Straight answers about repair work in San Diego — what things cost, how drop-off works, and what happens to your instrument once it's on the bench.
A complete setup on a standard acoustic or electric guitar runs $130. Guitars with a tremolo or floating bridge (Strat-style, Floyd Rose, Bigsby) take longer to dial in and run $152.
A setup covers truss rod adjustment, action and string height, intonation, nut slot check, and a full play test. Strings are additional.
A complete fret level and crown is $260. That's the fix for buzzing caused by uneven frets — the frets are leveled to a single plane, re-crowned, and polished, and the guitar is set up afterward.
If the frets are level but just worn or scratchy, a fret dress at $87 may be all you need. If the fret ends are poking out over the edge of the board — common when the weather changes — that's $152.
A complete refret is $520 in labor plus fret wire, on a bound or unbound neck.
If only a few frets are worn out, a partial refret starts at $43 for the first fret plus about 15 minutes for each additional fret, plus parts. Which one you need depends on how far the wear goes up the neck — that's a judgment call made with the guitar in hand.
The shop labor rate is $86.67 per hour. Every price on the rate sheet is that rate multiplied by the hours the job normally takes, so you can see exactly how a number was arrived at. Parts are additional where noted.
Phone consultation is free — call (619) 512-2193 and describe what the guitar is doing, and you'll get a ballpark.
A real estimate comes after the instrument is evaluated on the bench, because the thing a customer describes as "buzzing" can turn out to be four different problems with four different prices. You approve the estimate before any work starts, and nothing gets done that you haven't signed off on.
There are drop-off partners across San Diego County, so you don't have to drive across town:
Addresses, hours, and a live map are on the locations page. Start with the drop-off form so the guitar is logged before it leaves your hands.
No appointment needed for most drop-off locations — fill out the drop-off form, pick your spot, and leave the guitar during their business hours. A few partners ask that you call or text first; that's noted on the locations page and on the form when you select them.
It depends on the work and what's already on the bench. A setup is a much shorter job than a neck reset or a refret, and some repairs have glue and finish cure times that simply can't be rushed without hurting the result.
You get a target window with your estimate, and we're always shooting for the soonest date that doesn't compromise the work. If something changes — a part backorders, or the guitar turns out to need more than it showed at drop-off — you hear about it before it becomes a surprise.
Every instrument gets its own status page. You can look it up any time on the status page, and you'll get texts at the milestones that matter — when the estimate is ready for approval, and when the guitar is finished and ready for pickup.
Electric guitars, acoustics, basses, 12-strings, archtops, and classical instruments. The rate sheet covers work specific to all of them — bass bridge replacement, 12-string nuts, custom archtop bridges, acoustic bracing and top work, and tremolo systems from vintage Strat bridges to Floyd Rose.
Custom builds, modifications, and left-handed conversions are also part of what the shop does.
Fret buzz has a handful of common causes: uneven or worn frets, action set too low, a neck with too little relief, a nut slot cut too deep, or a loose component rattling somewhere else entirely and only sounding like fret buzz.
Each one has a different fix and a different price, which is why buzzing gets diagnosed rather than guessed at. There's a full walkthrough in the guide to diagnosing fret buzz, or you can use the diagnostic tool to narrow it down before you come in.
Yes. A single pickup swap is $87, two pickups $108, and three $173, plus the pickups themselves.
A complete rewire with standard wiring is $217; custom wiring — coil splits, series/parallel, push-pull pots, odd switching — is $303. Shielding a noisy guitar runs $173.
Yes — a clean headstock break is one of the most repairable catastrophic failures on a guitar. The repair itself is $347 without finish work. Making the repair disappear under finish is $650, since that's color matching, spraying, curing, and buffing on top of the structural work.
Don't try to glue it yourself first. A break that's been hit with the wrong glue is significantly harder and more expensive to repair properly.
The shop is an authorized service center for a number of brands and works with insurance claims on damaged instruments. Documentation, photos, and a written condition report can be provided as part of the job. Call (619) 512-2193 to talk through the specifics of your claim.
Still have a question? Ask — the phone consultation is free.