Bainhart Guitars

Saying goodbye to "Lendy". Lendy is a cheap guitar I bought when I first started this business. It would be loaned out in emergencies. It's also been borrowed by a number of students. Lendy spent her life in the service of helping others. Lendy has a good heart.

It is with great sadness that I traded Lendy for an equally awful guitar which was so uniquely bad that I had to have it.

Lendy truly was a guitar of appreciation. Everyone who played her appreciated their instrument even more after suffering at her hands. However, like many cheap guitars, she's a great start and I would have killed for something like this when I was a beginner.

Lendy is going to live on in a music school where it will be beat on and continue to service musicians.

I make jokes about this guitar, but some kids' passion may just be discovered upon playing her. I discovered my passion on a broken 1970s Korean Classical.... It's likely that this guitar could have the same impact on someone else.

Have a good life Lendy. I've appreciated you for what you are and I will remember you fondly.

Right, so firstly it has been a while. I am still alive and the shop is still open.

I've had some super interesting projects. This one was sitting in the shop for a while and the time finally came to give it the attention it deserves. Almost 90 years old, this English made Banjo is a really interesting instrument. It is very primitive in its construction. It utilised a rather interesting system for the 5th string. Rather than a side tuner on the neck, all the tuners are in the headstock. There is a hollow tube under the neck that the 5th string slides through. It's strange but it works. To my surprise it sounded absolutely lovely. I wasn't sure what to expect.

This instrument hasn't seen life in over 20 years. There's always something incredibly special about bringing something back from the dead. I hope it brings many more years of joy to its new owner.

Jazz masters are cool and you can't change my mind. They've had something of a revival the last few years within the indi rock scene. I love them for the way they play. Jazzmasters have really nice necks. The elongated string into the trem system means more tension is required to get it to pitch. It really changes the feel of the neck and strings.

I find them endearing. It's not an attractive guitar at first glance. But it grows on you. And then you play one and you slowly get it.

The trem system leaves a lot to be desired in many ways. However it doesn't sound like any other trem. It does it's own thing and is very controllable even if you spend most of the time tuning it.

It's not for everyone. I don't see myself owning one any time soon. But I smile every time I get to work on one.

Bryan came to me with this run down guitar... It had more major issues than you could poke a stick at, so we decided to reinvent the guitar. It's something super weird and unique now. One of the strangest projects I've been involved in and I love it!

This beautiful came in to the Bainhart Guitars workshop as it was acquired by one of my customers.

It had seen a good life with lots of love and care. Just needed some minor maintenance and setup work. Absolutely came alive with new strings. This sounds very unique and isn't the tone I normally associate with a Maton, it's honestly the best sounding Maton I have every heard in my years doing this. And in my personal top 5 acoustics to ever come through the shop.

PRS. Some of the most beautiful guitars out there. These Korean made versions are fantastic and incredibly beautiful for the price. There's just one problem that a lot of people have...

People don't like the way they sound. Almost all my customers say the same thing. That they sound muddy.

How does it sound to my ear? Muddy, weird mids and sounds like a wah pedal constantly in the back position.

So it's probably unsurprising that I seem to do more pickup swaps on these than your average guitar. I thought Strat guys liked pickup swaps... PRS guys are next level.

This got swapped with some PRS 58/15LT pickups.

Now it's important to note that all the things I just said relate to Korean PRS instruments. These PRS pickups are American and they sound next level.

.iv.official came in to the shop to sort out these two beasts.

I absolutely love me a flying V. I avoided them for years incorrectly assuming they would be impractical or hard to sit with. I was so wrong. Flying V is probably the most comfortable guitar to sit and play lead with.

BC rich gunslinger is also a great guitar. Shreds like a boss, bare bones simplicity and just a solid all out rock machine.

Check out .iv.official to see these guitars in action.

I love my job.

This is just gorgeous. I did an electrical repair for a local trusted music store.

So I had no idea what it looked like until I opened the case.

Maybe it was love at first sight. But I felt my heart flutter.

