Reborn Guitars

****PSA****

Guitars can't be stored in the garage. Ever.
That is all.

(No, it's not this one. This one is decoration in my landscape. But it makes my point.)

I'm rebuilding a 1965 Guild D-35. It's in BAD shape, but I'll get it playing again.

Hey Friends
Rawge released his hybrid-memoir, And There I Was, Just Minding My Own Business. There is a chapter about The history behind the Reborn Guitars shop.
Purchase links are available at his author website

Rawge Jones Storyteller, Musician and Friend

A book written by a guitar player!

If any of my Reborn Guitars friends are interested, my book is live on Amazon. You can search Rawge Jones, or there are links at my website

Rawge Jones Storyteller, Musician and Friend

i finally bought a new Gibson! 😁

I finished up the barn wood Strat that I started building a month ago before I went to Mexico. It plays great. I'm still trying to track down a couple of tone issues, but I'll get it.

I did a fretboard re-build today for a friend's Breedlove. 10 years of play and it had a bunch of grooved frets. Fretboard level, recrowned frets, truss rod adjustment, and action adjustment at the saddle. It plays and sounds better than new. He left the shop with a big grin.

Made me the playa that I am! 🤣

If any of my Reborn Guitars friends want to follow my writing page, here's a link. I'm this week putting the final edits to my book that should be out in about a month.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094266994358&mibextid=ZbWKwL

Rawge the Wannabe Writer Author of, "And there I was, just minding my own business". A hybrid memoir. Out now Amazon.

It's reborn! 🤣

I'm even handicapped at Guitar Hero!

Yep!

I gave a guitar to a kid this week. It was an older Peavy Strat clone. I bought it as junk and unplayable. I rewired it and got electronics back in order then got the neck angle worked out. I relic'd the finish a bit. It sounds nice and during my testing, it shreds! By shred, I mean it plays G, C, and D chords 🤣 I think the kid will love it.

My secret!

If you're a church musician in the northern California area, a friend of mine is offering a workshop in Elk Grove. I've attended many times. It has classes for Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Percussion, Media, Sound tech, and more.
They'll be giving away one of my custom Telecasters.

https://caworship.com/

I make a lot of custom guitar saddles and nuts, using cattle bone. For Christmas, my wife Rhonda gave me a hand vise to hold the small material. I don't know how I ever lived without it!

I'm working on a vintage Japanese 12-string that I bought a few months ago. Today was one of the jobs that I dread - pulling, cleaning, and reattaching the tuning machines. They were all loose, so I had to plug and re-drill the holes for the tiny screws. 2 screws per tuner. Those little screws are my nemisis. I now struggle to hold and start them. I only dropped 5, but I manged to find them all pretty quickly! I even found a few from other times that I've dropped them!

I got word that there's a couple of left-handed Veterans that want to learn guitar, but there were no left-handed loaner guitars. So I got up early and found a couple in the back of my shop and got them ready to play. One is jumbo and the other is grand auditorium size. Both have electronics. I even scrounged up a couple of cases for them.
The Guitars For Vets program will have them soon.

A friend that I've know for over 45 years, brought me a guitar that he picked up at a yard sale for 2 bucks. It had been stepped on and the top was busted and covered in duct tape.
Its a cool old 1990s Art & Luthiery, made in Canada with Canadian woods. It's got a cedar top and wild cherry sides and back. Whoever owned it, really played it! The frets were grooved all the way to fret 9 and the top is worn deep from a hard pick.
I repaired the top cracks and covered the repairs with an armrest. I leveled and recrowned the frets. I added some Fishman Presys electronics with a mic blend and upgraded to bridge pins made of Ox Bone.
It still looks very well played, but now plays great. The mellow cedar top might make some a finger-style player happy.

I'm working in the guitar shop this weekend. I've got a 100+ year old Lyon and Healy parlor guitar in the ICU connected to a steam hose and an old Canadian A&E folk under traction. Both will make a full recovery.

I spent my Vetran's Day in the guitar shop, working on guitars. I got 3 ready to donate to a friend that teaches guitar to vets. They learn on used guitars, but if they stick to it for 10 weeks and graduate, the Guitars for Vets program gives them a new guitar. A couple of friends gave me some padded cases. Perfect timing.

Thank you Vetrans for your service.

I'm admittedly bad at guitar and still play at about the same level as when I was 10 years old. I want to play everything in G. So when I play rhythm guitar for Rhonda, she prints special sheets for me to be able to capo and still play in G. I can handle keys like E, C, D and a couple of others, but I really want G. Rhonda sings and picks songs in weird keys that I don't even understand... Eb minor, F , and other scarey-sounding names.
Once in a while there's no capoing around it and this is what my left hand looks like 😂

My favorite guitar projects are when I bring one back from the dead. I purchased this 50 year old Giannini for $25. It's made in Brazil. It's an X-braced folk size, with Brazilian rosewood fretboard and bridge, solid spruce top and mahogany sides.
This poor thing was beat up and about played to death. The bridge was coming off, the headstock was cracked and almost off, the sides were cracked and the frets were worn and grooved.
It was a lot of work, but it's all repaired and plays and sounds nice.