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Denton Guitar Repair, 415 W. Sycamore Street, Denton, TX (2026)

05/28/2026

Finally got a Strandberg on the bench! These Swedish high performance guitars from the future are a world away from the guitars I usually play or work on, with their headless necks and fanned frets, but having this instrument in my hands, you know what it reminds me of the most? The original electric guitar, the Telecaster. How? I guess just the minimalism of the design. “Born at the junction of form and function,” just like how Bill Kirchen describes the Tele, you could say the same for this machine built for prog metal. Despite the radical body shape, it only has what you need, no more, no less. Even the back of the guitar says it all. Only 2 tremolo springs! No cavity cover! This model, the Strandberg Sälen NX 6 Tremolo Plini Edition, even has a Telecaster neck pickup, unheard of on shredder guitars, but kinda drives home my point, dontcha think? Really, the only excessive thing about this guitar is the way the company writes their name: .strandberg* ? Come on, that’s way too much punctuation...

#.strandberg* headlessguitar strandbergguitars

05/07/2026

Got to work on another Denton-legendary instrument recently, the TXMF Nashville Tele. One of my favorite guitars in town, this one passed through the hands of Aaron White and Kody Jackson when they were in Spitfire Tumbleweeds, Denton’s rowdiest southern rock supergroup (and which I played in on and off in the mid aughts and teens.) From A-dub: “Man I was thinking about that guy the other day! Love that guitar. Got it from sweetwater in ‘05 or ‘06. Great stock Tex mex pickups. I put brass nut and saddles on it. Kinky Friedman signed it at Fry st. Fair in ‘06 when the weeds “opened” for him. Quickly erased with a gig or two’s sweat production.” Later became Kody’s guitar when the Weeds recorded Pope Crow (the album I’m on.) He also did the leads for his solo album Old Friend on this one. Dig the case stickers that sums up our corner of the music scene circa ‘05 - ‘06!

03/04/2026

Anyone who’s recorded out at the Echo Lab in Argyle recognizes this bass, the sawed-off house J-bass, aka The Wh**ey Bass. Started life in 1983 as a factory black USA made Fender Jazz bass and has undergone a few changes since then. Pickups swapped out, finish stripped. I don’t even know what to say about the headstock alteration! Sure gives it it’s own look. Wh**ey was one of the premier funk/punk bands that were big in Denton and Dallas back in the day (early 90’s) that studio founder Dave Willingham was in with our pal Chris Veon and this bass has resided at the Echo Lab since. And apparently a good chunk of the rest of Wh**ey’s backline is out there too, including Dave’s 70’s hardtail Strat, his Twin Reverb, and a Fender Rhodes electric piano. That’ll have to be a future post. Hopefully Chris chimes in here with a story or two...

**ey

01/16/2026

Brian Lane recently dusted off his 1969 Fender Precision (the Slobberbone mark 1 bass) and asked me to get it up and running. What a treat to work on another legendary Denton axe! Love the gold anodized pickguard and the battle scars on the finish. Cigarette burn on the headstock below the E string? Cherry on top for nerds like me. This thing has been around the world and back multiple times, and it shows. A real relic’ed finish is earned, not commissioned. Gave it a thorough cleaning, have been experimenting with a rust remover bath for screws and hardware and have been liking the results, more so than an electrolysis method I’ve tried, which is effective but seems to leave more pitting than I like. He asked for Dunlop strap locks to be installed, and wouldn’t you know it, already had some old ones on there, just had to plug and re-drill the stripped-out screw holes. This bass is ready for more of those legendary sweat-and-beer-soaked Slobberbone gigs, hope to see it at one soon.

12/10/2025

I’m deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend Bill White. Denton musicians of a certain era remember Bill as the guitar & amp repairman who had his shop in the back of Rubber Gloves, and also for his time at McBride Music & Pawn, preceding me by a few years. Or they may remember him working at the vintage guitar store Red River Music in Lewisville & Carrollton in the mid-90’s, or his guitar booth at the Grapevine Guitar Loft in later years. I was good pals with him. He was the first guy to show me how to do setups and repairs, my first mentor. He was famously salty, had a quick temper and didn’t get along with everyone all the time. He was also a kind soul and a good hang, who would fix your amp for $40 and smoke you out when you came to pick it up. He helped me fix my van more than once. I’ll never forget his hillbilly pearls of wisdom or his expertise in old blues records. He was the first guy to play me Mance Lipscomb. He was one of the guys that will always remind me of the weird old cool kinda-rough-around-the-edges town that Denton was in my younger days. The past 15 or so years had been hard for him. He’d gotten on a health kick and started a daily jogging routine out in the country where he lived and lost a bunch of weight that way. But on one of his runs he tripped and had a bad fall and suffered a traumatic brain injury that would dog him for the rest of his life. A couple years ago his sister Rita was able to get him moved into an assisted living facility in Pilot Point. His death was brought on by the slow decline of dementia rooted in his brain injury. Rest in peace, Bill, I hope you’ve reunited up there with your cats Tasty Butt and Dammit. This photo is from 2005 at Dan’s Silverleaf for the Dan Mojica/Willie Nelson birthday party in April.

