Thursday  1.00pm - 5.00pm,, and you are welcome to drop by at any of those times. In accordance with the current rules regarding social-distancing, I will probably have to see you one-at-a-time, but if we all act sensible, and in accordance with advised protocols, this shouldn't be too hard.

Over the next few months I will be using this Journal page to post all kinds of interesting guitar-repair stuff that I'm sure you'll be interested in.

Keep in touch!

Andrew

Hi Everyone,

for the time being my little shop will be closed other than by appointment. I have to do this for a couple of reasons - firstly, I had bronchitis last year and can't risk another infection, and secondly, I think that this current health situation warrants us all being exceptionally careful and cautious.

I have lots of jobs booked in and I will continue to work through them.

At this point, I am looking at finishing the repairs as normal, calling you and requesting internet payment, and then either delivering the guitars to your door or meeting you in the carpark at the back of my shop. I still have EFTPOS but will only use it via Paywave for the time being. For more distant clients, the freight companies should still be operating.

All of you who know my place will understand that it doesn't quite meet the governments four-square-metre requirement! And the crazy draconian government fine would send me to the wall. But in certain cases I will be able to see you at the shop.

If you have new repairs that you'd like me to do, then please call and we'll work it out. There are several options available.

Strange days, my friends, but I will continue to be here to keep you playing! Please email me with ANY questions.

I will also ALWAYS be available online if you have any technical questions, or are thinking about tackling some repairs on your own. My advice is free!

Keep well, be sensible etc.

Andrew

FIRST EVER ANDREW KNIGHT GUITARS "SALE"!

Hi everyone,

thanks to all of you who continue to read this journal and support me and my little shop. I hope to keep-on fixing your guitars, and making them play better, for many years to come.

I may have said this before but "the building renovations are almost done!" Hah!

I can only laugh about it now, no point being pissed off any more! But the final woodwork (skirting boards etc.) will be finished tomorrow. Finally. Apparently...

I've actually been back in the shop and open as usual for the last few weeks. Doing guitar repairs as I've always done. The decor and fittings are slowly coming together, my tools and parts are back in place, and I'm gradually picking up the rhythm of the whole thing again. I've got quite a bit of work on (and a decent backlog to catch up on) but most importantly the whole wonderful balancing act is back in the ring, and just as it ever was. Phew.

Only slight issue is that the account spreadsheet has spread itself a little thin. Back to normal is good - two months of limited income is bad.

So I've decide to have a "sale". It's a modest one to be honest - the two items on "sale" so far are a couple of guitars that I made a few years ago that have, so far, inexplicably not found a home. Photos are attached...

First is the Scintilla "Green Dolphin". Thinline "Telecaster" style, American red alder with a swamp ash cap, rock-maple neck, Fender pickups, hand-made, absolutely one-of-kind. I had it listed at $3295. If you have $2295, it's yours.

Second is the AK "Cherry Special". Single-piece Honduran mahogany body, Honduran mahogany neck, Gibson P-90 pickups, PRS-style neck. One-piece body! It's technically a Gibson Les Paul Special but with an ergonomic Strat-style body. I had it listed at $3295. Also now at $2295.

Nevertheless! My shop is fully functional again, even I seem to be so (!), and all is, thankfully, just as it ever was. Yay!

Feel free to drop by for a chat (or a guitar repair) any time soon.

AK

SITUATION NORMAL

Hi again,

it's been a while since I last posted, but that's because it's all been (well, almost all been) good news. The shop has been open as usual for the last three weeks, and I'm gradually gathering it all back up again. The final renovations should be finished by the end of this week, and things will be back to the way they were.

My dear landlord has gone way overboard with the renovation thing, way more than just mere flood-restoration, and the place is starting to look quite spiffing. To be honest, I wish he'd just thrown a cheap carpet down, so that I could open up and trade as normal ASAP, but no-one can argue with the good doctor, and he has had his way. His lovely old building will look splendid, and mere tenants (such as I) can bask in this splendour. I sure hope all of you dear friends and customers of mine fully appreciate the commitment that my landlord has made. At my expense...

