Guitar Refin in London

[blackradar]

Hi,
Can anybody recommend someone reliable in London whether it’s a particular or a shop that can do a refin?

Thanks in advance.

[Paul-T]

Jo Dobson at Joseph Kaye guitars. I think he's the foremost vintage restorer in the city. He's done work on my 52 Tele and I'm getting him to restore the wiring on my 63 JM.

https://www.josephkayeguitars.com/

[zhivago]

Watching this thread closely as I've had bad experiences with a few repair guys in London when it came to my vintage guitars being repaired.

I've been following Joseph Kaye on Facebook for a while, but haven't contacted him yet...how good is his work? I see all sorts of his FB profile, not all vintage.

A guy on TGP had his early 60s SG refinished by him and it looked pretty good in the photos he posted.

[svan]

Me too. I’ve never had a wholly satisfactory experience with any Luthier I’ve tried in London and I’ve tried most of the highly recommended ones.

One did fine repair work, but things that weren’t really appropriate for a 1920s Gibson, one tried to steal parts from me, one completely compromised the originality of an incredibly rare 1950s guitar and still didn’t actually finish the repair they were paid a lot of money to do. One who is ridiculously expensive was very rude and used my guitar as a table when they were writing their cost estimate.

The only one I’ve used who seems to understand vintage guitars and does high quality work is very expensive and is about the most disorganised person I’ve ever worked with, to the extent that they’ve had the guitar I need repaired for nearly two years now.

[zhivago]

It is absolutely crazy how rare great guitar repair - especially for vintage stuff - is in a place as big as London...a place home to so many awesome guitars!

[Highnumbers]

If you are looking for an aged finish option, I can highly recommend Mike Bowes at MB Guitars.

He's in southeastern Kent (in Deal) https://www.mbguitars.co.uk/

Mike recently restored my '64 Jazzmaster and I shipped it to him from Los Angeles, which is a testament to the quality of his work. Very accurate finish aging, quick turnaround times (a few months or less) and very fair prices.

Well worth venturing outside of London a bit, I don't know of anybody in the city that could be recommended.

[zhivago]

If you are looking for an aged finish option, I can highly recommend Mike Bowes at MB Guitars.

He's in southeastern Kent (in Deal) https://www.mbguitars.co.uk/

Mike recently restored my '64 Jazzmaster and I shipped it to him from Los Angeles, which is a testament to the quality of his work. Very accurate finish aging, quick turnaround times (a few months or less) and very fair prices.

Well worth venturing outside of London a bit, I don't know of anybody in the city that could be recommended.

Very cool! This isn't too difficult for me to get to actually, so I will keep him in mind!

[blackradar]

Jo Dobson at Joseph Kaye guitars. I think he's the foremost vintage restorer in the city. He's done work on my 52 Tele and I'm getting him to restore the wiring on my 63 JM.

https://www.josephkayeguitars.com/

Hey, thanks very much for the link.
Just emailed him.

[blackradar]

Me too. I’ve never had a wholly satisfactory experience with any Luthier I’ve tried in London and I’ve tried most of the highly recommended ones.

One did fine repair work, but things that weren’t really appropriate for a 1920s Gibson, one tried to steal parts from me, one completely compromised the originality of an incredibly rare 1950s guitar and still didn’t actually finish the repair they were paid a lot of money to do. One who is ridiculously expensive was very rude and used my guitar as a table when they were writing their cost estimate.

The only one I’ve used who seems to understand vintage guitars and does high quality work is very expensive and is about the most disorganised person I’ve ever worked with, to the extent that they’ve had the guitar I need repaired for nearly two years now.

This is actually good material for another thread... how about something along the lines of:
"Nightmare and Ghost Repairs in London" or "Worst experiences repairing gear - Vol. 1: London or Los Angeles or Rome..."

Now seriously, I couldn't agree more. It seems very difficult just finding someone who can do average quality repairs. In my experience when it comes to Electronics it has been even harder finding someone. But what I really struggle with is to understand how you offer a job to a professional that is meant to make a living on that sort of jobs and sometimes people don't reply, or ghost you or the first time you talk to offer them the job they are rude or complain about the job or, or, or...

Luckily I have found good people along the way too but most of the ones I knew are gone or no longer available/in the business anymore.

