Modifications
Here you can get an idea of some of the more popular options in upgrading your existing guitar to get better sound, reliability, playability or just aesthetics. Anything goes though - if you've got an idea, don't be afraid to ask!
Custom Nut/Saddle Replacement - £50 each, £90 for set
Usually, having a factory standard, plastic nut or saddle replaced with a hand carved bone or Tusq one will offer you a MAJOR upgrade in both tone and playability, especially on acoustics. Plastic nuts and saddles, while cheap and hardwearing, are often tonally quite dead. They will have been injection moulded with a million others, meaning they may not be quite right for your guitar. They can be too high, meaning poor intonation and difficult playability, or too low, losing sustain but gaining fret buzz. Upgrading to bone will give you a lush, warm and full sound which can tame some harsher sounding top ends, or Tusq, which can give you much greater clarity and sustain, taming some of the mushy bottom ends. Both have the advantage of being permanently lubricated, aiding tuning - especially on guitars fitted with tremolos. We can even make nuts to flatten your fretboard radius, allowing you to convert your guitar to a slide guitar! It's usually best to change both rather than just one, hence the discount.
All nuts and saddles made at Wintaura Guitar Works are hand carved from oversize blank blocks and are as such custom fitted for your guitar. This ensures the absolute best fit when compared to pre-cut, 'drop in' nuts and saddles.
Pickup Install (Acoustic) - Soundhole from £40, Bridge Plate Piezo from £50,
Under Saddle (including action adjustment) from £60. Onboard Preamp fitting + £40
Having a pickup fitted or upgraded in your acoustic guitar can open up a whole new world of playing possibilites. However, sometimes the choice can be beyond baffling. We can recommend the plus and minus points for each type and offer some advice on which might be best for what you want to do.
Tremolo Block/Hartailing - £30
Tremolos. Whammy Bars. Floyd Rose. All great if you utilise them as a major aspect of your playing, an unnecessary hinderance to your tone and tuning stability if you don't. Here at Wintaura Guitar Works, we can block off your tremolo system with a custom cut hardwood plug, allowing us to flatten your bridge and make sure it no longer moves a millimetre! This process retains all your original parts and is completely reversible. While it maybe cheaper and quicker to stick any old random offcut of wood in there, having a hardwood block custom fit for your guitar ensures proper transference of vibrations from your trem block to the body. In short, it won't kill your sustain! Please be aware that with any adjustments to your bridge, further setup work is often necessary.
Machine Head Replacement (including removal of Robo Tuners) - Standard - From £20, Enlargement of holes - From £40.
Upgrading your machine heads is an easy way to improve performance and aesthetics of your instrument. For those of you who prefer, we can also remove those Robo Tuners from your Gibson!
Strap Button/Strap Lock Install - £15 each, Two for £25
Want to get up and strut your funky stuff? Be more like Angus Young? You need some strap buttons my friend. Stap locks if you want to hurtle about with wild abandon. Price is for one, more often than not you'll need two. Fender and Gibson parts in stock. We can also reposition an existing strap button and fill/finish the space where it use to be. Fitting can usually be done while you wait.
Bigsby Installation - From £40
Pop a Bigsby (style) tremolo system on you guitar and you can shimmy and waver to your hearts content. Please be aware that depending on your guitar, you may need to change your bridge and possibly fill mounting holes from the old one. Please ask if in doubt.
Right to lefthanded conversion - acoustics - from £160
Let's face it - you left handers get a bit of a poor deal with your choice of acoustics out there. This is even more of an issue if you're just starting out and someone kindly donates you their old guitar and says ''Just string it upside down and it'll be fine.''
Sadly, this is never the case. At the very least, the strings wont fit in the nut and the saddle will be intonated at the wrong angle, leaving you with a guitar that's difficult to play and permanently out of tune. With our conversion service, we can change any right handed acoustic into a proper left handed instrument. The old saddle slot will be filled and recut and a new left handed saddle and nut will be made and fitted. Further options are available such as additional side dots, pickup controls adjusting or pickguards added/removed. Prices will vary as individual instruments and player requirements are all different, but we'll offer a definitive total price upon assessment.
Custom pickguards - from £50
If your pickguard has broken or gone missing and it's not something that you can get generic replacements for, never fear! Here at Wintaura Guitar Works we can either custom make new pickguards to match your old one or design a new pickguard to replace a missing one (often the case for old jazz guitars). Ranges of colours available to suit.
Reprofiling neck radius (including full refret and Pro Setup) - from £250
If you'd like a flatter radius on your guitar neck to better suit your style of playing, this can be incorporated with a full refret and Pro Setup. Please note that lacquered maple/ash necks would require refinishing afterwards. Please get in touch to discuss options.
