The Fret Shop

The Fret Shop The Fret Shop takes pride in speedy and high quality service and repairs of stringed instruments and building of the locally made Andronis guitar brand.

Please call 027 917 1710 or email [email protected] to make an appointment. The Fret Shop was established in 2001 after Andries returned from America where he lived and worked for 2 years, while studying to become a qualified Luthier. Before going to America, Andries studied towards a diploma in Woodwork, and worked as a Woodwork Teacher where he fine tuned his knowledge and craft. Andries and his repair shop is well known in the music industry due to his extensive knowledge of all string instruments, as well as his sterling service and faster-than-anyone-else turn around times. He takes pride in a job well done and charges reasonable prices. Since he’s been involved in repair work, he has become a household name to many well known South African Artists. He started his own line of guitars, previously known as Foster Customs and now changed to Andronis, which he hand-builds on order. Welcome to the home of innovative and dynamic guitar designs and Repairs!

06/09/2026
Made some progress today.
29/07/2026

Made some progress today.

18/07/2026
New Andronis Bass
16/07/2026

New Andronis Bass

On the bench. Guitars come in a lot of different price points. This is very confusing to us. Different models, but what ...
09/07/2026

On the bench. Guitars come in a lot of different price points. This is very confusing to us. Different models, but what is the real difference? My view might differ from everyone else, but think about this. The amount of progress needed to create the best guitar in the world, let's say hypothetically it takes 600 steps to make this guitar. From cutting the tree to the final product in the case, the average cheap guitar might only have 30-50 of these steps or processes. Let's look at one aspect: fret ends. On most guitars, the angle of cutting the fret ends is slightly increased, instead of using a 3-corner file to remove the burr on the edge. They might use a crowning file alone as a deburring tool. As shown in the first picture, the crowning file doesn't make it all the way down to the edge of the fretboard. This will leave a sharp edge that the player will feel occasionally. This is where the steps or processes skipped come in. Adding the use of a 3-corner file with a small radius on the edge of the fretboard adds 3-5 extra steps. Done right, this can add 1-3 hours to the manufacturing process, depending on the skill level of the worker or machine doing the process. The second picture shows the extra steps. It's such a small difference in material that most people will miss this when buying a guitar, but it can make the biggest difference. I hope this helps with choosing.

On the bench, battery holder, clean cut with up and down cut spiral bit.
08/07/2026

On the bench, battery holder, clean cut with up and down cut spiral bit.

If and when you can hand-pick your new guitar from a physical store, then try to stay away from knots in the fingerboard...
08/07/2026

If and when you can hand-pick your new guitar from a physical store, then try to stay away from knots in the fingerboard. Make sure you try to find your forever guitar with straight grain and year rings that are closer than 5mm apart. This is not a guarantee that the neck will stay straight, but your starting point for a guitar you can have, play, and love is much higher if you avoid the knots and wide year-ring pattern. Last thing, when you see the open pores and they are very visible, then the fretboard is most likely flat-sawn. Again, not always. I hope this helps in finding the one.

Fixing a Gibson neck repair. Before and after.
30/06/2026

Fixing a Gibson neck repair. Before and after.

Coming along nicely.
26/06/2026

Coming along nicely.

Address

Redvale Rise, Redvale
Auckland
0794

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 2pm

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