Broken Neck Guitar Repair

Peter has been doing expert repair work and modifications for many years. He has repaired and improved many of my guitars as well as a Gibson EBO bass, which of course had a broken neck. You can be assured that he will do great work.

Peter did fretwork, truss rod adjustment and setups on 3 of my guitars in 2014. I was very pleased with all the work. Additionally, he replaced the bridge on my Jazzmaster which turned out fantastic. I wouldn’t think of bringing my guitars anywhere else. He is an all around solid human being. I highly recommend Peter.

I just had Peter set up my two acoustic guitars (a Martin and a Guild). He did his usual great job. Better still, I had him set up a 40 year old Yamaha FG-​150 that I had and gave to my son. The playability of that guitar was improved so much. I also want to mention how quickly the work was done. Peter is the best.

I’ll agree with everyone else here – Peter is amazing! I had an Epiphone ES-​335 Pro that had some major fret buzz on frets 1 – 6, and I took it in. Peter adjusted the action, the truss rod, the bridge, polished the frets, and installed a new set of strings – all for $ 50, in less than 2 hours. I thought I was going to have to leave my guitar at his shop for several days. Now my guitar plays like buttah. Totally worth it.

Needed a rush setup to a new guitar I just got! One of the best setups I have experienced. Definitely will be going for more. Thank you, Peter!
–Mike Bravos

After several poor setups in the past few years at various shops, I took my Telecaster in for a new nut, a setup, and to fix the pickup selector. Not only did he get everything done in two days, but the guitar plays better than I ever remember it doing so in the seven years I’ve owned it.
I will be taking my Jazzmaster in for a repair and setup within a few weeks, and anticipate Peter as being my go-​to guitar tech while I live in Boston. His prices are actually quite reasonable, and the quality of the work is top-​notch.

I have know Peter Stokes since 1979 and he is my go to guy for fretted instrument repair in Boston! Highly recommended!!!
Roger Sadowsky
Sadowsky Guitars Ltd.
NYC

Highly recommend! Brought my guitar in that had some buzzing issues. Peter fixed it, and has never sounded so good. The guitar is playing really good. Dropped it off on a Monday afternoon and it was ready on Wednesday. Very reasonable prices. If you are looking for a place to bring your guitar, look no further.

Peter came highly recommended to me from a great friend. He does excellent work, I am reluctant to bring my guitars to anyone, but Broken Neck Guitar Repair does fantastic work. The last guy I used I found him using my $ 5000,00 Gretsch to give guitar lessons when I went to pick it up. That was the ultimate let down. I’ve always had a fast turn around and my guitars came back excellent. I am bringing in another today, Peter makes my Les Paul’s play like a dream. Just like everything, know what you want done, I travel 90 minutes to get there. That says a lot.

Looks like it’s pretty much already been said by other reviewers — Peter’s amazing. I’m amateur-​to-​intermediate, at best and Peter has never been anything but respectful and cool with whatever PoS guitar I’ve brought him.
He gets the work done, and done right, on time and for a good price.

I’ve been meaning to write this for over two years– I brought my Ukulele to Peter for a bridge repair, expecting to get laughed out of the place for bringing a uke in but He was super cool. It plays and sounds great. Then I saw him dawn patrolling in New Hampshire one day and found out he’s the real deal!

Peter is great, I trust him with all my guitars… Period
This guy has done work on my PRS, Fender Strats, Les Paul and my ⁶⁄₁₂ string acoustic Takamine… anything at all you need done he can do.
Before any gig I bring whatever guitars I’ll be using and have him set them all up.
He’s flawless. he’s been doing work on my guitars since the Wurlitzer days.

Peter is a friendly, down-​to-​earth guy who will have your guitar playing the way it was meant to. When I first got my electric, I brought him my MIM strat for a much needed set up, and as he was taking a look over, chatted about gear and asked him some questions up upgrades down the road.
Fast forward a few months, when I had enough from the hum of the standard pick ups, I picked up a used set of pick ups from Dimarzio, brought them in, and Peter once again worked his magic and I had my guitar back quickly and sounding better than ever.

