Martin Bell Guitar Works

01/07/2026

Well... this was a little challenging. I don't generally work on violins, but I had the opportunity to refret this cool little beast.

Frets worn down to the tang. Was the ebony chipping? You bet. Severe backbow? Yup. Compound radius? You got it. Stainless steel frets? Why make it too easy?

But most importantly, how does it play? No idea... I can't play it. Would I take on another one of these jobs? Absolutely. Would I take on one tomorrow? Absolutely not.

09/29/2025

Back in the shop after a much needed rest. Now my assistant can go back to supervising...

09/19/2025

Hey all! Just a quick note that the shop will be closed until September 29th. Taking a little holiday! Although I do have an assistant, he mostly just performs CAT scans.

09/18/2025

This '60s Gibson LG1 came in for some love. The original plastic bridge had finally given up, and nearly folded the top in the process. So, we find a chunk of rosewood with a similar grain to match the fretboard, and craft a new bridge. I was able to flatten the ridge in the top, and matched the bottom of the bridge to the radius in the top for a great fit. Hopefully this one will keep going for another 60 years!

09/08/2025

Fretless conversion for this G&L 5 string.

08/10/2025

This was a fun project. Added a P90 in the middle position. And, due to the carved top of this Les Paul, I had to make an oversized routing jig to give my router a nice, flat and level surface to work on. Each pickup was wired to have independent volume controls, and the 3 way switch still works as standard.

07/15/2025

What, this old thing? Not bad for a 60 year old guitar... this '65 Jazzmaster came in for a setup, and a good cleaning of all the pots and switches. And a few extra in the rhythm circuit. These old pickguards are notorious for shrinking and curling up, but I was able to clean all the electronics in place.

02/05/2022

Just another day in the shop...

This Mayson harp guitar came in for a pickup installation (a set of K&K Pure Minis, one set per bridge). The bracing system provided some... challenges...
Fortunately, I was armed with extra installation jigs from previous installs that I could modify to fit around the bracing. As well as a respectable vocabulary of swear words.

Crying also helped...

 

05/25/2021

04/07/2021

'47 Gibson on the bench... lots of play wear on this one! It had previously had a partial refret performed... with fretwire that was way too small. And, in the process, they managed to gouge the sides of the fretboard. This could have just been filled with dust and glue, but I have never been happy with the way it looks. So...

Using a sharp chisel, I created a crisp ledge where the gouge was (several gouges, in fact)... glued in a small block of rosewood. Chisel the excess, and blend in. I tried to mimic the natural rounding of the edge of the 'board caused by 70 odd years of play, and transitioning to a slightly crisper edge past the 4th and 5th frets. Not invisible, but definitely a lot better. Then a refret, and away we go...

Conveniently, this is my 100th post, coming right after my 8 year anniversary of opening my shop. I wish it wasn't also on the eve of our next lockdown here in Ontario, but maybe this will give me more time to catch up? Fingers crossed...


@ Peterborough, Ontario

03/04/2021

I had the good folks drop off this bass for me to check out. It had been stored with a bunch of their other gear, and, as there isn't a lot of touring going on, had been stored safely in its case... except, something was trying to eat all the metal...

There was a lot of surface corrosion. I've posted a bunch of before and after pics, and was able to save everything except the strings and the output jack. I treated the hardware like I would a vintage instrument. Honestly, I even scrubbed the rust off of the saddle screws and springs... and during the rebuild, I noticed the E string (low D, actually) piezo saddle had crapped out. A bit of sleuthing with a meter, and sorted!

I would love to be able to pinpoint the cause of the corrosion. We suspected the battery at one point, but it was only down to 8.5 volts... I even threw a chrome tuner in the case while I was working on the instrument, to see if it would corrode. No luck. My next best guess is gremlins.

A big thanks to and for letting me scratch my head, shrug, and go about restoring all the metal on this bass that has graced stages worldwide.

01/08/2021

A little love for this '52 Gibson. New frets, new unbleached bone nut and saddle.