Guitar Technician
I’ve been doing guitar repairs since I was sixteen, but I only turned full-time when I was twenty-five, so this is my second year as a full-time shop owner. I have a total of eleven years of guitar repair experience, of which, only seven of them are professional. Professional how so? At twenty years old was when I decided to sell my work as a service. So sixteen to twenty was experimentation and tips only, like pay-as-you-like.
So, by nature I’m a person that is always about community, about people coming together, y’know? I love interaction with people, and I believe in, uh, the kampung spirit, to put it that way. So, let’s put it another way, okay? My line of work is doing guitar repairs, and globally it’s a niche market. The number of people who are properly trained, I would say would be less than a thousand, globally. To a certain extent, there are some reputable shops in Singapore that we already know, where they don’t do honest work. And I’m against that lah. I believe in righteousness, and I believe in doing things the correct way. What I mean when I say I’m a guy that doesn’t want to be a sellout and I’m a guy who’s very kampung spirit in that music is something that everybody should be able to enjoy. Where I can add value to is if people can play their instrument effortlessly. Playing the instrument should not be, uh... it should not hold you back. What should hold you back is your creativity, and creativity has no limits.
So to summarise, my job is simple: I do guitar repairs for people so that people are happy, and because they are happy, they play music with other people and more people are happy. I see this as a big responsibility, setting things in motion. And that’s why I would say I’ll never be a sellout. Because my services and my repair works are not exclusive. Everybody should be able to get a taste of what a good guitar can be, or what a good bass can be.
Human interaction is a feature of my business. How I run my operations, is that my clients will book an appointment with me, similar to a doctor’s appointment, and they’ll sit in for one and a half hours while I repair their guitars in front of them. And in that one hour and thirty minutes, I’ll give them insights into their guitar, I’ll give them tips, I’ll build a relationship. So it’s more than just a service, it’s a whole experience, and I would say that I’m the only guy in Singapore who does this. And I have yet to find someone else from other countries who is doing something similar.
As a sole entrepreneur, I do things alone. And as every entrepreneur will tell you, entrepreneurship is a very lonely path. A lot of people will not understand your pains, cannot understand your concerns. But I kid you not, talking to my clients is one of the ways that I cope. So whenever I have a conversation with my clients, it’s always substantial. And I don’t find it energy draining. It’s like talking to your colleagues at work, it’s how I talk to my clients, and our conversations is more than just guitar. It’s like me asking for advice, them giving me advice, it’s a wholesome experience. I think the setting that I have in the shop also helps, and like, this was never part of the plan. It was just something that I was like, eh, this could be a thing.
Before I started doing this operation, I would do my operations just like any other shop where people will come, they will drop off their instrument, I will work on it after hours, and then they’ll come collect. So me doing appointments like this, I’m able to kill a lot of birds with one stone. One, is building customer relationships, Two, which is the most important, is, uh, funds. The turnover rate to get cash is a lot higher, I can pay rent. And thirdly, is uh, I don’t have to think about space. The client can get their guitar on the spot, and my shop won’t be so cluttered lah.
In preparation to go on tour with Wormrot [a Singaporean grindcore band that in 2017 became the first act from Singapore to play at the Glastonbury festival], what I would do after hours, is I would time myself for every setup. So, say I have like 10 guitars, my cutoff time is like 40 minutes. All guitars must be very playable, it must be of suitable quality. Yeah. I wouldn’t say it’s like proper work: it’s good enough, but more than good enough. It’s professional standard, but I wouldn’t do nitty-gritty things like major polishing, I wouldn’t go to that extent. But that was my quote-unquote “training” to go on tour. And that’s why like, if I were to tour with a band today bro, no matter the location, like, whether it’s DIY or professional, I can get the job done. Like when I was on tour with Wormrot, I was like, freaking doing guitar repairs on the freaking stairs, bro. Stairs leh! And like, I could do it like, no problems. I mean in Wormrot, I am an all-rounder tech la. I do everything. I do drums, I do mics, I do everything la. I’m not limited by the skills I showcase in my shop.
So me having an hour and thirty minutes in front of a client, dude, that’s more than enough time for me. One and a half hours is luxury for me compared to being on tour. My service package consists of me going the extra extra mile. It’s not because I want to be competitive. It’s not because of that, honestly. It’s just because I refuse to give back a guitar that I feel can be done better. I want to be the gold standard of guitar repairs.
