Nikki's Guitar Shop

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Mesa, AZ
Nikki's Guitar Shop

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Guitar & Stringed Instrument Repairs + Restorations in Downtown Mesa Arizona.

10/26/2026

Just some detail shots of this gorgeous Chuck Sanzone guitar which just rolled through the shop. Fret dressing and minor setup adjustments. Such a lovely instrument!

Chuck Sanzone

10/16/2026

Tech tip…Friday? Is that a thing?

When it comes to regluing a bridge, it’s pretty darn important to get it back on there in the right spot again once removed. I’ve tried a bunch of different ways to accomplish this, and making a registration pin before pulling the bridge off is one of my favorite methods.

Drill a small hole through the bottom of the saddle slot at the very end (you can do this on one side or both, this Martin had a hole started for me) going through the top, or if you’d rather not drill a hole completely through you can mark a depth stop to 1/16- 3/32” or so. (Being mindful of internal braces of course.) The same drill bit can be used a registration pin for when the bridge once it has been refitted to the top and is ready to be re-adhered.

What happens when the bit/pin gets glued in, you say?
Simply heat the bit with a soldering iron for 30s-1 min which will soften the glue and you can yank it right out.

Hope this is helpful to someone!

10/07/2026

Well, that’s a shim I haven’t seen before… should’ve focused more on the fit of the other shims I reckon!

Dovetail failed, see last pic. Neck pull day for this 2012 HD-28.

10/01/2026

An absolutely gorgeous 1934 Martin C-2 archtop I just finished up for JOE'S VINTAGE GUITARS | AZ a couple months back.

Attended to some loose bar frets, made a new bone nut, refitted the bridge and some minor setup work. Such a unique sounding guitar, and check out those back and sides! Now available for purchase through their Reverb and web store.

09/10/2026

New nut, new frets, and new saddle for this gorgeous Olson SJ guitar that just rolled through the shop.

09/10/2026

Fret Removal…

Recent refret on this beautiful Olson guitar last week!

For a clean removal I heat the fret along its entirety before carefully walking my feet pullers underneath to work it loose and avoid chipping the fretboard.
I’ve seen others use a bit of water to steam frets out for a clean removal, I personally don’t like to do it that way because I don’t want to wood to swell with humidity before I install the new frets. I prefer to let the natural oils that accumulate underneath the fret to boil them out!

And yeah, sometimes I like to listen to elevator music while I’m working. Makes for a calming fret job.

08/04/2026

Details matter- to those who still care about that sort of thing.

Walters & Upshaw RV-50, our Roberto Venn 50th Anniversary guitar is now available for purchase on my website, NikkisGuitarShop.com. (Custom case is on order.)

Shoutout and a very big thank you to Steven Davis Jr for these phenomenal shots!

Roberto-Venn School Josiah Upshaw Nikki & Josiah

07/31/2026

Regluing the wing 🪽

07/15/2026

Just left the shop, a gorgeous example of a 1964 Gibson ES-345 TDC stereo. Unplayed since 1970, this guitar really didn’t need all that much work from us, receiving just a setup, strings, and removing all the electronics for a good cleaning, and replacing wires as needed to the output jack and neck volume pot. Although these guitars are commonly converted to mono, that wasn’t requested by the customer and we also prefer to keep originality here in the shop, so we made a custom trs summing cable for mono amp play use.

I don’t understand why the Varitone isn’t a more popular switching option on guitars, the range of sounds coming out of this guitar just ruins all other modern Gibsons for me.

07/08/2026

You know it’s a good week when you get to install & play test not just one, but THREE sets of Custom Shop Josefina Campos pickups! I swear my clients bring me the coolest stuff to work on.

Tomatillo Telecaster set, Fat 60’s Strat and Troposphere Strat set. My favorite one of the bunch is the Tomatillo tele neck pickup. I’m not great with tone descriptives, but just take everything you love about a good tele neck pickup and multiply that by ten- that’s this pickup. May have to ‘pick up’ me one! (pun intended.)

Address

Mesa, AZ

Telephone

+14804956805

Website

http://www.nikkisguitarshop.com/

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