Dr Guitar Care

Dr Guitar Care Dr Guitar Care provides professional guitar repair, and services, with over 47 years of experience. Serving all of Upstate New York and beyond!

Specializing in vintage guitar restorations, collectables and complex repairs that many shops turn away.

08/06/2026

No matter what your problem is with your instrument Dr Guitar Care Can fix it. It doesn't matter what condition! It doesn't matter what's wrong! I can do it. I offer many solutions to everyone's problems with their instruments. Call me today to learn more. I have 47 years experience and my clients come To me from all over New York and PA. Jack at (518) 844-5870
Call now or visit https://www.drguitarcare.com or https://www.newyorkguitarcare.com

I just finished this Harley Benton Baritone CLG-414BCE NT setup up a few days before my surgery, so it had to sit and ju...
07/30/2026

I just finished this Harley Benton Baritone CLG-414BCE NT setup up a few days before my surgery, so it had to sit and just was able to get a few hours in the past two days with help from my nephew getting me back and forth to the bedroom.

I really want to get on to finishing up my real hard chores waiting, but I am still weak and not 100% to where I can do all the required back and forth walking to finish up the last leg of restorations, But I will be there shortly, thankfully., At least I got all the heavy painting done before my operation! That leaves each guitar that's left, the 3-4 weeks for the Nitrocellulose to kick fully off and dry for final sanding and buffing.

As for this Harley Benton...

For a guitar that generally falls into roughly the **$200–$300 price range**, it really isn’t the worst guitar in the world. In fact, I think something like this can make sense for a player who is curious about baritone guitar but isn’t ready to spend a large amount of money just to find out whether it suits them.

That being said, I would expect to put at least a few hundred dollars into one, depending on its condition, if you want it properly set up and upgraded into an instrument that is genuinely enjoyable to play.

This one was purchased used, and when it arrived at my bench, quite a few things were out of adjustment. Some of that may have come from the previous owner.

I went through the guitar from headstock to bridge.

One of the first things I noticed was that the nut itself was sitting at an angle from the bass side to the treble side. For now, I shimmed and corrected its position rather than immediately replacing it. Since my client isn’t yet sure whether he plans to keep the guitar long-term, there was no reason to make him spend money unnecessarily. If he decides he loves the guitar, I can always make and install a new nut later.

The nut slots were also far too high. Pressing some of the lower notes required an absurd amount of effort — you practically needed **Stevie Ray Vaughan’s hands and a little help from a gorilla** just to fret the thing.

I carefully filed the slots down to the proper height, leaving the strings as close to the first fret as possible without introducing buzzing.

From there I worked through the complete setup, checking neck relief, string height, action, nut height, and intonation. After correcting the nut and dialing everything in, the intonation landed right where it should be.

The difference was dramatic.

When this guitar came in, it fought the player in almost every possible way. Once everything was adjusted correctly, the string height felt excellent and the guitar became surprisingly comfortable, playable, and actually enjoyable.

There was still one thing bothering me.

The original tuners simply weren’t very good. The gear ratio was too low, adjustment wasn’t particularly precise, and the overall quality matched the price point of the instrument. I replaced them with a new set of **21:1 ratio tuners**, which gave much finer control when tuning the baritone strings.

That turned out to be the finishing touch.

All things considered, this really isn’t a bad little baritone guitar. With the setup corrected and a few sensible improvements made, it now plays far better than it did when it arrived.

For someone who wants to experiment with baritone guitar without immediately investing in an expensive instrument, something like this can actually be a reasonable starting point — especially once it has been properly set up.

I think my client is going to have a lot more fun with this guitar when he gets it back.

The photos show some of the steps I went through while getting it back into a comfortable, playable, and enjoyable condition.

07/29/2026

This song actually began years before it became a finished piece of music. The original foundation came from a guitar riff I wrote as a teaching exercise for my students. I wanted to demonstrate different playing techniques, rhythmic ideas, and stylistic approaches associated with several types of guitarists without copying anyone else’s actual music. By creating my own material, the students could study those techniques while the composition itself remained original—something that also makes it much more suitable for sharing publicly on platforms such as YouTube.

Much later, I came across that old teaching riff again and realized there was a complete song hiding inside it. I began expanding the original idea, writing additional sections for the verses, pre-chorus, chorus, and bridge. What started as a relatively simple educational guitar exercise gradually developed into a much larger composition with its own personality, direction, and emotional character.

