The Plek is an amazing piece of technology. I watched it diagnose the neck on my guitar. Wow!

I traveled from San Antonio in order to meet the technicians at Straightfrets. I can play my powerful guitar once again. 😎Considering how many used guitars are owned or purchased, the question of MAINTENANCE springs up sooner or later, aside from merely changing strings regularly. By definition, guitars are fretted, which means BOTH the installed strings and the frets wear out over time. Modern guitar necks get longer and longer over time, as players desire to have more range of notes... But that can turn into a bowed neck, or uneven or out-of-tune frets.For me, the answer was indeed the staff of Straightfrets in Austin, TX. They understand guitars, and they love to play them. Its more than a job!

Danny (owner) ran a diagnostic profile on the status of the neck and frets on my Strat with his super-machine, The Plek.In THIS particular case, Danny advised that the 7.25 neck-radius plus earlier fret-filing from way-past rendered my Strat unable to be tweaked to the degree I wanted. In other words, no 2-step bends with the E, B, G strings was going to be possible without it choking out. Danny gave me the sad truth. For that he gets 5 Stars.

Just had two guitars set up. Mason assisted me and was extremely helpful. Both guitars were ready for pick up same day I dropped them off. Was extremely impressed at the level of quality in their work. My guitar has never felt this good.

Not entirely satisfied with the service provided. Received my instrument back with various issues that required further work on my part. For the price and time it took, Im relatively dissatisfied.Response to owners reply: It was shipped back to me with snapped and mismatched strings, tuners installed in wrong orientation, control plate installed backwards and no semblance of prior setup or intonation. When we discussed these findings over the phone, you attributed the issues to your tech DB going through some personal issues at the time.

Great service- these guys know there stuff- offering services you cant get anywhere else in Austin- they hooked up my strat amazing- they do fast work- and easy to deal with- on S CongressThanks fellas

This place does great work. I called all around town trying to do a pickup swap for my Telecaster and everyone was telling me 3+ weeks. Straight Frets was able to finish it within the same day I brought it in! I took a couple more guitars in for setups & fret work and the experience was also great. Awesome guitar repair shop all around.

Danny and the employees of Straight Frets Guitar Service did a phenomenal job on the fret work, bone nut, and custom routing. I brought my J bass in with a rough MIA Fender replacement neck and the shop did it better than the factory in Corona. Danny responded to our e-mails the same day. Definitely one of the best luthiers around.

Not only is Danny a fantastic guitar luthier/player/businessman, he is a personal friend now. Straight Frets has setup/PLEKed 10 guitars of mine now. Folks... there is no better Guitar Service Company out there in the Austin area. I drive in from West Texas personally to hand off my guitars to them. Yes. They are that good.

My son likes this place, they adjusted and replaced strings for his new guitar for $80.

Fair upfront pricing, great turn around time. I usually do most of my own guitar adjusting however, I bought this Ibanez Jem that really got me scratching my head. so... I took it to Danny and the boyz and they threw it on the olé plek machine and now Im a believer!!! The action is amazing, the guitar almost plays itself. Better then expected results, thanks guys

Theres simply no other place to go to get your guitar set up or repaired optimally.I bought P90 Rails and brought my guitar in to get a different set up.Danny let me know about a better knob option and we decided to go that way (listen to guy, I guarantee he knows what hes talking about). His electronics guy figured out the right setup (the wiring is wrong in the Seymour Duncan site) and did not stopped until he finally figured out one of the pickups was fried. You cant put a value to the very american ideal of standing by your work and get a job done properly no matter what.These are true artisans. Yes, the PLEK machine gets it right; but the PLEK machine does not have pride in its work, or goes above and beyond to give you a proper service.I wil hapilly continue to drive 4 hrs round trip as long as theyre around because they are truly THE BEST!!!

Took a guitar setup class with Danny and man was it awesome! His knowledge and experience is expert level. Gonna take all of my guitars to him in the future as well. My go-to Luthier recently retired and Ive been in search of someone new, glad to say that search is over.

Danny and the guys do great work. I am impressed with their level of skill and experience. I really appreciate that they took the time to engage with me and ask the right questions to really understand what I was seeking before taking in my job. I brought them a challenging custom electric and they did a fantastic job without complaint (at least in front of me!) at a reasonable cost. They expertly installed a treble bleed thing, new bone nut, Plek-milled the fret height down and hand-dressed everything to play like a dream.I recommend this shop and plan to take all of my guitars here.

