Who’s handling your guitar

Hello, my name is Ben Savage, and I’m a guitaraholic.

I have been playing guitar for about 20 years, and have thrown in some time playing the drums and piano for good measure. As a player, I realized a long time ago that my love for all things music sometimes doesn’t mesh with my perfectionist personality. Learning to play music really isn’t a perfect process. While I may never be satisfied with my craft as a player, my attention to detail and ability to pick out the smallest flaw makes me the ideal candidate to repair and maintain an instrument. I’m just as happy looking at a finely crafted guitar as I am playing it, in fact often more-so. I admire the instrument; the art that it represents, and the craftsmanship that goes into it. This is why I have always spent time ensuring that my guitars are in prime playing condition; sounding and feeling the absolute best they can.

Way back I started out on my own, learning proper guitar maintenance through books, and by experimenting with the relatively little specialty tools I had. I am an avid learner; I love to soak up knowledge, and apply it. Because of this my knowledge, tools, and skills have grown over the years. While I would have loved to work in a guitar shop along the way, it just wasn’t feasible. I have also had a responsibility to provide for my family, so I fit in learning this craft where I could around my professional career. I did setups, wiring, fret work, and other repairs for myself and friends. Drawing on prior experience in industrial trades I picked up other skills where I could through various building projects…but I always wanted more.

Skip ahead to the last few years. I have had a lot of time to hone my skills, to invest in myself and bring in the best tools and supplies for my potential customers. I have turned over every leaf looking for schools where I could really learn the trade and finally bridge the gap between hobbyist with a passion, and professional technician. Really, there’s few choices out there, and not many truly great ones. The further I delved, the more I realized that most of the schools out there just didn’t focus on what I wanted to learn; that being to master guitar repair and maintenance. Sure they will teach you how to build a custom guitar (something I have done and will dig into more down the road), but many of them only spend a week or two on repairs; how can that be!

I was discouraged, but the search continued, and finally I found what I was looking for in Southeast Guitar Repair Academy. In this learning environment they are 100% focused on guitar maintenance and repair. The techniques and services have been time tested for decades in their own busy shop, and I am now lucky enough to be able to pass those services on to you. I have completed their Master’s Guitar Repair Luthier course under the tutelage of renowned Master Luthier Barrett Culpepper, and continue to learn and apply my craft every day.

That brings us to today, where I am excited to open my own shop to you. While it may be small, I will continue to grow and add services as they become available. More importantly I am proud to represent the Southeast Guitar Repair way of doing things, where it’s done right, every time. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

We are fully licensed and insured, and are authorized dealers for D’addario, All-Parts, WD Music Products, Seymour Duncan, Gator Cases, and QuikLok stands and accessories (more coming).

I also back all of my work with a 30 day guarantee. If you have any issues or just need a little tweaking to your tastes, bring it back and I will make it right.

I hope that you will consider letting me take your guitar to the next level!