A good friend who has taught me many great Blues licks- he started playing at age 8-- took a Church group on a summer tour to Nashville- his "roadie" axe is a Takamine- cut away- full 25.25 scale fretboard- D body like the Martin Dreadnoughts and the Gibson Sunburst- the neck has warped a bit- he had a Gospel gig in two days- took the Taka to Gruen's in Nashville- Guess what- they told him: "We send all our guitars up to Elderly's in Lansing, MI for repair, etc." He borrowed a Songbird from a local friend and used that-

Stan Werblin started that great operation about 25-30 years ago, in an old school stroage building on Washington St. in downtown Lansing- right near the LCC and the Capital Bldg.- It is called "Elderly' for the "Vintage" guitars and other stringed instruments, both new and used, they sell and service. They may well be the largest retailer of new Martins in the US of A- not sure.

I had them put a Fishman pickup in my HD-35 and they did a first class job- they also did a neck and re-fretting on the HD-28- I don't too much about the new Gibson in Nashville, believe they went out to MT. first- also heard they bought the Dobro (Dopera Brothers- National Guitar Chicago era) patent rights. I play a Scheerhorn Dobro (resonator guitar) as I have known Tim for years and helped him pack up the machinery (from Steelcase) when he first left Grand Rapids and went to Nashville-

Nashville is a great area indeed, but a bit tricky to get "inside of"- IMO--