Nick Nihil's Guitar Setup and Maintenance

Nick Nihil's Guitar Setup and Maintenance Quick, top notch guitar and bass setup at musician-friendly prices. Lower prices and fast turnaround times for your electric guitar and bass needs.

My services are limited but high quality. Working out of Capitol Hill, I offer guitar and bass setups, fret leveling, and drop-in part replacements (so anything that requires drilling, cutting, or woodworking you'll need to take elsewhere). Turnaround right now is 1-2 days depending on availability of necessary parts. Services:

Setup (re-string, action, intonation, neck alignment, saddle and nut

lubrication, cleaning): $60 + strings (unless you provide your own). +$20 for additional nut slot widening. Full fret leveling and crown: Nickel $125, Stainless $150. Spot leveling (up to 4 frets): $10/nickel fret, $15/stainless. Pickup replacement, direct, no additional mods: $70 (you provide the pickups)

Pot and jack replacement, direct, no additional mods: $50 +parts (unless you provide your own)

For all services not listed, please contact one of our city's other fabulous shops. Pick up and drop off all instruments on Capitol Hill, contact me for times and availabilities. About me:

I'm a professional guitarist, recording artist, composer whose played hundreds of shows (and many guitars) over the past 25 years. A gear head with a neurotic obsession with tone and instrument performance, I've been known to pursue all of the above at the expense of any pragmatism, patience, and discipline. Time to start making years of knowledge and mistakes payoff a little!

Hi, folks!  Just wanted to let you all know I currently have some choice humbuckers on hand if you’re feeling like you w...
07/26/2022

Hi, folks! Just wanted to let you all know I currently have some choice humbuckers on hand if you’re feeling like you wanna change your tones.

I currently have:

A set of Tonerider Alnico Classics. Alnico II for the neck and IV (F-spaced) for the bridge. Widely praised not only as great budget PAFs, but great PAFs by any measure, holding their own against boutique brands. Wax-potted and scatterwound for Harmon complexity and dynamics without microphonic squealing. 4 conductor wire.

Set of Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray RS pickups. Vintage-voiced Alnico V humbuckers wound to similar resistances as PAF-style pickups. These are a lot clearer, punchier, and have a lot more chime than a lot of humbuckers. Great set for alt rockers and ambient players. Two-wire (hot and ground).

Seymour Duncan Seth Lover neck pickup. THE classic PAF tone. Non-potted, incredible harmonic complexity. Single wire version.

I can install these in most guitars where there wouldn’t be routing needed (again, I do drop in part replacement only, no routing.). Cost would be the pickup+installation. I can also just sell you the pickup(s) to install yourself if you’re so inclined.

Pickup prices:

Toneriders: $60/each
EBMM: $60/each
Seth Lover: $100

Installation is $70. Additional electronic replacement/repair will incur additional costs. Turnaround time is 1-3 days.

05/24/2022

All prices, services, and contact info are listed in the ‘About Me’ section of this page. Check it out! It’s always a good time to show your instruments some love.

05/19/2022

Got this 2017 Gretsch '53 VS Duo Jet from a pawn shop in Arizona a couple weeks ago. It was stellar condition. Widened the nut slots to accommodate my 12-52 preference, had to level out a high fret, and swapped out the original tone k**b and tone cap. The originals are known on these models for having nothing happen within the first 2/3 or so of the tone taper. Put an audio pot in instead and swapped a .22 cap for a .33. Smooth.

05/16/2022

Open for business! Fast turn around times. See 'About Me' section for general pricing, email or DM to schedule service or ask further questions.

Address

Seattle, WA
98115

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Nick Nihil's Guitar Setup and Maintenance posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Share