Your personal guitar tech and custom guitar builder in the Pleasanton / Dublin / Livermore Tri-Valley and surrounding Bay Area.
100% Satisfaction guaranteed! Flexible appointment hours including nights and weekends. Free consultations via phone or email.
‪(925) 396-5966‬ (mobile)
Featured Works of Dan Otts
Here are some of the jobs that I am most proud of and I think represent the skill and attention to detail that I am able to offer.
In addition to the routine setups and repairs, this is where I will feature particularly interesting customization efforts or challenging repairs in addition to showcasing the custom guitars I am working on or have completed. I would love to entertain any questions you may have!
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My workshop is a place for ideas and creativity. If these projects strike your fancy, and you want in on one of them, please reach out. I am flexible, and we can divert a build project more toward your wants and desires fairly easily. I start builds speculatively to generate interest and to demonstrate possibilities. Oftentimes, one good idea leads to a different GREAT idea!
Custom mahogany Tele, modern style
I had a MIM Telecaster once, but I didn't keep it for long. The ergonomics were poor, and I couldn't get over the 60 Hz hum of the single coils after playing dual humbucker guitars for so long. Fender has finally addressed these shortcomings with the American Ultra series Telecaster (starting at $1,899.99?!?)
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Features and specs:
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Contoured mahogany body showcasing the natural beauty of the wood with a "worn leather" hand-rubbed Danish oil finish.
Maple neck and fretboard with a super-fast hand-rubbed oil finish.
Custom walnut pick guard and control plate.
Hipshot Grip Lock staggered locking tuners for precise tuning stability.
Tusq nut, self-lubricating, and homogeneous consistency unlike bone.
Gotoh Modern Tele bridge with individual saddle pieces and superior ergonomics.
EMG T-set active single coil pickups (noiseless).
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For serious inquiries, please email or call.
#notaguitar
Kohala Ukulele (new strings and setup check), Eastwood Baritone resonator (noiseless pickup install and setup), Schecter short scale 6 string bass (setup), Eastwood 8-string Warren Ellis mandocello (setup), Takamine 12-string (Mexican-style 11-string unison setup), Eastwood Phase 4 MT with microtonal neck.
1993 Taylor DCSM fret level and dressing
(I used an old trick I learned in Boy Scouts here. Basically, you can convert a garbage bag into a poncho when it rains by cutting a hole in the top of the bag. Similar approach here to protect the body finish from stray metal filings.)
1930's-1940's Archtop Acoustic Restoration
One Saturday morning, a couple months back, I was browsing Nextdoor for guitars for sale. I am always looking for guitars that are advertised at a low price to potentially scoop them up. Well, this archtop acoustic showed up under "free." I was on that in a heatbeat! So, I threw my cup of coffee down, got dressed in a hurry, and went to pick it up off the lady's front porch, COVID-style. I had no idea what I was getting, but I figured at least it would be something to practice repair techniques on.
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So, when I get it, it needs some TLC. I polished it up, oiled the fretboard, dressed the fret ends, polished the frets, and then started the assessment of what it needed. Well, first off, it looks like the top has collapsed. There's not a respectable brace inside the body whatsoever. Instead, there are some kind of molded strips that look like a fiberglass or cloth composite of some sort. Well, those didn't seem to stand the test of time. This guitar needed a new bridge, as the old one would not go up high enough, and it was broken on one foot. It also was tilted because one of the thumb screws was bent. Furthermore, the nut was in rough shape. Looks like someone used their toolbox file on it.
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Today (6-16-2020), I finally got around to fitting a new bridge to it. I also filed on the nut slots to get the strings at the right action. The nut still needs to be reshaped, but it's good enough to test playability now.
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Surprisingly, this thing still sounds pretty darn good! I'm debating whether or not to replace the tuners and try to sell this guitar. Or, maybe I just leave it as is, hanging on my shop wall as a talking piece for my customers.
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It's been fun to play a guitar from a different era. I somehow suspect this won't be my last!
Wood repairs
Here are some of the wood repairs I've done on various guitars.