DarGuitar Repairs

08/03/2026

08/03/2026

Had this little Faith Venus in for a setup and saddle upgrade recently. It came from the factory with a Nubone synthetic saddle, but the customer was looking for something a bit more classy!

Unbleached bone to the rescue! A bit more sympathetic to the cream binding, rather than the icy white bleached version. And marginally harder wearing too!

Handmade from scratch, compensated for improved intonation, and buffs up a treat! 🔧🔨

'Bone for Tone'

31/01/2026

Neck Reset time on this awesome old Yamaha FG180.
Foam Cutters at the ready, steady.......and go!

18/12/2025

Had an amazing 1970s Yamaha FG180 getting an pickup installed today. This particular instrument needed the bottom of the saddle slot routed flat 1st due to being pretty uneven.

Here's the saddle routing jig and to the rescue.

If left uneven then the pickup would never have worked properly, having terrible string balance issues when amplified, and generally sounding like a bag of old spanners!

However, this particular owner was pretty sure they wanted to hear all 6 strings evenly.

Fair enough! 😉

26/11/2025

Had this awesome Stelling Staghorn banjo in for a refret recently. The existing nickel silver frets couldn't keep up with the demands on it, so Stainless Steel was the answer!

Levelled the fingerboard, put some big boy frets in as requested, managed to retain the original compensated nut and 'What A Machine!'

I'm no banjo player, but where's my Dungarees? 🤩

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

21/11/2025

Big thanks to the guys at The Sign Centre for the new addition to the workshop! ❤️

26/04/2025

Recent customer couldn't understand why their recently setup guitar wasn't playing in tune, and wanted the 'intonation' re-adjusted! They also were concerned that they'd been breaking a lot of strings, which was unusual for them. Fortunately, they had some spare sets in the case.

Well, unfortunately the problems were due to the FAKE Super Slinkys they had bought. This person had no idea these were not the real deal. They almost look identical.

£7 for 3 sets should be the red flag here! 🚩🚩

Ebay and Amazon are swamped with FAKE strings!

As the old adage goes, if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is! 💩

Out of interest, the image on the left with the larger gap between the 4 and 2 is the FAKE one. They're just cheap Chinese knock offs and are s**t,.....like totally s**t!

If you want decent strings, then my advice is to buy from a reputable shop/online dealer.

Happy restringing! 😁

18/04/2025

Refret time. This old awesome Custom branded strat landed on my bench for a refurb recently. It must've had the lowest frets I've ever seen!

They measured 0.4mm tall! Crazy.

It's gonna play a lot better now! 🎸

27/03/2025

Had this Custom Shop Martin in recently for a setup and pickup install. It's a beauty!

11/02/2025

Martin D15 in for a Neck Reset. It's only 10 years old but has all the hallmarks of being exposed to high humidity somewhere along its timeline!

The action is so high, with almost no saddle height, its no surprise that it's never really been played.

Usually over time, the action creeps up, you drop the saddle. Then a few years go by, the same happens again. Rinse and repeat a few times, then one day the action is super high, and there's no saddle left to work with.

That's when you're potentially into Neck Reset territory. The basic geometry and angle the neck attaches to the body at, is being altered to drastically improve things.

Well.............. that's the plan anyway 😬😬

06/02/2025