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, initially in the basement of Carusomusic.com.

Now, 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. If you're coming from out of town it's wise to call first as this is a one man shop.

Thank you,

Ken Nash

Artists that visited the shop:

Bill Bridges
Brad Gillis
 Jim Carpenter
James Harris
Chris Leigh
DanWatson
Sugar Daddy
The Reducers
Bill Light
Jay Dempsey
Eric Ducoff

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