The EVH basically laughs in the face of the modern metal guitar.

Most new metal guitars i wire up share a lot in common. Tons of splitting options, running parallel, phase etc.

It's awesome, you get so much tonal variety. However, most people tend to stick to one or two tones from this endless pallette of sound and stick with it.

The EVH? Well it's just a humbucker wired to a volume pot that goes straight out the jack. One pickup... One pot....

It doesn't get much more basic than that. Yet it's one of the most iconic tones ever accomplished and sounds absolutely killer.

Does less electrics change the tone? Yes... Yes it does. Less resistance for a
start... No natural treble suck from the tone circuit... You get much more aggressive tone. It's so simple, you can barely adjust anything except the volume... So why does it sound so good?

Because you don't need much to sound good. Let your fingers do the talking... All the tonal variety in the world doesn't make you a better player. Eddie Van Halen got more out of this guitar than the average person gets out of their 3 pickup loaded, coil splitting tone beast.

Eddie reminded us to do it right rather than do it complex.

R.I.P to the master, and thank you for the music and your lasting legacy.

Guitars are deeply sentimental things. And this one is no exception. A beautiful Gibson acoustic that was gifted to a young lady by her grandmother before she passed. You can only imagine how heartbreaking it is to have something like that break.

Fortunately, it was a very clean break but the top face of the headstock had a lot of tear out. I put a lot of effort into getting this one right. It's just a beautiful and deeply important instrument. It was repaired by me in my workshop and I'm incredibly proud and happy to have restored this deeply important piece of family history to its former glory.

Godin, a unique brand that makes unique guitars.

They take getting used to and really do their own thing. Personally I can't really make these guitars work for me as a player. I tend to prefer guitars with narrow focus. I like having guitars for blues, guitars for metal, guitars for jazz etc... That's not to say I don't appreciate them. I just don't know what to do when I have too much choice.

However I've got a few Jazz guys that make these things come into their own and really take advantage of the versatile nature of these instruments.

So much so that I now associate Godin with Jazz. The unique tone scape that I struggle to tame is a wonderland for jazz players and I'm so glad that there are brands like Godin that make these versatile instruments.

Stringjoy has officially landed at Bainhart Guitars.

These strings are amazing. I am not sponsored by Stringjoy in any way... However I tried them on a few of my personal guitars and knew these were the way forward for the shop.

From a Luthier point of view these are awesome for several reasons!

First reason is tone, they are incredibly balanced and aren't harsh.

Second reason is stability. These strings are stable within minutes of leaving the bench. I can stretch these out on the bench and put them on stage within minutes. That means a lot!

I will be stocking Stringjoy from now on as my go to brand. I know a lot of you have already switched.... But if you havent tried them yet. Its time!

Always something crazy happening at Bainhart.

Here we have two custom made cabinets. One has custom tolex with a wooden face frame to slide a smaller head into with a custom royal red grill cloth.

The other is an open front pine Cabinet with a huge 15" JBL K130.

I love a good custom, if you have a crazy idea that needs to happen. I might just be crazy enough to make it happen!

Amazing to see my latest build in Action. Some actions shots of the phenomenal playing the Alligator Strat Tribute guitar built by me in my Sydney Workshop.

It sounds absolutely amazing in the hands of Ben who is a master musician. Without him Jerry Day Australia wouldn't be possible. So a huge thanks to Ben for commissioning this build.

PRS signature model on the bench for some much needed love. This colour is insane. Glitter bombed red. I actually love it.

Have to feel a little Australian pride when I see one of these. Orianthi has gone on to work with some powerhouse acts from Michael Jackson, Steve Vai, Richie Sambora and more... A truly talented artist.

Who doesn't love a bit of glitter!

Check out the beautiful wood grain on this PRS Custom 24. What can I say... my customers have exquisite taste... PRS is one of those guitar companies that seem to divide people. You here a lot of strong opinions and judgements about the company. "PRS are too perfect", "Nothing Compares", "The scale length feels weird", "it's so good it ruined all my others guitars to me"

It's either extreme love or extreme hate. And I kind of get it. They are so perfect in many ways that they can be intimidating to play. It looses the utilitarian quality and is almost like a playable piece of art.

