Hey! I’m Paul.

As a young boy, I’d always borrow my older brother’s guitar and was teaching myself simple chords from about the age of 7 years.

One day, he got fed up and bought me a $20 acoustic guitar from the markets. It had heavy strings on it and was an absolute nightmare to play, especially for a 9-year-old.

After some secret garage work, I adjusted the saddle and put my brother’s old electric guitar strings on. “Much better!”

Sadly, my guitars didn’t improve much in quality until I could buy one myself many years later. But not having a good quality guitar meant I spent many years modifying and repairing cheap and nasty guitars.

Now, with 30 years’ experience as a professional guitarist, I can afford some great guitars. But all those years of modifying and mucking around with guitars means I’m extremely fussy when it comes to setups and modifications. After having setups done on my guitars, I’d come home and re-do parts of the setup.

Over the years, my friends began to ask me to setup or repair their guitars, often at gigs or after having a setup done.

On a whim, I decided to place an ad on Gumtree and do some odd guitar setup jobs during the week between gigs. I was overwhelmed, both with jobs and positive feedback.

And so “Paul’s Guitar Setups and Repairs” was born.

From Sydney to the Hunter Valley

After years of repairing, modifying, building and setting up guitars from my inner Sydney garage workshop, I relocated to Maitland in 2019. Yes, another person escaping the rat race.

The doors of my (bigger and better) Maitland workshop – for guitar lovers based in Newcastle, Maitland and throughout the Hunter Valley – are set to open in February 2019.