We have been repairing and restoring vintage American instruments as well as instruments from around the world for 50 years. The repair shop is integral to the store and museum.
Every instrument in the store goes through the repair shop first, to ensure that it is set up in the optimum playing condition. Our luthiers have studied with such masters as Charles Chase, Jack Willock, Larry Jackson, Mickey Chonos, Billy Asher, and David Dart among others.
“If it’s made of wood, metal, goat, cow we’ll re-skin it, restring it, and repair it.” - Charles Chase
REPAIR SHOP HOURS
Tuesday - Saturday
10am - 6pm
CONTACT
repair@folkmusiccenter.com
LUTHIERS
Henry Barnes
Henry Barnes has been building and repairing stringed instruments since 1983. He worked for Charvel / Jackson in the early eighties where he gained experience making guitars. At that time, he started experimenting with solid body instrument designs and has gone on to create many original acoustic and electric instruments. Henry specializes in the set up and repair of sitars, banjos, mandolins, and violins, fret replacement and fret dressing of all stringed instruments, neck resets, electronics, and pickup installation.
David Millard
Dave Millard began repairing stringed instruments in 1966, when he was hired at the Folk Music Center under the tutelage of Charles Chase. With what he learned from Charles and picked up from other luthiers, as well as with his own repair innovations, he soon became a respected luthier and headed the FMC shop until 1977. Following the Folk Music Center, David made his living by playing music, augmented by a variety of jobs, including construction worker and coffee slinger. Eventually he earned a degree in biology and wound up teaching middle school science. Through it all he continued to work on instruments for himself and other musicians. In 2018, on his last day as a teacher, he stopped in at the Folk Music Center where he was offered a job. "It's great to be back" says Dave.