AN ANALOGUE MIND IN A DIGITAL WORLD
Set-ups
Electronics
Fret work
Repairs
Need your guitar fixed...
... but can't even work out what's wrong with it? We can help...
Can't afford a roadie?
Can't come to us?
What we can do:
If it's something simple we'll fix it - and if it's not we can steer you in the right direction. Even if it's beyond repair we'll be able to tell you why.
We've been making things work, with limited resources, in far flung lands, for nearly 30 years. Trying to put on a show in challenging locations like Lagos or Qaqortoq can be quite testing, believe me. We're touring technicians rather than luthiers, but we offer a fairly comprehensive repair service for guitars & other instruments and various other types of musical equipment. If your acoustic guitar needs a new saddle or you want a pick-up installing, no problem. If you want a new neck making for it, well, I guess we could have a go but you're better off finding a proper instrument maker. We can build you a custom Telecaster from parts quite easily, (the Strat below is one I made earlier) but turning trees into a unique dreadnought acoustic takes a different skill-set entirely and i haven't had a go at it yet.
If it's something simple we'll fix it - and if it's not we can steer you in the right direction. Even if it's beyond repair we'll be able to tell you why. We've built a few pedal boards in our time too and we make good cables - we're used to making looms to last for an 18 month world tour. If you've got a pedal, amp, or keyboard that's broken we'll look at it for you: there's a good chance we can get it working, we've been fixing those sort of things for years as well. Having to dismantle a Roland RD500 in the back of a truck behind a festival stage in the pouring rain in order to replace and repair broken key weights is a normal day at the office. Having to use a switchable DC wall-wart and multimeter probes to apply 3 volts, then 6 volts, to tiny motors in a jammed Tascam DA-88 to unlace and then eject the just-edited show tape ten minutes before curtain up was, thankfully, a more unique fix. "Make it happen", that's the brief. Do you know why "the show must go on"? Because someone is going to lose money if it doesn't. That's why we get employed. Can't afford a roadie? Come to New Cut and rent one. Check out our Galleries page to see past repair work.
Routine services include:
- Set-ups and restringing (full action adjustment, intonation tempering & truss rod adjustment).
- Tremolo maintenance and set-ups for all models.
- Top nut repairs and replacement, including custom bone nuts & saddles made from blanks.
- Guitar electrical repairs, pickup upgrades and custom circuit harnesses.
- Pickup repairs & remagnetising.
- Audio EM screening (RF shielding).
- Hardware upgrades and maintenance including bridges, machine heads etc.
- Hardware repairs and replacement.
- Headstock and neck repairs.
- Fret dressing and repair.
- Finish repairs and touch-ups.
As a touring guitar tech I'm used to travelling very long distances only to have to fix stuff in a muddy field. I have tool cases and a portable work bench and I am happy to drive in and out of Bristol and come to you to work on guitars. This sort of service obviously involves a little more cost to cover travelling for your convenience. I will always discuss the options available for any repair or modification to give you the musician the fix you need for the price you can afford.
Get in touch and tell us what you need: we're roadies, we've had some crazy requests over the years - whatever you want to do we can find a way. A custom harness with NOS paper-in-oil caps and top of the line pots and switches will be priced on an individual consultation. A new vintage style Centerlab switch for a Strat for instance would be £20, parts and labour. Laser beams firing out of the headstock may take a bit more time and cost a little more, but we'll give it a go. But here are some guide prices, that are based on the going rates around the country:
Guitar set-ups:
Guitar set-up for a typical electric: £35 plus strings (I usually have a few sets, but special gauges will be RRP). This will include a fingerboard clean (and oil for a rosewood board) and a fret polish. For a 12-string or a Floyd Rose it's going to cost more, likewise for a classical guitar or other instrument that is time consuming to re-string. But then I'll usually charge less for a Telecaster or Precision bass. If your instrument has issues in the neck, top nut or frets then it may require more work and incur more cost, but not without your consultation. A rough guide is to look at it as an hourly rate of £25, though I rarely charge that much when a job runs into several hours. Most jobs will be priced individually pro rata, but here's a few guidelines:
Gibson style headstock break:
I've had to do a couple of these over the years, it can be a tricky job, largely due to the position of the break with regard to the truss rod - you don't want any glue in there! You're looking at £100 for a basic repair, more depending on how you want the finish repaired. The quality and age of the guitar will also be factors in the price.
Acoustic pick-up installation:
A sound hole pup installed with a socket on the side or an endpin jack is going to be about £45; an undersaddle pup where the bridge slot will be drilled and the endpin reamed out will cost a little more; the time consuming bit is making the saddle bottom and the bottom of the bridge slot completely parallel for correct piezo-electric compression.
New jack socket:
A simple electrical repair like a replacement jack socket or volume pot is going to cost about £10, depending on the guitar and the quality of the new component. But then I've often re-soldered a broken jack connection or similar, for one of our rehearsal bands for free, just to get them through the session.
WHAT:
New Cut Studios is a recording studio, rehearsal room & guitar repair workshop in the heart of Bristol. To book a session in what is fast becoming one of Bristol's coolest places for making music, you can reach us in the usual ways:
WHERE:
New Cut Studios
Unit 5
Ferry Steps Trading Estate
Albert Road
Bristol BS2 0XW
Use what3words to find our exact location.