11/19/2025

What’s more Fender than a Fender? Probably a G&L. G&L was Leo Fender’s final business venture that he founded with George Fullerton (the “G” in G&L) in 1980. Leo’s G&L designs sought to improve on some of his more famous inventions from the 50’s and 60’s. This ASAT Classic belongs to Denton legend Rob Peters of Wirewings, also of Raised By Tigers and Greenella fame. Also of co-founding The Argo and fame. And he was my bandmate in the very first band to play at the very first Rock Lottery, “DONG.” Just had to get this 1995 beauty cleaned up, restrung and set up for it to be ready for the Chris Flemmons benefit at Rubber Gloves in December that Wirewings is playing at with Baboon. I believe this will be their first live appearance since before COVID lockdown. Anyway, this was a timely repair, because this month, apparently, G&L quietly and suddenly went out of business. Sad to hear the rumblings on the guitar blogs and social media that the building was emptied out and that all of the parts and inventory just went into the dumpster. Rumor has it that they even tossed out everything in Leo’s office, which had been left untouched since his death in 1991. I always felt that G&L was a criminally underrated company, and I guess this just drives that point home even more.

&Lguitars

11/10/2025

Another sweet guitar from was on the bench recently. This Gretsch 6118 Anniversary in a lovely two-tone smoke green is a poor man’s 6120. It has the very desirable trestle bracing and the big F-holes. The Bigsby on this one feels great, very Jazzmaster-y. I’ve loved any smoke green Gretsch since I was a teenager after watching Martin Gore play his in the Depeche Mode 101 concert film. Only thing this one needed was a bridge pin job to keep the archtop bridge from moving around under the whammy bar and throwing the tuning all out of whack. I used saddle screws to lock it in place. Gotta measure ten times and cut once on a job like this, you really don’t get a do-over.

10/31/2025

Had a Frankenstein on the bench just in time for Halloween. brought in his EVH Striped Series Relic for a setup. This, of course, is a clone of Eddie Van Halen’s most famous guitar, the “Frankenstein” that he built and used primarily from ‘77 to ‘83. The real one had like a dozen different paint jobs and just as many different necks. This MIM production model gets lots of the details right, including the dummy neck pickup and dead toggle switch mounted under the strings and the famous striped paint job that Ed did himself. I guess Fender decided it would be impractical to include the 1971 US quarter screwed down into the body near the Floyd Rose, or use turnbuckle eye-screws for strap buttons, or put reflector plates on the back. And the original didn’t have a D-Tuna installed on it because, duh, wasn’t invented yet. Detail quibbling aside, I’m really impressed with the playability of this one. This will get the job done in Ramiro’s new VH tribute band. Oh, and btw and wtf, found out that he and his bandmates are about to be featured in Squid Game Season 2 next Tuesday on Netflix. Wow!

09/30/2025

I’m proud of this one. Another funky old guitar from the collection of , this Bruno Maxi-Tone sunburst hollowbody may or may not have been made by the famous (infamous?) Matsumoko factory in Japan in the 60’s. I actually used to have one of these! This one was more intact than mine, that’s for sure. Still has the headstock badge and the massive vibrato arm. Dig the pearloid base plates underneath the pickups! Had to do a bunch of restorative work on this and I think it came out great. New unbleached bone nut from scratch and new frets (StewMac #149.) Had to glue the pearloid veneer back onto the headstock and had to glue the front half of the fretboard back onto the neck. New tuner bushings. Got all the rust off of the bridge and saddle hardware. Pegged the bridge (I used Fender saddle screws) so it won’t slip under duress from the vibrato arm (or just playing in general.) New wiring harness. Couldn’t save the warped pickguard, but it looks fine without it. Baldo told me he had never gotten to actually play it since buying it because it never had a nut. It is now definitely the best playing Maxi-Tone I’ve ever had my hands on, and I suspect it plays better than most out there now. Thanks again, Baldomero this one was a treat to work on!

Denton Guitar Repair

05/28/2026

05/07/2026

03/04/2026

01/16/2026

12/10/2025

11/19/2025

11/10/2025

10/31/2025

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