I want to drop a line to thank Danny for making my Yairi sing beautifully again.I took it to him with a broken headstock and 40 years of handling.... He took it in and fixed the severely cracked headstock, made me a custom fit bone saddle to truly bring the soundboard alive, and gave her a professional set up. AND, in the middle of this pandemic he took the time to make my Fathers Day great! My wife called in hopes of orchestrating the surprise and Danny made it happen by finishing my guitar in time for the reveal.I’ve had Martins and many other guitars, but this one is without question my Favorite.Thank You Danny.I appreciate You ☀️🙌🏼

I had a great experience with the team. I called ahead and asked what kind of turn around I can expect on a guitar set up and string replacement. They gave a very fair estimate, but actually ended up finishing it by the next day. Fantastic! An employee sat with me and let me play the instrument for a minute. I had very minor feedback and he was happy to make a quick adjustment for me. Easy experience and Ill probably be back in the future.

A few weeks ago I took in my dads Martin guitar a D16gt. Danny after inspecting it suggested a partial fret job was needed and he also educated me on the Plex service available. After a week later, they called me to tell me it was ready, she looks and sounds great. The service was exceptional and price reasonable. Just to add that the shop was very busy the day I went by, and Danny and his team got my guitar finished at the appointed time. I do recommend This repair shop.

Danny is a master of his trade and very professional and courteous. Highly recommend A++

Took the guitar setup class. I learned a ton in three hours, and walked out with a completely set up bass, and knowledge to tweek the set ups of other instruments.Staff is knowledgeable and friendly. The location is easy to find.

My guitar wasnt staying in tune, and I attempted to restring it myself which made it worse. I brought my guitar in, and Jason restrung it & showed me what I did wrong and how to do it correctly. He really didnt have to do all of that, but I appreciated it so much! Ill definitely be back at some point to upgrade the nut, and Ill definitely recommend this place to anyone. Thanks for the help!

I took Danny’s guitar setup class. Learned a ton and took home a bunch of tools and info to help me be able to work on my own guitars from here on. We learned how to adjust truss rods, set the right action, intonate, polish and check frets, properly string and a bunch of luthier secrets and little tests to make sure things work and sound just right. Highly recommend.

Danny is the best Luthier in town! He did a stellar job doing a partial refret on my Collings guitar and setups on two others. His prices are worth the quality of his work. Don’t take your guitars anywhere else. Danny is the man!

Danny at Straight Frets is probably one of the most knowledgeable guys who works on guitars that I’ve ever met. He’s kind, friendly, and gives his clients top-notch advice and service. You will be met with friendly service of someone who you’ll feel like you’ve known for a lifetime, combined with the expertise and craftsmanship of any of the top instrument technicians. Highly recommend!

I had been to other guitar specialists! Going to Straight Fretts they got it fixed first time and works like new!! Highly recommended!!!

A perfect job was done on a parts-caster I built. Had the frets plek’d and the action now is fantastic with no fret buzz. I plan to take several more guitars to Danny and crew in the future.

A few years ago, Danny replaced the worn-out frets and nut on my 1995 Takamine EN-12C. He did awesome job and the guitar plays beautifully and comfortably. I recognized his business name while doing some online search and thought he deserve my belated recommendation. I would trust him with my guitar anytime.

Danny & team did a fantastic job on 2 guitars that needed extensive fretwork.They play better than new...I brought a 3rd guitar to them because I was so pleased with their service....best fret work I have ever seen! All my guitars go to Straight Frets from now on!

The guys here are so kind and helpful! Amazing service!

Was recently tour managing a band traveling through Austin who needed some guitars setup. We took in a Gibson Les Paul Recording and a Rickenbacker 620 that needed some electronics fixed as well. Danny fixed the guitars within hours, and the guys in the band said it was the best setup theyd ever had! Super nice guy, and easy to work with.

I have no experience dealing personally with this shop other than purchasing a stratocaster that was refretted with stainless steel. This is my first strat with stainless frets and what a difference. i own several other strats but nothing feels like this one. I was told the refret was done by Straight Frets and what a beautiful job. I now plan on taking all of my Strats, Tele and PRS to get the stainless put on. After blowing through a brand new set of nickel silver frets in 11 months its a no brainer.

Ive been going to Danny since 2011 and have had nothing but top-tier experiences every time. Ive had multiple re-frets, a few repairs & modifications and a lot of set-ups through his shop and the build quality and craftsmanship are world-class, consistent and certainly in the highest level you will find in Texas. Im also pretty sure that this is the one of the only shops open to the public in the whole country that has a Plek machine on-site.Apart from being a great tech, Danny is really easy to work with and will spend as much or as little time talking to you about your instrument as you want. Turnaround times are quick and Im always completely satisfied with the work and price point its placed at.From small to large jobs, Id recommend Danny to anybody in need of instrument service and Ill be using him for as long as I play guitar.

