TESTIMONIALS:
Thank you Steve for the great work on Darin's guitar. It is just perfect! Darin asked me on the way home if we grew up together or something? He was blown away with our conversation. I thought that was funny . . . As soon as I get some extra cash I'll bring the Epiphone Zephyr over. Thanks again. Dirk
Thank you again, very, very much appreciated, and Merry Christmas, Keith p.s. is there a way to find out where your bands are playing? I'd like to check you guys out some time.
The guitar sounds awesome Steve thanks again. You raising the pick up magnets at the bottom of the guitar made it sound more hot Rod! Very nice. Thank you again.
Hi Steve,
I hope you won't mind working on another acoustic for me. It just has some fret issue where my finger gets snagged when I play it. It was built by Jim Worland in Illinois. It's very nice otherwise...
I want to express my extreme satisfaction with your heroic guitar repair effort. You should have a superhero costume with a guitar on the chest or something dude...
I love that guitar, but want this one fixed up so it's good to play too. Can I please make an appt to visit you again?
Hi Steve,
I've been playing the guitar you fixed. I'm not sure how to say how much I appreciate your effort. I'm so glad I brought it to you, look forward to bringing you some more work.
Steve: I think this is the coolest, most uplifting article I have ever seen about guitars. You should be, deservedly, proud about your music career, accomplishments, and integrity with your clients. You should be in the Rock n Roll hall of fame. Thanks for sending this to me. Don
Steve;
Thank you for the marvelous job you did on my 66. It plays like a gem. However, she sounded better in your shop then on my cheap amp, do you have any recommendations on a good amp to do justice for this guitar?
Anthony
Hi Steve. I like the work you do. I've had you fix up my guitars 3 times since I've owned them. I'll be asking you to refret my Strat in the few months.
Hey Steve, Thanks again for setting up that Goldtop of mine. The difference in tone quality is from 1 to 10. I've been playing it and it sounds amazing. All the Best, David
Hey Steve,
The guitar and amp sound unbelievable! I can't thank you enough!
I really love the guitar set up and the hybrid strings.
Gary
Thanks for your great work Steve. Guitar plays and sounds great. See you soon, Chris
Hi Mr. Soest,
Thanks for your prompt response, and I'm so sorry for the late reply...I've been running around this whole weekend away from my computer.
I just found out that I'll be tracking by the end of this coming weekend, so I probably won't have time for a set up with you this time around.
But I'm sure I'll swing by with an instrument sometime soon. I recently played on a guitar that you set up and it plays beautifully!
Take care,
Andrew
Steve,
Last winter you swapped out the pick-ups and did a set-up on my Duo-Jet. I was really happy with the work you did so I would like to come back to you with some more. You probably don’t remember, but when you did the work on my Duo I mentioned that I had a 360 that I was less than happy with. Well Saturday I traded it in on a new ES-339. However, When I tried to lower the action it started to buzz. My thinking is it probably needs a set-up, would you be interested in doing that?
Steve:
Works just as I had envisioned. No whining or overtoning on the top 2. Excellent! Many thanks.
Hey Steve,
I played my guitars for a couple of hours each yesterday and I'm pleased. Nice job! I hope you're in business for a long time to come. Thanks very much, see you next time.
Joe
Steve:
This thing feels and sounds great. You did an excellent job and I think you heartily!
I about wore my fingers out on this thing yesterday, so I'll likely wind up putting the .011's back on it. What can I do--at my age I'm even loosing muscle mass in my fingers...
Thanks for having some professional integrity in a field where I've seen it so rarely!
-- Gerry
Hi Steve, The Jet showed up today. In addition to being darn cool looking, it's also the best sounding Jet I've ever heard, of any color. When you first looked at it, you thought the neck would give you some trouble. Whatever it is that you did, it plays so easily and wonderfully, just the way I like it. I feel almost like I'm cheating, the neck and fret work you did is that excellent. One strange thing happened though. When I opened up the case, there was a hole where a magnet should be, the high E string on the neck pickup. I took the pickup out and found the high E magnet holding on fast to the underside of the B magnet. It must have gotten knocked right through the height adjustment spring during shipping. I was able to put the magnet back in very easily, from the underside. Turning the height adjustment screw will lower the magnet now, but it will not raise it. It's as if there's suppose to be a lip at the bottom of the magnet for the spring to grab on to, and it's missing. But the other working magnets don't look any different. Have you ever seen this before? In any case, it sounds great, and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere in the meantime. Hope to see you again sometime soon when I visit out your way. thanks again! Robbie
Steve,
Thanks for helping me out. I really appreciate it. I have yet to change the strings on the guitar and it still sounds much better than it did before you straightened it out.
Hey Steve,
I just wanted to thank you - i'm absolutely thrilled with my guitar! Great work. I wish you all the best and i hope to cross paths with you again.
Greg
Hi Steve,
I just thought I would let you know how nice the action plays. As you said the first five frets feel lower and easier to play. It sounds great too. Thanks again for your work!
John
Positive Experience: I had my blonde ’61 Jazzmaster refretted by Steve and he did a fantastic job. Steve recommended a wire size that I ended up loving and repaired some butchering from at least two previous refrets (overly deepened slots, excess glue, chipping around the slots) making it virtually disappear. As a bonus Steve is also an old school surf guy, owns at least one Jazzmaster in his personal collection and seems to have a pretty good grasp of how to properly set them up. That’s one leg up on just about any tech around IMO. He seems to be pretty busy so it can often take more then a week or two to get a guitar in but he makes your appointment so that you drop it off when he’s ready for it and then his turnaround is 1 week. It’s a great system that prevents you leaving your guitar with a tech for weeks because he isn’t prepared to work on it yet. Price was $300. It’s kind of pricey I guess but finding anyone in the LA/OC area to do it for less would be taking a real gamble. I was quoted a minimum of $400 from one place!
Steve,
Had a chance to play my guitars over the weekend. Didn't know my SG was that far off the mark. Suppose I'm not accostomed to a well set-up guitar.
My SG sounds even better. The intonation makes a huge difference. I had thought my fingering was getting sloppier, lazier, etc. I actually sound better — that ain't bad! The acoustic is a different guitar also. Like I got new guitars.
Thank you,
Howard
Steve, Just wanted to thank you. My bass has never played or sounded better. I'm nursing my blisters from the weekend. Thanks again. Steve
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the setups on my guitars. Love them!
I also wanted to let you know to keep an eye out for an email from my friend Mike Devlin. He has a Malcolm Young Gretsch guitar he want setup.
Thanks again!
Thanks for fixing the electrical issues..., you fixed it! Also playing better. Merry Christmas. Sent from my iPhone
Hi Steve, I just wanted to thank you again for the work you recently did on my Les Paul. What a difference, it's amazing!!! You are THE MAN! I know you weren't familiar with that model, it's pretty new, so if you are interested I sent you a link to Gibson with the specs, just FYI. I was wrong about the fretboard, it's not ebony, it's African Obeche, which is kind of interesting. This is a really nice guitar and you made it pretty much perfect.