CJS Guitars

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CJS Guitars

Professional Guitar maintenance and repair based in Abercarn, South Wales. www.cjsguitars.com Professional Guitar Repair and Set-up based in South Wales

28/07/2026

Another Squier, now with Stainless Steel frets.

This Jim Root model came in with some really low frets, some that had popped, and a shockingly common S-deformation in the neck. So it needed refretting. We chose some Jescar 57110 Stainless Steel wire.

The nut also needed changing, but on these they seem to install them with an entire bottle of loctite, so we needed to patch some rosewood and lacquer a few spots. But we got it out, eventually!

We also managed to scuff one of the tuners somewhere in the process, because we’re only human and we make mistakes. So we bought and installed some really great Gotoh replacements, completely on the house for the customer. This really turned into one of those jobs that ends up costing you money to do, but in the end, it’s always worth it to see the end product.

This things plays great, and that fretboard is so killer. You never usually see that figuring on a Squier!

20/07/2026

2018 Player Strat. Needed some frets reseated, a full fret dress with some added fall away, reshaped the nut and a gave it a deluxe setup.

As always we treated the fretboard with some Monty’s Guitars Montypresso to give the Pau Ferro board a little bit more of a rosewood appearance.

16/07/2026

If you haven’t seen anything from us for a while it’s because we’ve been working this Gibson SG Special 400 from the 80’s. It came in with some pretty worn frets, and a neck that wouldn’t adjust. So along with some other work, it needed a refret.

Firstly we had to free the truss rod washer and nut. The washer was buried into the mahogany of the neck, but along with the truss rod nut had been lacquered over and rendered unusable.

So we had a good job freeing that before we were able to start refretting. We took the frets out, levelled and re-radiused the board, then installed StewMac Wide/Highest frets in. We made a new nut from Graph Tech Guitar Labs Tusq XL.

Then we put on some D'Addario and Company 9-42’s for some really zippy action and set up the factory Kahler International locking system.

It’s really night and day from how it came in! 😍

06/07/2026

This gorgeous Edwards E-Horizon ET-Baritone came to us for a bit of love. First we changed out the stock hardware for some lovely G-GOTOH 後藤ガット replacements. Then we glued a few errrant frets and Levelled, Crowned and Polished them all, with a tiny bit of added fallaway.

Then set it up in Drop B for some ultimate chugging action.

Japan really know how to make guitars 😍

29/06/2026

Indonesian made Squier Jaguar which came in for a fret job and a much needed setup.

First we had to reseat a bunch of the frets, then gave it a Fret Dress with added fall away. Because of the 9.5” radius board, bending on the higher frets can get a bit dicey without it. We also then reshaped the nut and fixed an issue with the tremolo before we set it up and sent it back out, playing as good as the other brand (whose name must not be mentioned)

18/06/2026

A Lawsuit Era Japanese made Les Paul.

15/06/2026

Another fantastic day at our annual trip to the Bristol Guitar show. Lots of cool guitars, builders and players about. Even saw a few of our customers!

11/06/2026

A few really cool basses that came across the bench today. These belong to the amazing Jamie Sefton, the man who keeps the low end locked down for Kylie Minogue.

A German made Hofner Violin Bass, A Japanese prototype Semi Fretless Hollow P-Bass, and an 80’s Japanese Squier P-Bass. All checked over for some studio work.

03/06/2026

A really nice Indonesian Squier strat that came in for a bunch of work from our awesome customer Iwan (what a player that guy is!)

We sorted out the frets with a little bit of fallaway added in, gave it a proper setup and gave the wiring a good overhaul with some new pots and a tone capacitor.

It’s such a shame that Fender’s business and legal practices suck at the moment. They should really end all of that legal foolishness and just stick to making guitars!

01/06/2026

A very unique looking classical guitar that was made in Finland. The owner had it dated to the 60’s so she’s an old girl!

Address

Newport

Telephone

+447538112270

Website

http://www.cjsguitars.com/

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