Ken Nash
Owner/Luthier
My journey into
guitar repair and restoration began when I
was hired by Kim Walker, now of Walkerguitars.com.
at the Guild Guitar Factory in Westerly, RI..
I started inspecting guitars for finish flaws as they
first entered the final assembly department. Kim eventually taught
me most of the tasks in the department; fretwork, set-ups, building
and installing harnesses, assembling solid body guitars, buffing
finishes, nut cutting and replacement, and more. He started
teaching me repair techniques. We had to repair any finish dings,
flaws, and dents and make them look brand new, otherwise the guitar
couldn't go out! There were no "seconds" going out of
the factory. It set a very high standard that has stayed with me to this
day. I worked my way into the repair shop and ran it for
a couple of years, not only being responsible for 200 - 300 guitars
but also dealing with customers. I also started a modern quality
control program at the old factory. Let's say I was very busy.
I also met some very interesting
people there and worked some very cool guitars. I had a S100 in
the shop owned by Kim Thayil of Sound Garden. The neck and body
were both cracked due to stage incident. I glued it all back together
for him, refetted, and sent it on it's way. Slash sent in his
D30, I set it up for him, maybe a refret. Once, while
at my bench I felt a tap on my shoulder, turned around at it was
Brian May! Ed Heller had been working with him on his signature
series guitar and brought him by for a visit. When Alice in Chains recorded
their Unplugged Album they needed new acoustics with electronics.
Steve Dreher was working for me at the time and he was a huge
fan. He set them all up and was thrilled. The guitars sounded great
on the album. Richie Havens used to send his guitar in about once
a year for a new top. Mark Wright used
to do all the work for him. He finally finished the
top with poly instead of lacquer and we didn't see it for a while.
Mark has since passed and we miss him dearly. He taught
me alot of repair techniques. Rest in peace Mark.
Six months before Fender took
the factory over I left to work for Ron at Ronsguitars.com.
It was a great experience dealing with customers face to face, and also
working on a wide variety of guitars beside the Guilds
that I knew so well. After five years with Ron I moved on to open
my own shop in New London.
Since July of 2004 I've been
enjoying my new shop at 22 Meridian. It's a great old building
owned by GardeArts.com. A lot
of local artists frequent the shop as well as musicians traveling
through, either playing at the casinos, the Garde or at local clubs downtown.
I had Brad Gillis of Night Ranger spend the afternoon in the shop.
I worked on his Gibson maple cutaway. It needed a new saddle and
had tuning issues, sticky nut. He was great, really nice and had tons
of energy.
Estimates and quotes are always
free. It may cost you a coffee though! So drop by the shop, call,
or e-mail.
Thank you,
Ken Nash
Artists that visited the shop:
Steve Broderick
John Fries
Bill Bridges
Brad Gillis
Jim Carpenter
James Harris
Chris Leigh
DanWatson
Sugar Daddy
The Reducers
Bill Light
Jay Dempsey
Eric Ducoff
