Luthier recommendations near Nottingham/Derby

hywelg

A mate of mine needs his PRS refretting. Anybody any experience of luthiers around this neck of the woods? 

Thanks, Hywel

Svartmetall

There's The Guitar Doctor in Chilwell; I don't know if he does refrets, though, so best to give him a call to check. 

http://www.theguitardoctor.net/Nottingham

Bod

Danny at Leicestershire Luthiers is my go to.  https://leicestershire-luthier.co.uk/

Rkphilpot

Jon Shuker in Hope Valley. All day, he's a wizard.

relic245

Svartmetall said:

There's The Guitar Doctor in Chilwell; I don't know if he does refrets, though, so best to give him a call to check. 

http://www.theguitardoctor.net/Nottingham

A big thumbs down from me. 

I took a couple of guitars to him (10 years ago now) and vowed I'd never go back.  He'd quoted about £60 for a setup. When he emailed to say it was ready he said it had been really difficult and took him way longer than expected so had spent 4 hours on it and his rate was £50 an hour so it would be £200. 

I argued with this that if it really was going to be so difficult then he should have talked to me before doing the work. He eventually reduced the bill. It was a custom shop strat - and I remember him telling me how hard strats are to set up !!!

The other was a Gordon Smith. He filed the frets almost flat to try to get rid of a choking. It still didn't play well when I got it back.

I eventually took it to another luthier who after 2 mins with tis said of course he can't get the action sorted out the fretboard isn't flat. He took out 2 frets, flattened the fretboard and had it all sorted in a few minutes. 

At the time, the guitar doctor was not a trained luthier. He was a retired project manager with an interest in guitars. 

As above - I've since been to Danny at Leicestershire Luthier and John Suker. For me Danny did a better set up but is more pricey, probably worth it though. 

Svartmetall

Leicestershire Luthiers do look good; I have a goregous pair of Haydn Williams 7-string basses that need a full setup and spring clean, basically, would you say they're up to that sort of thing for high-end custom instruments? 

digitalkettle

relic245 said:

Svartmetall said:

There's The Guitar Doctor in Chilwell; I don't know if he does refrets, though, so best to give him a call to check. 

http://www.theguitardoctor.net/Nottingham

A big thumbs down from me... 

 @relic245 Had a similar experience also around 10 years ago. He didn't fancy working on your strat and he didn't fancy working on my Gibsons either...what does he work on?

Only cost me a two hour round-trip.

relic245

Svartmetall said:

Leicestershire Luthiers do look good; I have a goregous pair of Haydn Williams 7-string basses that need a full setup and spring clean, basically, would you say they're up to that sort of thing for high-end custom instruments? 

From the job they did on my Tele I would say yes although I don't know about how much experience he had with bases. Give him a call he's very helpful.

I found them after a shout out from @FelineGuitars so took it that was a good enough recommendation.

Rkphilpot

Jon Shuker specialises in building bases for some very reputable players, if you're looking for bass setup then at least give him a call.

Check out his builds on his website