But people ask me what I think of them as a Luthier all the time before buying them. And I say, PRS are beautiful, they are gorgeous, they can play like absolute butter, they can sound like an angel crying.... Buy one and you will love it. However, I Dislike their Nut. It's too big and boxy, but that is my only complaint... I have only one thing I can complain about and that tells you something... If you have the cash, buy one and love it to death.

This came in for a setup.

Ibanez has been pushing out some weird and wonderful things lately and this is a fantastic example. It is truly beautiful to look at. Using interesting woods is hard on mass produced guitars because supply isn't always consistent.... It was a pleasant surprise to see that Ibanez is making some really cool guitars in smaller volumes so they can make interesting things with rarer woods.

An interesting Bainhart Custom. Customer acquired a genuine Richie Sambora Neck from Japan . I made the body to the custom Richie Sambora shape, routed for the Floyd Rose and painted it in Arctic White. The Gold on White is just gorgeous.

This one hits a little different. It comes out of the factory with a Sustainiac neck pickup.

The colour seems to transform depending on the light direction. It truly is a beautiful piece.

Being a Luthier, you tend to see the same standard colours every day. To***co burst, black, white, candy apple, cherry etc. I really like it when people try something different and unique.

Some more lefty love at the Bainhart Workshop.

Some lefty love at the Bainhart Workshop. A Japanese Gretsch.

Isn't it beautiful?

I needed a cheap guitar to experiment with and found this... Turned out to be pretty interesting so I did a tear down on it. Cheap guitars have come a long way.

Luthier Tears Down a Donner LP Style Guitar I tear down a brand New Donner guitar and look at its strengths and weaknesses as an instrument to help you make an informed decision. The views expressed in...

Bought a cheap guitar for some experiments and it turned out to be really interesting. So I decided to made a video on it.

Luthier Tears Down a Donner LP Style Guitar I tear down a brand New Donner guitar and look at its strengths and weaknesses as an instrument to help you make an informed decision. The views expressed in...

Headstock repair on a Cole Clark. Support Companies that support you. I don't do sponsored posts and I'm careful about recommending guitars. But when I see something good that's backed by service. How can I not. Cole Clark make amazing guitars. They sound great and they're unique sounding. This one had a broken headstock. Cole Clark headstocks can be removed and replaced by a skilled luthier. Cole Clark provided some amazing support on the backend in providing parts and sending me a whole information pack on their preferred repair method.

I like companies that back their product, their customers and the businesses like me that support their customers through maintenance and repairs.

At the end of the day, it's about the player, and Cole Clark made this repair as easy as possible for me so I could get it right for the player.

Alpine white Les Paul with gold hardware. These are so beautiful. Epiphone has really kicked up the quality lately. I couldn't find a fault on this guitar. Not a single one. Frets were also perfectly level. At the price point, hard to look past one of these.

Sometimes my own guitars get a go on the bench. This is the first ever "heavy" guitar I ever owned. I loved this thing back in the day. It weighed a ton, chugged hard and you could shred on it. As time went on my taste diversified and I started seeking out the cleanest tones I could find. That led me onto fenders and single coils. My playing slowed down, my licks became more intentional, my dynamics got better.... however, I think I've hit a point of musical maturity where I can just enjoy all genres and all guitars. I like Metal, power metal, blues, rock, jazz, classical and flamenco. You don't need to "move on" with your musical tastes, rather you can learn to enjoy all genres of music side by side.

This guitar is a little unloved. Its weight and pickups made it fall into obscurity. But I think I'm ready for it again. But not as is, this guitar is going to be rebuilt. Asthetically, I want it cleaner, tonally, I want it much more powerful. I don't need this to be a diverse guitar anymore. I want it to be good at one thing. Heavy music.

Major works on this classical, let the French polishing begin.

Fender, you really make a sweet guitar. Setup and some electrical works on this beast.