September 11, 2019
Tales From the Repair Shop: Guitars & More
Arizona-based master technician Malinda Stratton shares a few of her recent repair adventures — including a Gibson L-50 restoration and an extra-tricky guitarrón fix.
Simply put, Music & Arts repair services are #1 nationwide: We employ more than 200 professional repair technicians who work at 70 locations throughout the U.S. But sheer numbers don’t tell the real story.
The real story unfolds with each one of our dedicated musical instrument repair technicians, many of whom have spent decades building their skill set across an extensive range of instruments.
One such craftsperson is Malinda Stratton, a veteran technician currently based at the Music & Arts location in Mesa, Arizona. She’s been repairing instruments for more than 30 years, and gained her comprehensive expertise both on the job and by earning a degree in musical instrument repair from Renton Technical College — one of only a handful of accredited programs in the nation to focus on band instrument repair. Malinda has worked with Music & Arts for 27 years, and can handle maintenance and repairs across brass, woodwinds, fretted strings, orchestral strings and percussion — or, as she puts it, “If it twangs, bangs, tweets or toots, it’s got my attention.”
Malinda also believes high-quality instrument repair should be affordable — accessible to any musician, on any budget. “Job security is keeping the beginning student playing music,” she says, “because they can depend on their instrument and enjoy performing with it.”
We recently asked Malinda to tell us all about some of her latest and greatest repairs. While this particular roundup homes in on her work as a guitar-repair expert, she has a wealth of notable shop stories covering instruments of all sorts. Look out for more down the line.
Keeping a Gibson L-50 Archtop in the Family
This guitar originally belonged to the current owner’s grandfather. When grandpa was a kid, he decided that his guitar should be a blonde instead of a sunburst. After stripping it down and removing all the finish by hand, he gave up on the project. Eventually, the guitar and its parts got passed on to his son and then his grandson. Parts eventually went missing. Thankfully, close replicas of the original parts are still being made.
During this process of passing the guitar down, seams opened up, braces became loose and a hole got punched into the side.
To get to everything inside, I removed the backplate — and you can see the size of the dust bunny that was living inside the instrument. Support was added to the hole and the hole was filled with putty. The brace and the backplate were put back into place. The binding was replaced and “aged” to match the top plate’s binding.
Once the parts were replaced and the strings were put on, the guitar was finally able to be played — after many decades. The current owner sent me a video of his 80-year-old grandfather playing the guitar. It was an awesome moment, knowing that I was able to bring that joy back to him and help the bond between grandfather and grandson.
Filling in the Cracks
With our dry climate here in Arizona, some of the cracks that develop in acoustic guitars are too wide to close completely. In these instances, wood veneer is glued in place to fill the gap and create a new grain line.
That process was essential to the restoration of this vintage Epiphone Triumph archtop, which also required new diamond mother-of-pearl fingerboard inlays.
A Guitarrón With Sizzle
Because of the buckles on his mariachi outfit, the owner of this guitarrón decided to coat the back of his instrument with Line-X, a protective sealant used on cars. During that process, the instrument fell over and the headstock broke. The headstock had broken before, and he’d reattached everything with a screw that was still sticking out from the end of the neck.
Wood was missing around the crack, so I worked with the owner on what type of wood he preferred for the patching. Instead of blending everything in with mahogany, he opted for some ebony from an old cello fingerboard. He is a retired orchestra director and liked that reference. (But I’m still not sure why he wanted me to leave the screw sticking out!)
Once I got the headstock glued back in place, I matched the patch shape with the decorative angles that were already on the guitarrón. To cover up some rough lines around the patch, I used maple veneer to line the patch, and then matched the red color of the front triangle. Once restrung, the patches line up almost perfectly with the angle of the strings.
The diamond patch on the back of the headstock matches the angles on the front. For flair, I included two maple strips that add the red color. If you’re wondering, the Line-X coating didn’t dampen the tone of this guitarrón at all. He also keeps a rattlesnake tail inside the instrument for added “sizzle.”
This repair was completed two years ago and the customer comes in regularly. He gigs frequently with this guitarrón, and is happy to report that the repair is still holding.
Acoustic-Electric, Hold the Electric
The customer wanted to ditch the electronics in this Alvarez and go all acoustic. This Alvarez came out of the renowned Yairi factory in Japan and features the inspection insignia “G. Yamada,” a sign of historic high-quality. I was able to make a good match using Indian rosewood and maintain a consistent finish to preserve the guitar’s value — despite its road wear.
The Incredible Invisible Pickup
This customer needed to be able to plug his nylon-string classical guitar into an amplifier, but he didn’t want the piezo pickup to be visible. To meet his request, I cut a slot in a bone saddle to sit over the pickup. The end block of this guitar was a decent size, so I installed a jack that he can attach his strap to.
Need a repair?
Expert technicians like Malinda Stratton are ready to help
at your local Music & Arts!