I came to Peter with my much-​loved, well-​worn Mexican Strat for a setup. He quickly assessed the instrument with an expert eye and pointed out some fret damage I hadn’t noticed. He gave me all the options, but we concluded that a refretting was inevitable, but that I could fake it for a while if needed. I decided to go ahead with the refretting (which obviously cost more than the setup would have), but there was no pressure at all on Peter’s part. He would have been happy to set it up as-​is. He gave me a quote and a time frame.
The job was done on budget and a day early. I just picked up the guitar and it’s in fantastic shape. It plays like absolute butter. The intonation is perfect. The fretboard is smooth, and the frets are seamlessly integrated into the neck — they don’t protrude off the sides of the fretboard at all. It was like taking home a new guitar.
When I dropped the guitar off, I had also asked him about blocking the tremolo (putting a piece of wood inbetween the tremolo unit and the guitar in the back to stop it from moving) since I never really use it. He cut a perfectly tapered piece of wood to do the job. It’s really snug, the bridge doesn’t move a millimeter. My once-​fickle strat is now a hardtail that stays in perfect tune, even when tuning down to really low tunings (CGDGCE etc). It also adds a bit of sustain to the guitar.
Based on my experience, I’d definitely recommend Peter to anyone. I had an average-​quality guitar and a moderate budget, but he still treated me well and did an extremely thorough and professional job. He clearly takes pride in the work he does. It’s rare to find an actual craftsman these days! Take your instrument to Broken Neck and support a local one.

Due to a series of questionable decisions, my ’65 lake placid blue jazzmaster fell off the back of a pickup truck on Melnea Cass Blvd on the way back from a gig. It sat there in the road for two hours, but when we opened the gig bag up, half the neck, half the headstock, and a bunch of splinters fell out. After crying for a couple weeks, I took it around to a bunch of shops in Boston and Cambridge, and finally someone suggested Broken Neck. Peter took the 50+ bits of neck, and actually reconstructed the thing painstakingly. Other than looking like Frankenstein’s axe of choice, the thing plays like nothing ever happened. Sure, I can only use 9 gauges on it, and can’t ever lean it against anything, but no one else even thought that it was possible to fix. Price was very reasonable, too. Can’t recommend highly enough.

Peter is a genius. I brought my Taylor 314ce in to get a neck and intonation adjustment and he returned my guitar sounding better than the day I first took her home. I like to have low action on my acoustics and Peter adjusted the strings nice and low to the fretboard. Feels and sounds perfect! He also gave me a heads up on how to care for my guitar during the dry winter months to prevent stress fractures.

Peter has done five repair/​setups on several guitars (totaling around five bills) for me in the past few months. It’s more than worth the money and day –to-​week (depending on his workload) wait time, and his work has surpassed my expectations every time and made each instrument feel, sound and play considerably better than they ever had at their previous best. I had three guitars to pick up from him earlier today and he offered to have me to call ahead to double park and have him bring them down to avoid me getting a parking ticket, which was awesome customer service. Really nice and knowledgeable guy, highly recommended.

Peter is the sh*t. His service is swift, thorough and honest.
Having experienced bad guitar repair guys where I had to go back numerous time to get the issues straight, his execution is «One shot, one skill, no exception». Once he fixes it, I never had to go back for same issue (unless I have really, really, really, shitty guitar.)

Peter Stokes is one of my go-​to guys for guitar repair. He’s competitively priced and, most importantly, fast — at most other places around town, expect to leave your axe there and be without it for a week or two, but he gets stuff in and out in a couple days. I’ve only been going to him for a couple years and don’t know why I didn’t discover him sooner. I bring my fussy, gig-​weary Strat in about once a year to him for a setup and some fretwork — I expect to pay about $ 100 each time but it’s worth it just to keep the damn thing intonated! He’s done nice work on my steel-​string and classical too.

A friend of mine referred me to Peter Stokes at Broken Neck for a guitar set up. I brought him my Japanese Squier Jagmaster Vista series. In addition to the usual issues with intonation, my bridge was not set correctly. Peter took my guitar, gave me a slip and said I should call in two days to see if it was ready. In fact it was ready in two days and it was great.
Peter did a truss rod adjustment, fret polish, intonation adjustment, adjusted the action (it’s amazingly low and easy to play now!) and the height of my pickups, all for $ 65. He also re-​set the bridge. It played like a completely different instrument after Peter was done with it. When I got it home and plugged it in, I said to myself «So this is how it’s supposed to sound!!»
Nothing but good things to say. The quality of his work and the price can’t be beat. Highly recommended.