The services I offer:

I focus mainly on setups, which are the adjustments and repairs needed to make your guitar or bass play and sound its best. A basic setup includes straightening the neck, adjusting the height of the strings along the neck, setting intonation at the bridge to make sure each string plays in tune, and balancing the pickups. Along the way, as needed, I’ll tighten all the loose hardware, clean the fretboard, file the nut as needed, repair stripped screw holes, and check the controls for proper operation. The whammy bar (Bigsby, Fender, Floyd Rose, etc.) can be adjusted to play smoothly and stay in tune better.

Sometimes your guitar will need more. A new nut can improve your tone by being made of a harder material (I use bone on my own guitars). We can also alter the string spacing to better fit your fretting hand. Worn-out parts can be replaced, and upgraded in the process.

Installing different pickups can have a huge effect on your guitar’s performance, as can upgrading to better quality components in the guitar’s wiring. Switching modifications, or small changes to the wiring, can get you a broader range of sounds from your current guitar.

Acoustic guitars benefit from bone saddles, instead of the plastic or synthetic materials often used, even by major makers. Their bridge pins can be upgraded to a variety of better materials, and a better fit, which will help the guitar’s tone.

We can also also improve the performance of your guitar’s frets. Often, even a careful straightening of the neck won’t let you achieve the low action and clean sound you want. This is most often due to fret wear. It can happen with a brand-new guitar from a good maker. Sometimes there are only one or two frets causing the problems. If so, we evaluate the possibility that these frets can be reshaped, glued if loose, and pulled back into line.

In many cases, the neck needs a full fret leveling and crowning. This means the neck is straightened, the frets are filed down to the lowest point, and then the tops of the frets are re-rounded to play comfortably. When the guitar is a good candidate for this repair, the results are very satisfying.

If the current frets are too worn to level and crown, or the truss rod can no longer properly straighten the neck, you may need a full re-fret. In this case, the old frets are pulled, the fingerboard is sanded to its proper radius, new fret wire is chosen, and the wire is cut, installed, filed, and polished. In many cases you’ll find that your guitar is now better than new.

I am not yet offering a full re-fret service to customers. I’ve done it several times with great success, and two or three of those necks are on partscasters, getting played in. So, that will become available at a later date.

There are many other possibilities! I offer quick turnaround, and stay in touch with my customers while the work is being done. My prices are better than competitive. If you have a guitar or bass that you like but wish it played or sounded better, please get in touch at jayscottguitar@gmail.com. Thanks!