Did I say that out loud? Oh, yikes, I did.

Ah well.

All good now, folks. I'm back open and all is as it was. More than happy to see you all, and to once again make your guitars play as well as they can.

I'm going to post on this journal at least once a month from now on. I'll let you all know about interesting jobs that I have done, anything curious, recent developments, and guitar stuff in general.

Please feel free to email me with any questions, or anything interesting you have to offer.

In the next post I'll be listing a few "sale" prices on some of my guitars. I have to catch up on the down-time caused by the floods. If there is one of my guitars that you've had your eye on, it may very well be quite a bit cheaper for a month or so...

Keep well,
AK

FULLY OPEN AGAIN TUESDAY 6th JUNE...YAY!


Hi folks,

finally...I will be fully open again this Tuesday 6th June. The anniversary of D-Day (which was co-incidentally also on a Tuesday). So now we know that the calendar repeats itself exactly after 73 years. It had been beginning to feel like it would be 73 years before I could re-open...

Clearly the threat I suggested in my last post (that I would get Lisa to do the renovations) worked. My shop (which many of you will know as being two small rooms in an old office building) would have taken two tradesmen about two-and-a-half days to fix. It is now, after a month, more-or-less done. I'm beginning to think that my little business was not high on the list of my landlord's priorities...

But all good.

In a fit of optimism I had hoped that this "down-time" from being open would allow me to make decent progress on the long-term jobs (restorations, re-finishes etc.) that I have on the books, but it didn't quite work out that way. I spent more time moving in and out of the shop, moving guitar cases around in my overwhelmed workshop, and searching for parts (for the jobs I actually got to work on) in the storage boxes cluttering my shed, than I did fixing the guitars. So I'm pretty well where I was (with that stuff) before the flood.

My long-standing "one shop, two workshop" strategy has worked fine for the last 12 years. This recent "no shop, one workshop" paradigm has failed miserably.

But enough of this negativity-ism-ness... back to normal this week! Yay!

Be there or be square!

AK

OPEN AGAIN!

Hi folks,

yes, that's the good news - I am open again. Phew. My usual hours: 1.00pm - 5.00pm Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

The slightly bad news is that the renovations are still ongoing, and I won't be able to move all of my stock, tools and parts back for a little while yet. I'm basically coming into town each day with a station-wagon load of stuff.

Good news is that you will be able to drop off and collect your guitar-repairs just like in the good-old-days (BTF). Yay!

Other slightly bad news is that I probably won't be able to do on the spot repairs until I have everything back in place (although I did do one today). Most of my parts are still in storage, but I do have a small assortment of switched and jack sockets at the shop, so I will be able to do quick soldering jobs. I'll also have a mobile tool case and a selection of strings and things, so I may be able to do some stuff. Otherwise you can book them in as usual.

One of my regular customers (Ewan) said an interesting thing to me today. He said, "they say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do - you've been doing it every few days for the last month". Yup, that just about sums it up!

But the light at the end of the tunnel is growing (slowly) brighter.

That "slowly" is becoming a matter of some concern. I mentioned in the previous post that the builders were great. They were. This week they have done much less than I'd hoped. Frankly, two guys could knock this job over in two or three days. Lisa renovated our spare room quicker than this, all by herself (while I was fixing guitars). So tomorrow I'm giving them an ultimatum - finish it over the weekend or I'll get Lisa to do it!

Seriously, I can't wait to get my funny little guitar shop back in order so that we can all forget that this whole thing ever happened.

My income has taken a bit of a hit while I've been dancing the open-closed-open-again two-step, I've pretty well exhausted my modest savings (and just spent most of what's left on a couple of parts orders to stock up on essentials), and the phantom government flood assistance grant is nothing of the sort, so there may be a few guitars for sale at bargain prices when I get back open properly!

So. Please drop by, call, email, or send carrier pigeons - I am back in place and all is (almost) well in the world of Andrew Knight Guitars.

Thanks for all your support, good vibes, and patience,

Andrew