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1. Neck and Frets

Every guitar that comes to us undergoes fret leveling.
The term “fret leveling” is a shorthand for all the tasks involved in the fret leveling process.
The actual leveling itself takes up maybe 10% of the total time required for this task.

First, the truss rod is checked and lubricated:

We check if the frets are properly seated in the fingerboard, and if necessary,
the fingerboard is secured, and the frets are glued and pressed down.

The fingerboard is thoroughly cleaned.

We perform fret leveling under controlled tension with the ability to precisely adjust the neck, aiming to remove
as little material as possible, or in other words, to retain as much of the frets as possible.

The fingerboard is protected, and the frets are rounded and polished.
Finally, the fingerboard is treated with oil for conservation.

2. Finish Polishing

Some guitars are polished and given a “second life”.

The current polishing process is the result of many years of practice and testing various chemicals, techniques, materials, and equipment. Today, the process is much faster and more efficient than it was five years ago, and the results are significantly better.

We use a rotary polisher for large and flat surfaces and a dual-action (DA) polisher for edges and delicate areas. We also have a special tool for hard-to-reach places.

For special tasks, we also have a “tank” that very quickly handles the removal of sanding scratches.

3. Hardware Cleaning / Polishing

Restoring the shine to old hardware is a significant challenge, contrary to what it might seem!

Hardware on instruments is made from various materials and uses different coatings—chrome, nickel, powder coating, gold plating, etc. Each of these materials requires a different approach and different chemical agents. Once, we put tuning keys in rust remover, and after 10 minutes, they crumbled in our hands because, as it turned out, they were aluminum.

Moving parts are lubricated, and after the polishing process, they are treated with anti-corrosion protection. We handle black and gold hardware with extra care because their coatings wear off quickly.

We also polish pickguards – although we can’t remove deep scratches, they look much better!

4. Nut Adjustments

Many guitars have factory-set strings that are too high at the nut.

This requires significantly more force to press the strings down to the frets in the first positions.
The side effect is incorrect intonation on the first frets, causing the notes to be sharp.

We use a precise device to measure the string height above the first fret and eliminate the problem.

5. Electronics Shielding

Shielding an instrument significantly reduces the hum that occurs when we are not touching the grounded parts of our guitar. It also eliminates the characteristic buzzing when touching the strings. Of course, the basic condition for shielding to work at all is proper grounding at the jack where we connect our equipment. If the grounding is poor or nonexistent, even the best shielding will not solve the problem.

The electronics cavity is first cleaned to ensure the tape adheres well to the surface:

All shielding elements must be grounded—otherwise, they worsen the situation and act like an antenna, which is the opposite of what we want.

6. Professional Set-up

Every instrument is professionally set up.

We strive to set up instruments in a universal manner. We aim for low string action, but not so low that someone with a strong articulation would have trouble producing sound. Typically, for bass guitars, this means 2mm on the G string and 2.4mm on the E string, and for electric guitars, 1.4-1.8mm.

We adjust the neck curvature, string action, nut, intonation, pickup height, and sometimes even the neck angle.
All of these adjustments have a crucial impact on the playing comfort and, most importantly, the sound of the instrument.

You can take two identical guitars and set them up in different ways – we guarantee they will sound and behave completely differently.