[blackradar]

Me too. I’ve never had a wholly satisfactory experience with any Luthier I’ve tried in London and I’ve tried most of the highly recommended ones.

One did fine repair work, but things that weren’t really appropriate for a 1920s Gibson, one tried to steal parts from me, one completely compromised the originality of an incredibly rare 1950s guitar and still didn’t actually finish the repair they were paid a lot of money to do. One who is ridiculously expensive was very rude and used my guitar as a table when they were writing their cost estimate.

The only one I’ve used who seems to understand vintage guitars and does high quality work is very expensive and is about the most disorganised person I’ve ever worked with, to the extent that they’ve had the guitar I need repaired for nearly two years now.

This is actually good material for another thread... how about something along the lines of:
"Nightmare and Ghost Repairs in London" or "Worst experiences repairing gear - Vol. 1: London or Los Angeles or Rome..."

Now seriously, I couldn't agree more. It seems very difficult just finding someone who can do average quality repairs. In my experience when it comes to Electronics it has been even harder finding someone.

But what I really struggle with is to understand how you offer a job to a professional that is meant to make a living on that sort of jobs and sometimes people don't reply, or ghost you or the first time you talk to offer them the job they are rude or complain about the job or, or, or...

Luckily I have found good people along the way too but most of the ones I knew are gone or no longer available/in the business anymore.

[blackradar]

It is absolutely crazy how rare great guitar repair - especially for vintage stuff - is in a place as big as London...a place home to so many awesome guitars!

Yep, agree. It seems there are very few people at reach at least in Central London that are nice, professional, good and affordable... in that order.
I wish I could say the opposite but it really seems difficult.

If somebody has a different point of view on this I'm all ears.
I'm sure there are some good professionals out there.


I would actually divide the field into 3 categories, mainly because rarely you get someone that can do all 3:

- Guitar repairs.
- Electronic repairs (amps, effects, pedals...).
- Custom work (refins, custom guitars or custom parts...)

Even those 3 fields could be broken down into more sub fields.

[zhivago]

This is actually good material for another thread... how about something along the lines of:
"Nightmare and Ghost Repairs in London" or "Worst experiences repairing gear - Vol. 1: London or Los Angeles or Rome..."

Heheh...that would be one controversial thread for sure...I have personal stories with people that have been recommended over and over on the internet...some of my stories are worse than others, but the problem really is that I have stories to begin with...things should go smoothly when you deal with pros...alas, in the guitar world we put up with a lot of unprofessionalism that just wouldn't pass in most other fields.

I hate to come across as a sourpuss...but I am more disappointed about this than anything else.

Still, there is hope that there's people out there doing good work, and I will definitely start threads to share the good experiences I've had...when they occur!

[zhivago]

It is absolutely crazy how rare great guitar repair - especially for vintage stuff - is in a place as big as London...a place home to so many awesome guitars!

Yep, agree. It seems there are very few people at reach at least in Central London that are nice, professional, good and affordable... in that order.
I wish I could say the opposite but it really seems difficult.

If somebody has a different point of view on this I'm all ears.
I'm sure there are some good professionals out there.


I would actually divide the field into 3 categories, mainly because rarely you get someone that can do all 3:

- Guitar repairs.
- Electronic repairs (amps, effects, pedals...).
- Custom work (refins, custom guitars or custom parts...)

Even those 3 fields could be broken down into more sub fields.

Absolutely...the thing is the only way to find out if someone's good or not is let them have one of your guitars and hope for the best...it's nuts, really!

[Trout]

It is absolutely crazy how rare great guitar repair - especially for vintage stuff - is in a place as big as London...a place home to so many awesome guitars!

This is the downside of a big city. A mediocrity can always be one step ahead of his or hers reputation. There are always new customers, but in a small town, reputation is always one step ahead.

[zhivago]

It is absolutely crazy how rare great guitar repair - especially for vintage stuff - is in a place as big as London...a place home to so many awesome guitars!

This is the downside of a big city. A mediocrity can always be one step ahead of his or hers reputation. There are always new customers, but in a small town, reputation is always one step ahead.

I agree.

For what it's worth, if you have a newer production guitar I would always recommend Charlie Chandler. He can be ok for some vintage-related stuff too, but not everything, in my experience.