No Big Tang

The origins of No Big Tang Guitar Maintenance & Repair go back to 1983 when I began round 2 of guitar lessons. Acoustic lessons 6 years earlier did not pan out. After all, what 7 year old wants to sit in an uncomfortable chair and learn to play “Mary Had A Little Lamb” on a nearly impossible to play crappy acoustic guitar. Now, on the brink of my teenage years, I wanted to ROCK!!! Electric guitar lessons were the key. It all began with a student rental guitar, which I found so frustrating that I simply had to find a way to make it into a better playing instrument. The guitar was a sunburst Teisco ET-200 Tulip. I struggled with the Teisco for a couple of weeks before I decided that it needed some love & care. After all, I had to conquer this guitar in order to learn to rock. There were no other options. Learn to play on this guitar, or do not learn how to play guitar & never learn to rock. The task at hand was a daunting one, made none the less by the fact that I was a 13 year old who knew nothing of guitars, let alone what it meant to set one up. Truss rod??? Action??? What??? And of course, it was a rental. I was responsible for the safe return of this instrument. After the strings were off, I was committed. I carefully took the guitar apart, cleaned it thoroughly and put it back together. I made sure that all of the moving parts were oiled and that all of the screws were tight. I restrung it and adjusted the string height. I didn’t know anything about intonation and it was, after all, a Teisco with a tremolo arm. I adjusted the pickup heights and had a better playing instrument. I had accomplished my goal and could learn to play this instrument and eventually, learn to ROCK!!!

The Teisco rental was returned and replaced by an Ibanez Roadstar II (RG530) purchased with savings and cash from my 14^th Birthday. Although there was nothing “wrong” with the Roadstar II, I had it in pieces on my bedroom floor within 3 months of purchase, to the horror of my parents. I put it back together and kept on rocking it for 5 years before getting a Fender Jazzmaster, which suffered the same fate. During those years, friends would give me guitars & basses to “tune up”. Eventually I learned more about guitar construction and set up procedures.

In the Spring of 2008, determined to get some proper training, I attended The Summit School of Guitar Building & Repair in Qualicum, BC and formed No Big Tang. No Big Tang came about in an attempt to define my business model. I am a guitar technician, not a luthier. My interests lie in maintaining and repairing stringed instruments, not in building them. I am not interested, at this time, in major structural repairs or in refinishing guitars. Hence, No Big Tang, no big things. If you are looking for a luthier to restore your 1945 Martin acoustic, I am not your man. If you are looking to have work done on your guitar for that gig this weekend, give me a call…