New name, new site, new outlook.

Autumn Guitars is my newest venture. In order to explain what Autumn Guitars is, let's go back in time to around 1997. I had a Fender American Standard Strat that I absolutely loved. I decided to have the worn frets replaced by a local music store that had a pretty good reputation. Not only did they do an absolutely horrible job with installing the new frets, they also managed to de-magnetize the pickups and spill some unknown substance all over the case. I ended up not paying for the botched fret job, but instead of looking for another shop to do the frets again, I decided to fix them myself. At the time I'd been playing about 8 years but knew nothing about fixing guitars. My guitar was already broken so I had nothing to lose. I bought some books by Dan Erlewine from the StewMac catalog and my journey to becoming a guitar tech started.

Aside from working on my own guitars, I worked on my friends' guitars. Then I worked on friends of friends' guitars. Then I was fixing guitars and basses for bands. Then it was worship teams. By 2005, I had a steady stream of customers, which helped me land a gig doing repairs for two high-end boutique shops in Southern California. In 2010, I started Red Star Guitars. RSG was a full-service repair and refinishing business, plus I was a used guitar dealer, built custom guitars (Partscasters) and sold parts and accessories online. RSG came with me as I moved from California to Washington (and a few places in between). However, in 2021, I shut down Red Star Guitars. So many things had changed in my life and society in general.... and I really needed a break.

In January, 2024, I decided my break was over. Guitars are my passion, what can I say? This time around, however, I needed to do things differently. Instead of the long list of services I used to provide along with the various online shops, I'm now focusing on a shorter list of services and instruments so that I can keep that passion alive and still enjoy the work. I call it being semi-retired.

Thus, Autumn Guitars was born. Even though autumn is a great season, the meaning is much deeper than that. It refers to the later stages of life, specifically achieving a level of completeness in one's maturity. It might also mean I'm just old...

-J