Home -- Guitar Repair, Stringed Instrument Repair

For those shopping for the best price on repairs, we lose. For those shopping the best quality on repairs, we win & so do you. We've been here for 10 years providing the highest caliber of fretted instrument repair anywhere in Texas. If you want it done right, we're the go to guys. Everyday we see new faces & make new friends by offering exceptional service. 

John Thurston will be handling all major repairs. He's got great skills & many years of experience. John has moved here from the D.C./Baltimore area where he's well known among discriminating players. We're fortunate to introduce John to the South Texas music community. We can state with assurance that John's skills & knowledge of guitar & bass repair are unsurpassed in South Texas.

Bass players take note: John's primary instrument is the bass & he therefore brings special insight that bassists will appreciate whether your style is funk/slap, the aggressive pick styles that many modern players use or anything in between. 

We offer all aspects of guitar & stringed instrument repair; from simple adjustments & set-ups to major restoration of fine vintage instruments.

We will soon be posting shop prices that will give you an idea what a particular repair might cost. Keep in mind that your evaluation of what is required may be different than ours & there is often more than meets the eye in a given task. These prices will from a guideline.

Shop rates are based at $65.00 per hour.

NOTE: A few times a month we'll get an email from some distraught musician from the Baltimore/D.C. area who misses having John around. You should have been nicer to him when he was there. Seriously though, it's great to have him here & Baltimore's loss is Texas' gain.

LINDY FRALIN PICKUPS NOW AT GUITAR TEX!

We offer free estimates for repairs, so bring your guitar, mandolin, or other acoustic  instrument in, and we will help.  We service what we sell, and do warranty work for C.F. Martin, and others.   Sorry, but we don't currently provide amp repair.

If you need an appraisal, bring your instrument in. We provide written appraisals for $35. If you want advice on what you should ask for your guitar that you are selling, you may use our referral books free of charge. Please don't call to ask what your guitar is worth.

The acoustic market is hugely diverse, covering many tastes and styles, but the standards for the a fine instrument are the same regardless of what style of music you play. We offer a great selection at great prices.

Come on in. We look forward to visiting.

A WORD ABOUT ACOUSTIC GUITAR PICKUPS:

A lot has changed since I first began installing acoustic pickups & I've tried just about every pickup for acoustic guitar available. Recently, with innovations from L.R.Baggs like their I-Mix systems & Fishman's Aura system we've moved much closer to the warm, organic plugged in sound we've all been seeking for so long.  Either one is minimally invasive & can provide excellent stage sound, giving the player on-board control without the ugly hole in the side of your guitar.

The K&K pickups can be a good choice for solo players wanting to maintain as natural tone as possible, especially so for classical players but I've had great results on dreadnoughts, too.  Perhaps not so good, though, for the ensemble player who needs lots of volume & a high threshold before feedback becomes a problem.

McIntyre pickups makes wonderful products for the acoustic purist & I especially like their mandolin pickups. None better at any price.

We do lots of pickup installations & we'll be glad to advise you on your choice. However, the choice is yours & we encourage you to do your homework & make your own decision. One particuarly positive aspect of all the choices I've mentioned is that they're all reversible if should choose something else or just to go back to pure acoustic.