Hi Everyone,

my shop is now back open as normal.

Still a few bits of organising and decorating to do, but back to full pre-flood status.

I am pretty-well as up-to-date as usual with smaller jobs (set-ups, wiring and such), and routine mid-range jobs (refrets etc.), but still quite a bit behind on the bigger and longer-term jobs (restorations and rebuilds). I will catch back up over the next couple of months.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for your support.

Best wishes to all of you who have suffered through this disaster, I know that many of you have been affected WAY more than I have. Being back open and trading as usual, it seems as if my little business has crossed a watershed. Hopefully the rest of the town will do so too.

Andrew

FINALLY!!

Hey everyone,

well there you go. After five months my shop now has electricity, telephone, and a new alarm and security system. Phew. Which means that very soon I will be properly back open. Double phew...

Over the next couple of weeks I will be moving stuff back into the shop - the tools, the parts, guitar-repairs to be collected, guitars for sale, as well as all of the posters and pictures and bits and pieces of paraphernalia that made the current stark bare rooms previously a bit of a cool place to visit.

More importantly, I will be able to clear the workshop at home and be able to do again do all repairs at the usual rate, rather than having to shift guitar cases and boxes of stuff every time I start a new job. It also means that I will be able to begin to catch up on the huge backlog of major repairs, including a lot of flood-damaged stuff.

There is a huge backlog, so it will take some time to get back up to speed with that.

But at least it would seem that we have emerged from the tunnel! 

I am still going to have to book new work in at a slightly slower rate than normal, but over the next few months I should be able to bring the turnaround times for regular work back into the usual one-week window. The longer-term jobs will take longer...

Thank you all for riding this whole thing out with me.

And best wishes to you all as ever. I am more than sure that some of you who read this have been through way more pain than I have.

Andrew

 

 

 Hi everyone,

in the words of Captain Beefheart...ELECTRICITY!!!

Yes, after four-and-a-half months I finally have power re-installed at the shop. 

I have the security people coming tomorrow, and so hopefully things will be back to "normal" very soon.

Phone may be a little longer. The NBN tech came out today and found that there is a fault somewhere deep within the labyrinthine chaos that is the Telstra wiring of the old building. I'm guessing that it will all be archaic PMG stuff, with old wobbly copper-cable 'phone lines

I might have to train a team of carrier pigeons...

And on it goes!

But we are getting closer.

Meanwhile, my business is effectively trading as usual - regular hours and hopefully soon regular turn-around times.

Andrew

.

Hi everyone,

back open and still trying to get the electricity and phone fixed. Aaargghhh...!

Slowly getting there...

So I thought I would share one of the wackiest nights of my life...

We have a very dear friend who is a BIG Bruce Springsteen fan. Now I remember the hype back in 1975, when Springsteen was going to be the "future of rock'n'roll" and the "new Dylan" and all of that stuff. I bought "Born To Run" and it was ok.  Etc.

I am not a huge Springsteen fan, but yes he has done some good stuff.

Our friend Alex shouted us tickets to see Springsteen at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre back in February 2014. He scored tickets to "general admission", which is the acre or so of clear space directly in front of the seating. With most bands this is an area crammed with fans (the so-called "mosh pit"), but with Springsteen it was like an open field! Alex had been to every show on the tour so far, and knew the plan.

We got to the venue early, in time to get a burger from one of the concessions, and sat just outside the auditorium doors. We could hear the sound-check and it was an unfamiliar tune. The Springsteen loonies were puzzled, and Lisa said "that sounds like the Bee Gees song, "Stayin' Alive". Everyone laughed!

The doors opened and we filed in. General admission before the seated punters. The riggers were still climbing the scaffolds. About an hour to wait. Yay. Alex said "whatever I tell you to do, you must do it immediately". OK.

The band came on and lo-and-behold the first song was "Staying Alive"!

Here is the clip:

 

Good lord!

About a quarter into the show Alex grabs us and says "come this way". He takes us to the catwalk where Springsteen moves into the audience. Alex says, "stand right here and hold your hands above your head". "What??" "Just do it!!".