I shipped this guy my guitar [69 Strat] in a Calzone road case.Case had no locks, so to protect [from theft] during shipment, I put 5 bicycle locks over the case. He calls me crying, that he cant open the locks, that this is big trouble for him. Besides, he said that I had violated his rule which commands the customer to ship the guitar in a Taylor box. with bubble wrap, not peanuts. Hes frantic. Starts telling me that he has a Masters Degree in Classical Guitar[?]. I told him to just ship the guitar back to me and forget it.Any person that cannot open a combination padlock, I dont want working on my guitar. No matter how good his fretwork may be. Or what kind of degrees he has.The dude is a psychotic crybaby.Oh! And he wanted me to pay him $ 25.00 for the time he spent struggling with the pad locks.

Repaired my guitar good prices very friendly.

Danny is a THE best luthier I’ve ever had work on my instruments. He’s done 4 guitars for the way I play and takes the time to get it right for me. This is The only shop I need ever go.

I have a 38 year old Guild D55 E that needed a neck reset and a complete refret job as well as some electrical issues. Danny gave me a reasonable quote and a time frame that worked for me. This, of course, is a major repair on an old high end guitar. When I took it to him it was really only good for hanging on the wall to look at. Danny repaired the guitar to what I consider to be excellent playing condition and came in exactly on the low end of his estimate and within my time frame. I thought I had made a mistake by buying this guitar without seeing it but Danny made it all good and would strongly recommend him for most any guitar repair.Joe Crenshaw, Florence,OR/Austin TX

I own a whole stable full of guitars and do the basic setup myself. But I know my limitations and when I need help I look for a pro. I have had many bad experiences with various amateurs around town. I was delighted when I finally found Danny and his Straight Frets enterprise. I have shopped around and will look no further for expert luthier work. Danny has the tools, the skill, the knowledge and the passion that it takes to be Austins ultimate guitar repair Guru!

Brought my buddies Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar to Straight Frets with a broken headstock (cause: drunken stuper). This guitar means a lot to him as this was the guitar he used to tour with. That being said the guitar has been through hell and back regardless of the broken headstock. When I spoke to Danny and team at Straight Frets he left no stone unturned. Dannys attention to detail allows him to set realistic expectations of what your repair costs will be as well as a timeline as to when he and his team expect him to finish (which was a week ahead of schedule.I brought a broken guitar but the services that Straight Frets goes beyond just repairs. I would recommend this place to beginner and professional musicians. Pricing is more than fair, and below other repair shops prices.

Danny takes time to explain exactly what he is going to do and why. Always take my Takamine 12 strings to him and his assistant and when they come back, they are better than expected. Usually with a little extra tweek that he did just because they couldnt let the guitars go without that one last detail.Your guitar guy maybe good but Danny and Straight Frets rules over them all! He is my only guitar repair man!

High quality guitar service, I definitely recommend it!

I took both my 70s Gibson Les Paul Standard and my 72 Fender Thinline in for complete fret jobs. He also replaced the pots in both guitars, cleaned them up, set the intonation, and made them better than they were when I got them. When I showed up for the first time, Danny spent a lot of time with me. We talked about the guitars, what he was going to do, and how much it was going to cost. He made me feel extremely comfortable. When I went to pick up the Les Paul, I couldnt believe it. The craftsmanship was second to none. The frets were perfect. He then did the Thinline with the same results. The best thing about Danny is how excited he is for you to play your guitar after he is finished. Hes like a kid on Christmas. This is the mark of someone who loves what they do and cares very much about his customers. I can promise you that I will only go to Danny from now on. I will refer all of my guitar and bass playing friends to him as well. There is no way you can go wrong with Straight Frets. If this sounds like a love letter, its because it is.

Great customer service and beautiful craftsmanship, Straight Frets is the real deal. Two thumbs up, y’all.

Danny is very good guitar tech and turn around is 2 days for my Gibson lespaul standard. Plex work is amazing and bone nut is perfect.

Had a great experience with a simple acoustic guitar repair. Turnaround was quick, well-done, and a good price.