One of the things I wanted to preserve was an unusual rhythmic structure. Much of the song is built around a 7/4 time signature, which gives the music a slightly unpredictable movement while still allowing the melody to remain strong and memorable. Rather than making the odd meter feel complicated simply for the sake of being complicated, I tried to use it as part of the natural pulse of the composition.

As the arrangement developed, I began writing detailed production instructions for each section of the song. My goal was to combine symphonic rock with heavier alternative influences while maintaining a clear melodic structure. Different sections were scripted to change in intensity, instrumentation, dynamics, and atmosphere so the song could grow naturally instead of sounding like one musical idea repeated from beginning to end.

I also worked with synthesized vocals based on my own voice, allowing the vocal performance to remain connected to the character of the original music while taking advantage of modern production technology. I supplied the musical ideas, lyrics, individual tracks, structure, and detailed instructions, then uploaded those elements into Suno so the system could interpret my production directions and assemble them into the final arrangement.

What fascinates me most about the finished song is that the technology did not replace the original creative process—it helped complete it. The riff, composition, lyrics, structure, musical decisions, and production concepts all began with ideas I created and developed over time. Suno became the tool that helped bring those separate pieces together into a finished symphonic and alternative-rock production. Hearing an old teaching exercise evolve into the final song was something I never expected, and I was genuinely amazed by what came out of the process.

07/28/2026

I’ve spent the past four evenings finishing this song, which began with a simple idea from my own life. It is partly autobiographical, telling the story of when I left Paterson for the Jersey Shore and the memories I made there—roaming the beach and boardwalk, enjoying the music and nightlife, and driving my car along the coast as the years passed.
At the same time, I tried to write it in a way that other people could relate to. Most of us have a similar story somewhere in our past. We remember a certain summer, a special place, or one of those relationships that occasionally returns to our thoughts throughout the years. More than anything, though, this song is meant to be fun and to celebrate what it means to be from Jersey.
I began working on the song and video concept partly to keep my mind occupied while my leg heals, so I would not have to rely as heavily on pain medication. Since I am currently unable to walk very much and remain off from work, songwriting has given me something positive and creative to focus on. I can still spend about 20 to 40 minutes at a time sitting at my workbench and handling simpler guitar repairs, but I have to be careful not to overdo it.
I do much of my arranging and songwriting in Guitar Pro 7. I’m comfortable writing parts for different instruments in either tablature or traditional notation. Guitar Pro can export the finished work as audio, but I usually prefer MIDI because it allows me to move each individual part into other music programs and continue developing the arrangement.
For this song, I began with the words. I then created a storyboard to help shape the story and made detailed notes for the intro, verses, pre-choruses, choruses, instrumental sections and outro. After that, I wrote the main instrumental parts in MIDI, imported them into my digital audio workstation and created separate recordings for the individual instruments.
I also recorded and sampled my own vocals. I used a form of pitch correction to smooth out some of the rougher areas, then uploaded the vocal sample to Suno so the finished song could retain some of the character of my own voice. Even though I am using AI as part of the process, I still want the song to feel personal and connected to the person who wrote it.
For the video, I uploaded photographs of myself from different periods of my life, beginning at around fifteen years old and continuing through the present day. I used AI to create new images that matched the lyrics and showed me gradually changing with time. I would say about 55 percent of them are fairly accurate, a few reasonable in the ballpark, Maybe, and the rest—well, sometimes you just have to laugh, accept what you get and keep moving forward.
Artificial intelligence helped bring the music, vocals, images and ideas together, but I still prefer to do as much of the writing and arranging manually as possible. I mainly use AI to smooth out certain sections, add instruments, experiment with different sounds and help turn the ideas in my head into something other people can see and hear.
I am still learning, especially when it comes to combining my songs with video. That may be the most difficult part of the process for me, but nothing has ever stopped me for very long. I usually find a way around the obstacles and eventually figure out how to make the idea work.
I hope all my Jersey friends enjoy “Jersey Shore Summer.” It was created from real memories, a love of music and a desire to celebrate those unforgettable summers—and the people connected to them—that stay somewhere inside us for a lifetime. See less

07/23/2026

This is a song I have been developing for nearly two months, and I have finally completed it as well as I could with the tools available to me. The melody, musical ideas, and lyrics are entirely my own.

I uploaded my original recording and lyrics to Suno, instructing it to preserve the character and sound of my music while expanding and adapting the arrangement. After completing the song, I uploaded the finished MP3 and my written lyrics to ChatGPT, which helped me combine the music with a series of images to create the final video.

This project was a true learning experience, and although I know there is always room for improvement, I am proud of what I was able to create.

