Strange Guitarworks, New Orleans, LA Videos

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” - Abraham Lincoln #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Drilling ebony is smelly business. Masks on! Benjamin making custom ebony plugs, to fill the holes left in a Les Paul tune-o-matic to wraparound bridge conversion. #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Working on a refretting this vintage Ibanez bass for one of our favorites, the legendary Ms. Wanda! We’ve programmed our PLEK machine to level the fretboard, building in a compound radius, from 12”(305mm) to 14”(355mm). The entire process only takes about 45 minutes, and is accurate within a tolerance of 0.1mm. Wicked! #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworle

Aaron begins the process of shaping a maple overlay on a broken Gibson headstock. This is the final woodworking stage, after glue up, cutting and installing splines across the break, and carving out a channel for the overlay to reside in. Once the overlay is shaped, we will shoot a TV yellow finish over the repair. We have found that this is the strongest and best looking way to repair a broken headstock, and we feel that the results are worth the hard work. #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Ludicrous speed! GO! #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

We make this awful racket so you can make music. (Looking at you, Mitch Malloy.) #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Fretwork is one of our main specialties - we focus on frets so much because the quality of the fretwork is what really makes a great guitar. A properly PLEKed and setup cheap guitar will play better than just about any expensive off the shelf “custom” guitar. Don’t believe it? Come by the shop anytime and we’ll be happy to prove it to you. #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Now witness the sharpening power of this fully armed and operational Tormek station! #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Muh elbows! Muh wrists! Muh back! Aaron carves an maple overlay onto yet another broken Gibson headstock. Our headstock repairs strengthen the original (some would say faulty) design, building in more wood around the weakest part of the neck. Plus, they look pretty sweet when they’re done. It’s a lot of physical work to do, but the end result is pretty fantastic if you ask us. #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Tool time! Aaron runs quarter sawn maple through our small but mighty drum sander. We will use this to make headstock splines to fix the next broken Gibson headstock, which will probably be arriving in our shop in 3…2…1… #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Does this guy know how to party or what? #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

James Iha once said that the loudest sound an acoustic guitar can make is when you smash it. We respectfully disagree. Yeeeeaaaarrrgh! #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #neworleans

Aaron puts his bass building skills to work sanding the PLEK machining marks out during the refretting process. We utilize the PKEK to level the board and true the radius before fretting. Any CNC machine will leave small machining marks in the wood, and it takes an experienced hand to sand them out without ruining the accuracy of the PLEK process. #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd

Benjamin demonstrates the proper way to test the tension on the PLEK’s retaining straps. #guitarrepair #luthier #getplekd #peanuts