I dread doing this kind of thing - in fact Ive put this review off for a few years, but I happened on Straight Frets google listing today while reviewing extant guitar repair shops in Austin and realized that, as one of the few places on the map in a fairly music-oriented city of...now 2 million, and one of the most highly rated shops, they probably get a whole lot of business from folks like me who think It sounds like fretwork is their specialty - I should go with them. Unfortunately, my impressions were quite similar to those of twangitall: communicating with Danny was not a pleasant experience. I found him to be testy, defensive and argumentative, with poorly developed listening skills and a minimal attention span.In my case, he charged me what Fender wouldve for a new neck, ripped the board up in fret removal far more than is tolerable from a professional, threw away the original frets, did a most inadequate board leveling before the re-fret, left the new fret ends hazardously sharp (while somehow wearing the lacquer off of the side inlays) and very unevenly beveled, and ultimately gave it back to me playing no better than it had originally (relief and action just as high, buzzing all over the place...now to the point of a couple of dead notes!). He honored his warranty (grudgingly), and leveled the frets slightly better the 2nd time around, but also left the neck pickup unmasked and unlowered, sanding deep grooves into its cover! I didnt even bring that part up, but when I did follow up to ask him why he leveled the board without applying the necessary truss tension first (thereby irreversibly hobbling the functionality of the set of frets he installed), he said that the instrument was too fundamentally flawed to ever be made to play well, and made it clear that it was, in fact, HE who was mad at ME for bringing him such a hopeless waste of his skills in the first place. If it had been such a guitar, someone who works on 100s of guitars a year shouldve known to turn it down rather than say yeah, I can level that. But furthermore, its not really the case - most necks settle-in for a period of days to weeks after each truss adjustment, which was why I had urged him not to rush from the beginning. At this point he also launched into a short tirade along the lines of do you know what your problem is?, wherein he explained to me that I was too incoherent to adequately communicate my stipulations as a customer.You should know: hell have it all plugged in when you come to pick it up just so you dont start playing it unplugged, and if theres enough buzz that, besides making the instrument feel bad in your hands, much of it comes through the amplifier as well, hell run through a list of cop-outs ranging from buzz is a natural part of the sound of a guitar - theres always gonna be some to this model was poorly engineered; I cant explain why but they never take well to fret leveling and generally rely on the discomfort of the customer in calling him on his stark departure from his preliminary buzzing is not tolerated in this shop pitch. Once you have accepted your lot and left with the instrument, if you ever call back with questions or comments that make HIM uncomfortable, hell fall back on you said it was fine when you came to get it. In retrospect I really wish that I hadnt payed over $400 for a useless intervention which devalued an expensive instrument and came with a free side of personal antagonism.

Fingerboard planing and re-radius, re-fretted, Frets Plek’d and nut cut on Plek Machine:I bought a cheap used Fender ‘72 Tele Custom Reissue, and had the neck scanned at Straight Frets on their Plek Machine. The neck had a pretty major hump from frets 8-11, and I was considering going to a flatter radius and big frets anyway, so they pulled the frets, and planed the fretboard on the Plek Machine, changing the 7.25 radius to a 9.5/10 compound radius. Then put in some nice jumbo frets and leveled them with the Plek Machine to an accuracy less than a human hair! Finally they cut a new bone but with the Plek, working off the scan of the new frets so it would work perfectly with the neck as it is.The guitar plays amazing, all over the neck. The staff was friendly and very knowledgeable, and the turnaround was quick! I’d recommend Straight Frets for all your guitar repair needs.

Mr. Shoemaker has worked on several of my instruments, including a rare Grosh, a vintage Gibson jazzbox and a PRS Custom; all of which needed serious fret care and fundamental tweaking, at minimum. Ive had a bridge updated, new saddles cut on two bridges, tuning machines replaced, frets leveled and finishes buffed on each under the care of Danny Shoemaker. To say that I trust him with all of my cherished instruments is an understatement. He is a serious professional, a craftsmen and an excellent guitarist, as well. He understands that the term playability means something different to every player. His reputation for repairs of very high end classical guitars is well documented, but his care for my variety of respectable electrics is equally thoughtful, detailed and, just as important, fairly priced. In Mr. Shoemaker I have found a guitar tech who goes beyond the simple philosophy of setups and basic, necessary repairs to deliver truly personalized care for my hard working guitars. I am a professional, touring and recording musician who, respectfully, demands a higher level of care for my instruments because they are directly connected to the functionality of my business. His repairs, upgrades and finish work revitalized my guitars beyond the original build quality of the instruments. I dont make recommendations lightly, but I can, without hype, recommend Danny Shoemaker, owner/operator of Straight Frets, as a top-shelf craftsman in a city that desperately needs the standard of service his exceptional work meets.

