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This isn't meant as a shot at anyone,just I'm surprised in general.I was on another forum that a lot of builders visit and I was really surprised at some of the answers to basic acoustic repair questions.
So I was wondering...do you folks find that a lot of techs/shops and stores seem to have a wide variety for electrics and seem to be lacking in acoustic knowledge in terms of construction and repair?
I'm just surprised,I started on acoustics and went to electrics.
Granted,my first builds were electric but I still learned about acoustics.
I'm really curious what the builders and repair people have to say.

In a word:
Yes.

I dunno, I'm kindof a quot;builder-in-trainingquot;, and I'm still trying to absorb everything bout electrics. Gonna go on to acoustics too eventually, though maybe some people just decide not to?

in some ways acoustics and electrics are very similar but they're very very different beasts. There's so much more that goes into their buidling that I kneel down to those builders who know their way around one. I apprencticed with a classical guitar maker and everyting down to the width, thickness, height, and shape of one brace can change the tone. that being said, i think most quot;repair techsquot; are more confident around electices. a lot less to worry about - its rare that you'd have to swell the body of an electric to reset a neck
but - in short - yes, there are many more electric techs and acoustic

VERY TRUE !! A friend of mine recently gave me a really cool
69' Guild 12 string That was in a MAJOR state of disrepair. It needed a
new bridge,The sound board was bellied and cracked and the neck needed
a reset. After about 5 minutes with it I relized I was in WAAAAY over my
head with this. So it whent on ebay as a project. The guy who
bought it was a Luthier. Aparently he was not a happy camper when
he got it. He sent me a email (Not exactly a love letter) Saying how
much a P.O.S. this was,And he would charge a customer $600 to fix it.

Without a doubt


Originally Posted by kmcguitarsVERY TRUE !! A friend of mine recently gave me a really cool
69' Guild 12 string That was in a MAJOR state of disrepair. It needed a
new bridge,The sound board was bellied and cracked and the neck needed
a reset. After about 5 minutes with it I relized I was in WAAAAY over my
head with this. So it whent on ebay as a project. The guy who
bought it was a Luthier. Aparently he was not a happy camper when
he got it. He sent me a email (Not exactly a love letter) Saying how
much a P.O.S. this was,And he would charge a customer $600 to fix it.what's an acoustic?



-Mike

I don't know about people who have been trained, but I know for others it's probably an intimidation factor. An accoustic has all that structure holding it together, while an electric, for all intents and purposes, is a solid block of wood. I've never taken a guitar in for a repair (just set ups) so I don't have any first hand knowledge, but I think there is a trend of guitar shops only messing with electrics and sending the acoustics off to more experienced luthiers. I'll let you know for sure when I get ready to have my Gibson worked on. I'm thinking I'll get passed along a few times before I find someone that can and will do it.

I will learn just about anything someone is willing to teach me. Lets just say I haven't found anyone thats willing to teach me about acoustics. That being said I'm about to do the quot;trial by firequot; thing and put a new neck on my first acoustic guitar soon. Through the years it managed to get removed via a heel to the neck while leaning against the wall (very painful moment), I was about 16 at the time and had a friend of my mothers glue it back on. Least to say it never sounded right after that. Knowing what I know now I'm going to replace the neck as my first acoustic project and work up to building one from scratch (hopefuly).

I will be honest JJ, I have figured out electrics and I can repair/build/mod them with no problem but, my acoustic skills are lacking!! I need to get a book, video, or learn from someone on them.

Acoustic guitars are much more likely to require repair due to the lack of proper maintenance and care. As some of you know I spend a lot of time working with a MAster Luthier. I have learned a huge amount just by observing guitars that have come to him to be repaired primarily due to lack of care. People have put vintage Martins in a closet without any airflow tuned to pitch with 13's on it and wonder why the bridge has pulled off!. Some of the repairs that are done by some Luthiers (if you want to call them that) is just horrible. I recently saw a Martin D41 that had a top crack repaired with 2 part epoxy!! What an idiot! The top had to be replaced to fix it correctly after that. Bottom line is question every repair that your guitar needs and see if what the repair guy is going to do is the best way of approaching the repair.

Because of these valuable lessons that I have learned from watching quot;otherquot; guitars come in for repair I have taken a few drastic steps in caring for my acoustic guitars. I would recommend you all do the same.

1. Store the guitar in its case when you are not playing it. I won't even put mine on a stand.

2. Keep a Dampit of some type in the soundhole of the guitar and possibly a second one in the case to feed the rest of the guitar. Check the dampits every other day.

3. Add a Hygrometer in the case so you can monitor the humidity. Keep the humidity at about 45 to 50%.

4. When storing the guitar for a longer period of time, loosen the strings. You don't have to have them completely loose, but I tune down a hole step.

Iquot;m not a tech but I think acoustics would be harder to fix. It also seems like it would be easier do damage an acoustic in a way that would change its tone. on an electric the thing most apt to be seriously damaged on an electric would be the neck. and probably around 50% of electric are bolt on necks so you might as well just get a new neck if it get damaged.

just my thoughts.

I actually have more repair experience with acoustics than with electrics- I work in a music store, but it's more of an orchestral strings shop. a lot of the same concepts for violin repairs are present in acoustic guitars to begin with, like split seems and top cracks for example. From there I've additionally learned handling loose braces, bridges, etc. Items I haven't hit yet include a neck reset, which is going to be tough, and refretting. I'm hoping to peg those this summer. But over all, I'm actually more incompitent with repairing electrics. I need to pull out all of my wiring diagrams and practice solderings before touching anything.