And Springsteen leaps off the catwalk and I catch him!

Beyond crazy! He's doing a "crowd surf" and I'm the guy that catches him. Along with another guy to the left, who is clearly a huge fan as he has tears rolling down his face!

Very, very silly!

I've done work for lots of well-known and well-respected musicians, met more than a few famous people, but this was the only time I ever caught a rock-star!

I also got to stand right next to Nils Lofgren (!) and I have actually been a fan of Nils since before I ever heard of Bruce Springsteen, so that was pretty funny too.  

The show was great - four hours long (!) that seemed like one or two. If you have even the slightest interest in Springsteen, and he comes this way again, you won't be disappointed if you can get tickets.

I think of stupid stuff like this every time I start to despair about the snail-pace restoration of my shop. Four months. Yikes.

But I am slowly getting things back in place, slowly being able to have the space and time to work on the bigger jobs I have booked in, and am slowly getting back to "normal".

But there is no doubt that the prevailing word is "slowly".

It is the same for all of Lismore - there just aren't enough tradies. They are all juggling 20 jobs.

Patience...

AK

 

 

 

rr

 Hi everyone,

my shop IS BACK OPEN! Usual times: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

Please drop by if you can, and let anyone else that you know.

The shop remains compromised by not having either electricity or a functional telephone, but the solution to these problems remains in progress. 

Repairs are still being dealt with as usual, but with a slightly somewhat slower time-frame. Almost normal, but not quite. Getting there... 

Basically, I have one head and four walls. The method required to re-instate both the electricity and the telephone seems to be to choose precisely which of the four walls I should bang my head against.

The poor tradies are over-worked and under-supplied, but they are edging their way towards normal.

It won't be long. 

First track on the Beatles second record and perhaps the best start to an LP ever!

It Won't Be Long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKU6SevefY 

Things will soon be back on an even keel, and I look forward to seeing y'all again!

Andrew

 

Hi Everyone,

if you are reading this please let everyone (ok, every guitar-player you know) that I am alive and well and that my shop is back open again usual hours - Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

I am also accepting repairs via the other shops that I always have. Byron Music and Valiant (Brunswick Heads) are unchanged, and Planet Music should be back operational soon. As, I hope, will Russell's Music.

Since my last post to this journal, Telstra have completely stuffed up my account. Despite hours that I've spent online and with phone calls, and despite three appointments with the Telstra Shop Goonelabah (nee Lismore), they have been unable to put my account onto a temporary hold and divert incoming calls to my mobile. They now seem to have cut me off. I will be seeing them tomorrow morning. 

UPDATE - 31.5.22! Telstra have told me that there is another fault on the line, not directly related to the flood damage! They are working to fix this. But then, a few hours later, I get a text from Telstra saying that my account is overdue - so they clearly haven't put my account into "flood-relief hold mode". 

Aargh!

I think that perhaps Telstra's incompetence has been, for me at least, almost as big an inconvenience as the actual flood!! I've probably spent as much time trying to deal with them as I have re-building the shop.

BUT!!! I am back open and slowly getting back to trading as normal.

Andrew

 

 

 Hi Everyone,

my shop has been back open again for a few weeks now!

Slightly limited capacity. But if you have a repair that you'd like me to deal with than please drop by. I'm open again usual hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

And at other times by appointment. 

I'm actually pretty busy, with quite a bit of work booked in. It's almost normal! Standard repairs, such as set-ups and electronics are definitely normal (ie: a one to two week turnaround), but major repairs and restorations are a bit slower - I don't have the bench-space in my home workshop because all of the shop stuff is stored there! But gradually edging back to previous normal.

We still don't have power at the shop, so I can't have the alarm and security stuff operating. This means that I can't store things at the shop yet and, if you have a repair to collect you will still need to contact me first, so that I can bring your guitar in with me on the designated day.

I spoke to the electrician today and we're edging towards a solution.

I've had lots of very interesting repairs come my way in recent times. This journal of mine seems to have become a diary of woe-begotten times. It wasn't intended to be. I promise that from now on it will be a journal of interesting guitar-stuff...

Andrew