This is a song I have been developing for nearly two months, and I have finally completed it as well as I could with the tools available to me. The melody, musical ideas, and lyrics are entirely my own.

I uploaded my original recording and lyrics to Suno, instructing it to preserve the character and sound of my music while expanding and adapting the arrangement. After completing the song, I uploaded the finished MP3 and my written lyrics to ChatGPT, which helped me combine the music with a series of images to create the final video.

This project was a true learning experience, and although I know there is always room for improvement, I am proud of what I was able to create. Lyrics as followed:

# The Old Man by Dr Guitar Care

It was but the hand of God
We chiseled these faces.
The beauty shone through like the rays of an angel’s wings,
Brushing their faces and their bodies like Olympian gods.

But in their sins and self-lust,
The hands of God condemned them to time,
And the lines began to grow across their faces.
As gravity pulled them down,
It revealed and unveiled the journeys taken.

The mirrors cried their sins and the years.

---

I’m flying my flag
’Cause I’m just an old hag,
Carrying my Boone’s Farm
In a paper bag.

You better move aside
’Cause I’ll take you for a ride
Before we get down
And our dentures collide.

Bang, bang with the old man,
Diggity dang.

I said, bang, bang with the old man,
Diggity dang.

Sha-sha-shi-sha-dah,
Old Man!

Ha-sha-shi-sha-dah,
Old Man!

---

No crying for mercy
’Cause the years slid by,
Dabbling in bulls**ttery
With no reason why.

It came and it went
With the snap of a whip.
Youth traded for age
Brought me to this crypt.

Bang, bang with the old man,
Diggity dang.

I said, bang, bang with the old man,
Diggity dang.

Sha-sha-shi-sha-dah,
Old Man!

Ha-sha-shi-sha-dah,
Old Man!

---

No, it’s time to play
Kick the can with the Catman.
Why fantasize and visualize
That I’m Batman?

Da-da-da-da-da, Batman!

Old man, young man,
Forever we sync.

---

Graded and decayed
While my memories fade,
To a chattering line of dentures
Leading the parade.

Gravity tugging at my skin,
Ripping away the years.
Who gives a s**t?
I did it all without any fear.

---

’Cause I’m flying my flag
’Cause I’m just an old hag,
Carrying my Boone’s Farm
In a paper bag.

You better move aside
’Cause I’ll take you for a ride
Before we get down
And our dentures collide.

Sha-sha-shi-sha-dah,
Old Man!

Ha-sha-shi-sha-dah,
Old Man!

I believe this was about 4-5 years ago. I add all the pictures up to right before I clear coated it so you can see what ...
07/17/2026

I believe this was about 4-5 years ago. I add all the pictures up to right before I clear coated it so you can see what it looks like underneath the clear coat. Turned out quite well. A FaceBook memory brought me a few of the missing images I had been looking for.

07/12/2026

Here you can see a video of me working through a complete setup and repair service for a client’s Taylor 114CE.

For this job, the client requested new strings, fret leveling and polishing, a full setup adjustment, and a thorough cleaning. I also carefully checked the guitar to make sure everything was working properly and that it played comfortably from top to bottom.

Many of my clients appreciate these videos because I explain each step of the process as I work. It gives them a better understanding of what is being done to their guitar, why the work is necessary, and exactly what they are paying for.

Here we have a 2013 Martin Custom that belongs to a very talented musician from here in Upstate New York.He has been pla...
07/07/2026

Here we have a 2013 Martin Custom that belongs to a very talented musician from here in Upstate New York.

He has been playing music since the 1970s, and even after a serious brain infection over a decade ago left him wheelchair bound, he has continued to stay involved with music through a special-needs band in our area.

I do pro bono work for this band and these special individuals whenever I can, because sometimes helping someone keep their instrument playable means helping them keep a very important part of their life alive.

He called me the other day and told me the binding was starting to come loose on his guitar. Once I got there and looked it over, I also found a crack in the body running underneath the bridge area.

Now I’ll be taking a careful look at the guitar, coming up with the right repair plan, and doing what I can to get this Martin back into his hands where it belongs.

07/05/2026

I feel good about the 1963 Stratocaster body now. I have it the way that I want it. once this coat dries enough I will sand the orange peel, any overspray, and then clearcoat it for the next three to four days. I will it dry good for at least 3 weeks and give it the final sand and buff out, then I'll upload everything once it's all put together and while the electronics are done and then maybe two more videos one of it all put together and maybe a sound bite of it after it's all wired and assembled.

Address

736 County Highway 146
Gloversville, NY
12078

Telephone

+15188445870

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