Instrument & Electronic Repair / Restrings

Instrument & Electronic Repair / Restrings

Does your guitar or bass need some attention?  Are your strings old and rusty?  Or maybe you just restrung it but find that it's buzzing, or playing out of tune past the 5th fret.  Does your horn have a leaky valve?  Are some of the keys not working properly?  Is your electric guitar or bass having electrical issues?  Is the input jack cutting out, or the pick-up switch not working properly?  Don't fret (pun intended) - we can get your axe playing like new again!  See below for some of our services offered:

Restring / Polish

Need new strings?  When you get your instrument restrung at Blue Sky, we will also oil the neck, polish your instrument and if applicable, spray pots and switches as well.  We can restring the following instruments:

• Acoustic and Electric Guitars
• Electric Bass
• Violins, Violas and Cellos
• Upright / Double Bass
• Mandolins and Banjos
• and just about everything else with strings ...

Guitar & Bass Set-Ups

The purpose of a set-up is to get a guitar sounding and playing (feeling) its best, tailored to your playing style.  Guitar set-ups should be seen as regular maintenance, like taking your car in for an oil change, or going to the doctor for an annual check up.  In the northeast, guitars generally need to be adjusted twice per year.  Guitars are in most cases made of wood, and the extreme changes in humidity make them expand and contract.  This drastically affects the way they play causing problems such as buzzing, too high of a string height, or poor intonation (not playing in tune all the way up the neck) due to a change in string length between the nut (where the string rests by the headstock) and the saddle (where the string rests on the bridge), among other things.  Also, a change in string gauge could require a set-up, as the difference in string thickness and string tension will have an effect on the instrument.

New guitars are often not set-up at the factory or retail store, and may require a proper set-up as well.  If they are set-up, they're purposely set-up on the higher side because on an acoustic guitar for example, a local tech can file down the saddle and nut rather than the end user having to buy new ones to raise the action.  Also, leaving it higher rather than lower masks any high spots in the frets or fretboard.

Set-ups may include adjusting the neck, adjusting the height and/or length of the saddles, filing the nut, or even filing or tapping a fret.  On an electric guitar, the tech will also adjust the pickups to insure an optimum and even output from string to string and from pickup to pickup.  While you may be tempted to perform a set-up yourself, be cautioned that a wrong turn of an allen wrench or too much filing can make your guitar unplayable!

Guitar Repairs

Some of our services include:

• Nut Replacement
• Saddle Replacement
• Tuner Repair / Replacement
• Repair / Replace Output Jack
• Pot Replacement
• Switch Replacement
• Pickup Replacement

Bring in your instrument or call us at 478-7862 for more details.

Amp / Electronic Repairs

While we don't perform major repairs on amplifiers and electronics, we can fix minor problems with a fast turnaround time, such as a broken input jack on an amp or a faulty switch on a stomp box.  Sometimes it's just something simple so let us have a look.  If it's something that needs repair of a major nature, we can point you in the right direction.

Brass & Woodwind Repairs / Tune-Ups

Whether it's repairing a bent key or replacing the pads, we will get your instrument working smoothly again - just drop it off and our horn technician will take care of it.  For jobs that will exceed $60.00, you will receive a call before any work is done.

Drum Repair / Maintenance

With normal wear & tear, tight things loosen, moving parts get sticky, and threads start stripping. Even if you know how to do some of this stuff, it can be a tedious, time consuming process. Whether it's the drum kit you currently play on, an old kit you just bought that needs some love and attention, or you're getting a kit ready to sell, we can help.

We stock many drum parts and we can:

• replace & tune your drum heads
• fix broken hardware
• lubricate hardware and pedals to function like new again
• fix snare drums
• and more...

Head Replacement, Cleaning & Tuning 

Service includes tightening lugs, polishing shells, rims & hardware, greasing tension rods, replacing heads & tuning

• $10.00 / drum (excludes snare drums, heads not included in price)

Snare Drum Overhaul

Service includes tightening lugs, polishing shell, rims & hardware, replacing and adjusting snares, greasing tension rods, replacing heads & tuning

• $15.00 / snare drum (heads & snare wires not included in price)

Hardware Maintenance

Get that hardware working like new again!  Service includes greasing all wing screws & wing nuts, lubricating all moving parts, replacing worn cymbal sleeves and felts, and a polish.

• $10.00 / stand (parts not included in price)

About Our Technicians

Bernie Mulleda -

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and that is exactly how Bernie's interest in fretted instrument repair came about.  Being on the road with limited access to a shop led him to begin doing his own work.  He then got deeper into it watching luthier Russ Gleaves and now works on electric and acoustic guitars, electric basses, mandolins, banjos and ukuleles.  All instruments need seasonal up-keep due to changes in weather and normal use, and Bernie is here to help!

Skip Parsons - 

What can we say about Skip... You may know him from his 'Riverboat Jazz Band', as they've been playing since 1956!  You may also remember 'Skippy's Music', his Delmar music shop back in the 70's through the 90's.  A local legend in the Capital Region, Skip has been fixing horns for over 40 years, and we're proud to have him on our team!