Sollophonic Guitars - Constructor, Converter, Repairer and Renovator of Electric and Acoustic Guitars.

I am a trained musical instrument repairer with years of experience. I have also a lot of experience of playing different types of guitar and knowing how to get the best out of them.

I offer a wide range of repairs and services to guitarists both local and beyond.

Many new guitars do not play well “straight out of the box”. I can turn your new guitar into a highly playable, very satisfying instrument. Let me “set-up” your guitar to your requirements. I believe that many of our budget instruments are the best budget instruments that have been made. Compared to the cheap instruments of 20 years ago they are light years ahead. Their weak points are often the pick-ups and the hardware that they come with. Adding new strings, a new bone nut and new pick-ups can transform these instruments into guitars with great tones. I can do this for you.

I can also breathe new life into tired old instruments too. Many older guitars benefit from a few simple upgrades to give them a new lease of life and make them into wonderful instruments again.

Adjusting the intonation on a Les Paul type guitar. This brings your guitar in tune with itself. I use a chromatic tuner plugged into the guitar to check this accurately. Even changing the gauge of strings you use will mean that this will need to be reset. I can do this for you.

Setting the string height on an old, but lovely EKO Ranger, making it more suitable for slide and bottleneck playing. Slide playing requires a higher action or string height than normal, to stop the strings from hitting the frets when playing with the slide. The opposite can be done, by lowering the strings on both electric and acoustic guitars and other fretted instruments, making them easier to play. Setting the action correctly can drastically improve your instruments playability and tone. Replacing the saddle on acoustic guitars with one made from bone, can also significantly improve the tone and volume. Let me do this for you.

 

I make my own biscuit bridges for resonator guitars, using maple, or beech, or in this case from reclaimed rosewood. Here I am using a special jig, to hold the round biscuit in place, while I use a fine saw and a narrow chisel to cut a slot across the middle of the disc. I then fit a bridge blank, which is reduced in height to suit the particular guitar and cone that it is fitted to. This allows me to fine tune each bridge to each guitar.