Yep. 6 years ago I started doing guitar set ups – mainly because of a problem with a Taylor Baby acoustic that just wouldn’t play right. That story is recounted in the video below. The fun outcome was that I learned a few things I could put into practice on cheap, unloved guitars that transformed them… and Reloved Guitars was born.
For the first year or so I was doing guitar set ups alongside working 4 days a week in corporate business in London, doing the Plymouth to London and back every week on the train. Then in 2016 I stopped living the consultant life and found myself working on guitars all the time in the Reloved Guitars shed. For the next 4 years I worked away setting up guitars, posting YouTube videos and making the occasional custom build. By early 2020 things were going well; a pretty good reputation (without having to advertise apart from keeping a busy Facebook page and keeping YouTube stocked with real-time videos) and a growing number of custom build enquiries. But two things happened around that time: first, it became obvious that I’d outgrown the shed and second, COVID-19.
I’d been looking around for alternative workshop space for a year or so because it wasn’t fair on the neighbourhood to be running routers and erecting spray tents in the garden much longer… but finding somewhere affordable and nearby was difficult. On top of that, COVID-19 made it difficult to plan both in terms of a sudden dip in business in spring / summer 2020 and also getting out to make enquiries.
But I didn’t give up. As a stepping-stone a friend and nearby neighbour with a professional joinery workshop built underneath his house kindly let me bring my routing / bandsawing work and do it in bursts down there. Eventually, through a friend of his, I found an available workshop space on an industrial estate 5 minutes from home. Not only was it close but I was offered it at an amazingly low price which took away the financial risk of making such a move. The site owner and I shook hands and Reloved Guitars’ move was set in motion.
So from November 1st I’ll be transplanting Reloved Guitars slowly across into the new space. Being on an industrial estate means there are almost no processes I can’t do (noise, chemicals etc) and literally no time of day I can’t do them. Those two things alone – plus about 3 to 4 times more space to do it in – open up the possibility to transform my productivity, quality and even creativity. And freedom to make as much noise – including guitar noise! – as I like.
The space is currently a dusty old site office on the 1st floor that looks like the set of a Carry On film that was shot in the 1970s and then forgotten. But that’s superficial: with a good clean up, removal of unwanted fittings, a coat of paint and a couple of custom-built work benches it’ll be just perfect. I’ll document the progress here and on the Reloved Guitars Facebook page. This move coincides with getting this website up and running. I’ve had the shell of this WordPress site in the background for some time but hadn’t had a reason to add it to the mix until now. The move to a new workshop seems like a good enough reason to finish creating the content and make it live.