At the Folk Music Center, we have been repairing and restoring vintage American instruments as well as instruments from around the world for 45 years. The repair shop is integral to the store and museum. Every instrument in the store goes through the repair shop first to ensure that it is set up in the optimum playing condition. Our luthiers have studied with such masters as Charles Chase, Jack Willock, Larry Jackson, Mickey Chonos, Billy Asher, and David Dart among others. In the words of Charles Chase, "If it's made of wood, metal, goat, cow we'll re-skin it, restring it, and repair it."

Repair Shop Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm

Richard Barnes was building instruments for five years before beginning his professional repair and restoration career in 1998 at the Folk Music Center. He is an active member of the Guild of American Luthiers and the Southern California Violin Makers Association. Richard specializes in vintage guitars, mandolins, banjos, violins, cellos, basses, and ouds.

Henry Barnes has been building and repairing stringed instruments since 1983. He worked for Charvel / Jackson in the early eighties where he gained experience making guitars. At that time, he started experimenting with solid body instrument designs and has gone on to create many original acoustic and electric instruments. Henry specializes in the set up and repair of sitars, banjos, mandolins, and violins, fret replacement and fret dressing of all stringed instruments, neck resets, electronics, and pickup installation.