3248 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
916 - 441- 6555
Copyright 2018. Guitar Workshop. All rights reserved
This beautiful Les Paul 100th Anniversary came in with a badly cracked headstock, and it had sat for months. The plastic headstock veneer had been bent so long it required heat and a patience to bend it back without cracking! But, it turned out great. Took about 9 weeks.
Look closely on the lower left, my signature, along with Brian Kempton, Art Gomez, Lew Armstrong and the main man, Gary Cooper. We were Oasis Guitars.
These two images I found online and is
a beautiful example of the guitars that came out of the Juliesse Ave building around 1976/77 where Gary, Art Gomez, Lew Armstrong and I crafter these very guitars. This is an example of the quilted maple, but we did get a lot of orders for Koa, birds eye maple, and a few mahogany.
Ebony boards, 25-1/2 scale, in house made brass bridge, nut and tailpiece. 15 piece necks, Bartolini PU's with Claristat potentiometers, Sprague Orange Drops, Ebony PU rings, Schaller keys, ebony board. These were incredible players.
Sold by :
Harry's Guitar Shop
Raleigh, NC, United States
https://reverb.com/shop/harrys-guitar-shop
Extremely Rare Oasis bass, made between 1977 and 1983, in Excellent Condition. These guitars and basses were build by Gary Cooper, and early Alembic employee, that became an extremely well know luthier in the Bay Area during this time. These are of excellent quality and very hard to find.
Serial Number: 04762
Weight: 9.2 lbs
"Made in USA" stamped on back of headstock
2-piece Flamed Maple body
3-ply Flamed Maple/Walnut neck
Custom tailpiece with cello fine tuners
Custom bridge made by Stars Guitars (we think)
Hi-A Pre-Bartolini pickups
3-way pickup selector
2 volume and tone controls
Phase switch
Original oval pickups, unique to all Oasis guitars
Gold Schaller tuners
32" Scale length
Amber finish
Here's a recent Telcaster I refretted. The original bone nut was saved as it had such a nice vintage patina and was perfect thought too low. Prob solved with a little rosewood veneer below fathered in.
Tribute to a great mentor: Gary Cooper, Luthier, guitarist, great human being.
I came to Sacramento on a Greyhound bus at 19 years old, a guitarist passionate to gigand work, handy with tools and woodcraft machinery having spent neary two years in my high school wood shop, and a brief stint at Paitch Cabinet Shop in Salt lake City Utah.
I managed to convince the local guitar tech a builder Gary Cooper, (we called him 'Coop") at Lews Music on K Street to hire me as an apprentice guitar tech to help lighhten his repair line load so he could focus on building his Oasis Guitars.
I arrived on a Friday, went to Jack House of Music, bought Hideao Kamimoto's Complete Guitar Repair and the Arther E. Overholtzer book on Classical Guitar Construction. I crammed them all weekend. On Monday moorning I went into my interview with Coop. He did note I appeared sleepy, so I fessed up my massive study and cramming session, and after a half hour on Q&A, he realized this guy who would cram two massive books into less than two days for a job interview was the right guy. He hired me. That was spring 1975
Do to some fascinating circumstances, we had to move the Oasis operation out to Juliesse Ave off the 80 and El Camino exit west. There we built quite a few custom guitars. I have had a few customers send me pics, but I don't have much left. You can see my signature on the tag below. That guitar was built by the crew when we were in the Lews Music basement on K Street. Those were so great years!
Through complex events and some not so great biz moves, we had to close the production operation. That's another story for another day.
Gary was a real visionary, a great guitar tech and LOVED the electric guitar and bass. We saw in each other a driving passion to make the instrument the invisible connection betweet your musical idea and the audible note full of expression, in the must artistic, but invisible way possible. He was a great mentor to me, and I owe a lifelong career of 50+ years to his generous time and talent. RIP, my friend, until we meet again.
Here is an old, well played Martin that had a bit of heat damage. The neck block had rolled slightly and the the action was too high to play comforably. Also, there was no break angle over the saddle and the tone was weak. A neck reset and new saddle cured all those issues. I also replaced a very curled pick guard giving this old beauty new life!
String Spreader by Dave Lynch & Stewart Macdonald:
Why waste time unstringing a guitar for a spot job on the nut or fretboard, when all you really want is to simply get the strings out of the way? Try these handy string spreaders instead of the makeshift method you've been using—they'll become a busy addition to your basic tools. Each curved brass spreader fits behind the neck, to capture the loosened strings and give you room for filing, cleaning, polishing or light repairs. Finish-friendly rubberized coating protects the neck. 3-3/8" long, set of 2. $17.89
https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/tools-by-job/tools-for-nuts-and-saddles/string-spreaders-set-of-2/
New quad contact 1/4" input jack! Full Tone Full Contact.
$5.95 plus intsllation.
We sell: G&L American made guitasr & basses,
A few Marshall, Kustom amps, Washburn, Jay Turser, Seymour Duncan, Levy's, AllParts, Rapco-Horizon cables, TONS of string brands, Henry Heller straps & baggs, Seymour Duncan Pickups. and
much more!
Some of our Inventory:
We now have genuine C.F. Martin bridge pins in stock! Great stocking stuffer upgrades to any acoustic guitar!