R Guitars

R Guitars Lifetime Warranty - Quality Fretwork - Fast Turnaround Time - Same-day Service Available All backed by a Lifetime Warranty. Call Steve today! 403.837.9958

R Guitars offers professional and prompt guitar repair/custom services and one-of-a-kind handmade acoustic guitars in Calgary.

When your pickup from 1963 sounds like a hamster with its nose plugged and is reading over a million ohms, it’s time for...
05/07/2026

When your pickup from 1963 sounds like a hamster with its nose plugged and is reading over a million ohms, it’s time for a rewind. We like to rewind vintage pickups rather than replace them with modern reproductions, to maintain the originality and character of the instrument. Having said that, let me be clear, there are no “bad” pickups nowadays, and everyone knows that the tone is actually in your hands. All of the modern reproductions are at least as good as the old ones, if not better. But there’s something to be said about the charm of a vintage instrument having all of its original components, weak magnets and all. And yes, I used my drill press as a vertical lathe to turn the new copper rivets down about 0.040” to the correct size because everyone also knows that guitar pickups only sound as good as they look 🙃

Airlines don’t just break guitars! This sanshin was literally broken in two pieces by some careless baggage handler, and...
04/30/2026

Airlines don’t just break guitars! This sanshin was literally broken in two pieces by some careless baggage handler, and it was even in a pretty decent case. Thankfully most everything can be repaired 🥰

04/25/2026

So I started building this guitar in 2019, and then the world kind of went crazy. After our original repair shop at MCC that we had been at since 2008 closed, in 2020 we moved the repair shop into my garage. Since then, things have only gotten crazier. We moved the shop again, from the garage to its current location, I’ve trained and hired 3 more techs (there are 7 of us now), we opened the showroom (everyday we buy/sell/trade guitars) and hired a sales manager. Asya and I had 3 more kids in that time, meaning that building guitars has taken a backseat to a lot of things. Well R Guitars #17 is finally complete, and she sounds and plays as good as she looks! The cedar top sounds broken in already and the aged violin maple lends its clarity and projection to the mix. It’s interesting for me to see the skill level I was at in 2019, and I’m very excited to start the next guitar builds!

All vintage Martin guitars suffer from the fact that they used to glue the pick guard onto the unfinished spruce top. Th...
04/04/2026

All vintage Martin guitars suffer from the fact that they used to glue the pick guard onto the unfinished spruce top. The plastic they used is unstable, and continues to off gas and shrink for decades. Eventually because it is glued, the stress is so high that it will crack the top along the grain at the edges of the pick guard. Typically we will remove the pick guard to relive the internal stresses, and then after sealing the spruce with shellac will reapply the original guard with double sided tape. In this case our client wanted a new look, so we custom made him a new tortoise 🐢 guard.

Same day guitar setup slots are all booked for Saturday! If you have a gig, recording session, wedding, or funeral to pl...
03/21/2026

Same day guitar setup slots are all booked for Saturday!

If you have a gig, recording session, wedding, or funeral to play and it’s a musical emergency 🚨 then yes we can always sneak you in, no extra charge. Otherwise we’ll see you on Monday :)

Happy strumming 🎶

First coats of nitro on R Guitars #17 and she’s looking fine! Violin maple back & sides, as well as matching neck, fret...
03/10/2026

First coats of nitro on R Guitars #17 and she’s looking fine! Violin maple back & sides, as well as matching neck, fretboard, headstock and bridge. Western red cedar top, this is our all Canadian “tariff free” tone wood combination. If it sounds half as good as it looks I think I just might make another one 😘

Happy Straturday 😎
03/07/2026

Happy Straturday 😎

We specialize in vintage refrets, and currently have 12 in the queue and are so very grateful for your patience. Gretsch...
03/07/2026

We specialize in vintage refrets, and currently have 12 in the queue and are so very grateful for your patience. Gretsch, Fender, Martin, Gibson, Burny, Dobro, Ibanez, Guild, Vantage, we don’t discriminate. This 1970 Gibson Les Paul Custom had frets so low and flat that they were barely able to be played. After a small neck alignment in the Erlewine neck jig, the new frets are installed and she’s ready to rock for another 50 years!

Canadian winter ❄️ meets ebony. This ebony fretboard did not like the humidity (or lack thereof) when it arrived in Calg...
02/18/2026

Canadian winter ❄️ meets ebony. This ebony fretboard did not like the humidity (or lack thereof) when it arrived in Calgary, and cracked before it even made it into the new owner’s hands. Believe it or not we see and repair this quite often, and no brand is exempt. Gibson, Martin, Fender, Collings, Larrivée, Charvel, Ibanez, ESP, Takamine, Warwick, Ernie Ball, PRS… we’ve seen them all.
In Alberta they say there are two types of ebony, the stuff that’s cracked, and the stuff that’s gonna crack 🙃

So if you’ve ever worried about what happens when your guitar strap slips in the studio, and the neck hits the corner of...
02/12/2026

So if you’ve ever worried about what happens when your guitar strap slips in the studio, and the neck hits the corner of your desk so perfectly that it relinquishes and sends the twelfth fret clear across the room, and breaks two big chunks of maple off… don’t worry we got you 😘

Address

116 21 Avenue Ne
Calgary, AB
T2E1S2

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 7pm
Tuesday 10am - 7pm
Wednesday 10am - 7pm
Thursday 10am - 7pm
Friday 9am - 7pm
Saturday 12am - 4pm

Telephone

+14038379958

Website

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