Im a long time, pretty serious guitar player with a stable of pretty legit guitars. I brought 2 Gibson Historic Les Pauls to Danny & Straight Frets for fret work, based on his growing reputation for quality work in town. One was a total refret & new bone nut, the other a fret dress/re-crown and a finish touch up spot.I can say with the utmost confidence that the quality of Danny & teams fret work is as good or better than any Ive experienced. I gambled on him bringing my two most expensive guitars to him, without having prior first hand experience with his work. But I tell you, I regret nothing. Both guitars turned out PHENOMENAL. The bill was not cheap - if paying the lowest possible price is what youre after, Straight Frets might not be your place - but you definitely get what you pay for.Some minor areas for improvement: 1. They dont take credit cards 2. They seem really disorganized - we talked on the phone several times and I had to remind Danny of some of the details of the work I wanted done, 3. Even though I told him many times I was in no hurry, Danny insisted my guitars would be done weeks before they actually were (overpromise/underdeliver type scenario).Overall, Im shelling out 5 stars because Danny is a really nice guy that does absolutely pro quality work. I will definitely be back.

I have hired Danny Shoemaker at Straight Frets to repair and refurbish several of my instruments, and he has done a fantastic job each time. My first task was to repair a vintage 1950s Gibson lap steel. Amazingly, Danny was able to remove the original single-coil pickup and replace it with a modern humbucker without causing any damage to a very valuable vintage instrument. In fact, Danny was able to keep the original single coil pickup and wiring completely intact, which will enable me to re-install it if I ever want to re-sell this lap steel with all of the original vintage parts. For those who are not familiar with this type of luthier work, this is basically the guitar equivalent of having a kidney transplant, and it was an unqualified success.My next nearly-impossible task was to install a pickup on an open-back banjo that was not designed for open-backed banjos. With some clever woodworking, Danny somehow managed to retrofit this pickup for the banjo. I dont know of any other guitar repairman in town who could have pulled this off, but Danny was up for the challenge and did a great job.By far the most difficult project I assigned to Danny was to hot-rod an old strat by putting active and passive pickups in the same guitar, and have the ability to turn each individual pickup on and off with three light switches built into the guitar. There are no guitars on the market that have this configuration, and from an electronics standpoint, its practically impossible to mix active and passive pickups. But Danny took on the challenge, and gave me his word that he would figure out a way to make it work.After a few weeks of tinkering, Danny called to tell me that after countless experiments, this project had completely stumped him and all of his employees, who are all top-notch guitar repairmen in their own right. Although Danny did not think it was theoretically possible to make this guitar come to life, he told me that he was going to bring in some outside electronics experts to come see if they had any recommendations. Danny paid for all of these experts out of his own pocket, and downright refused to let me pay for their labor.It took three different outside experts before the guitar became functional, but true to his word, Danny delivered to me a fully-functioning guitar. This project probably went at least 300% over budget, but Danny refused to let me pay anything over the original quote. It takes a man of tremendous integrity to do what Danny did. Not sure if Danny will want to take on any more of my crazy projects (!), but if he does, I know he will do a great job. He always does!

Best guitar repair/lessons

I needed a setup done on my Jimi Vaughan Tex-Mex Strat. Ive had most of the local techs in town work on it over the years (including Ed Reynolds, Dick Dubois, John Allison, Stephen Henning and more), but I was looking for someone closer to my location with a quick turnaround time. I saw Dannys website, looked at the reviews, noticed he was only a mile away and decided to give him a try.Unfortunately, my experience did not mirror the reviews below.I had Danny do a basic setup, replace the trem block with a Callaham and replace the bridge saddle screws. The price quoted (and paid for) was acceptable. However, it was Dannys customer service skills and manner that was off-putting.Although priced competitively, communicating with Danny was not a pleasant experience. I found him to be testy, defensive and argumentative, with poorly developed listening skills and a minimal attention span. On three different occasions, I tried to explain to Danny how I wanted the action set and was repeatedly and rudely interrupted to the point of frustration. I was seldom allowed to finish a sentence. On the last visit, I finally gave up, packed up my guitar and left.Although I hate to write a negative review, I would definitely not go back, nor would I recommend him to anyone who is discerning about their guitars and customer relations. There are plenty of other good techs in town who are much more accommodating, gracious, and priced about the same.

Dan is ridiculously amazing

Best luthier in Austin!

Plek your neck