I’m a firm believer in education. As an entrepreneur, the only way to expedite growth is through education. That’s the only way. Experience, sure. Experience can count. But what good is experience if you’re doing the wrong thing over and over again? So that’s why I go to the extremes lah. I guitar tech for like, Neck Deep, Sum 41. And it’s not because like it’s cool. Yeah it’s cool, but it’s because I want to learn how to tech. And like, dude, my first guitar tech touring setup was based off Sum 41. And then I just didn’t like how it was, and then I asked Neck Deep, and then Neck Deep give me some stuff and like, that’s my current setup now lah. And me going to Malaysia and literally, building a guitar, from tree to guitar [points to guitar on the wall]. The whole process. I know how to build a guitar from tree, bro. Like, from tree. Not from planks leh, from tree leh.
And let me be honest with you, man, the difference between good work and bad work, the difference is effort. So if someone gives you a bad guitar, it means whoever they are, they’re doing bad work. My secret is just doing good, honest work, man. The problem is that there are a lot of people doing bad work in Singapore but charging a premium. I’m not going to paint a picture of anybody, you know. I honestly think there are plenty of great Singaporean techs out there, but I would also like to say that there are some techs who have been in the industry for a long time, and they stick to their beliefs, which is nothing wrong. But then again, guitars and a lot of other things are going through lots of modernisation, and there’s now a different phase of guitars. Like, for example, plastic circuit boards in guitars are now getting more common, headless guitars, guitars with synthesisers, and it’s my job as a guitar tech to always be at the top of my game. Kind of, yeah, keeping myself abreast of industry standards in that way.
No. I’m not a luthier. You’re asking me very good questions, bro, I wish more people asked me questions like this. I hold the word “luthier” in a very high regard. I see it as a title I’m struggling to get. The word “luthier” is very, um, diluted right now. Everybody who repairs guitars calls themselves a luthier nowadays. But, if you look in a dictionary, a luthier is a person who can make stringed instruments. Not repair, but make. If you have yet to make a guitar or make any instrument, you cannot be called a luthier. According to the dictionary, I’m a luthier. So I if I want to I can label myself a luthier. But I refuse to. The day I’ll call myself a luthier is when building guitars becomes second nature. If you ask me to build a guitar right now, I can do it, but I’ll need at least 6 months to do it because it’s going to take a lot of trial and error, blah blah blah blah. Only when it becomes second nature to me, then I’ll call myself a luthier.
Let me tell you a little bit about me, lah. As a guy who repairs guitars, I play the guitar too, right? Of course. I’m a graduate of Sonic Arts in Republic Poly [Republic Polytechnic], where I studied music and live sound. When I was 16 and 17, I REALLY wanted to be a guitarist. And I mean good, I mean like, like a virtuoso, y’know? But I concluded that I just couldn’t be like that. And I kid you not, like, when I was in Poly, I was practising like, five, six hours every day after school, and I was buying gear, and I was basically on a route to become a good guitarist but somehow, I just couldn’t. But my friends who played guitar could understand music better than me within minutes, and they could play the things that I couldn’t play within minutes too. And I realized that it’s a capability that I just- like I just can’t do it, y’know? But here’s the crazy thing: it’s that me being a good repair-slash-guitar builder, that dream is a lot closer than me being a good guitarist. If you think that I’m going really hard on guitar repairs, trust me that I went just as hard on playing the guitar. I just can’t do it. I just can’t. Somehow, I just can’t.
I will always go back to me being 17, ‘cause me at 17 was when I wanted to really be in the music industry. And somehow, I did lah. Sheer grit, man. Sheer grit. Funny thing is that, if you look at my Instagram, I think in the year of 2023, in between 2023 and 2024, there were only five Instagram posts. Because in between those days, were days when I was constantly failing, bro. I’ve just never shown the world, man. I think failure - I think me and failure, uh... let’s put it this way lah, I’ve faced failure so much that failure doesn’t faze me. It’s just part and parcel of getting to the next level. I’ve failed so much, bro. I’ve failed way too many times. But there is never an easy way to be good. It’s just to practice. Sure, you can say talent, but talent without hard work is nothing. To tap into greatness, you know, you must be hardworking lah.
In Singapore, we’ve had the privilege of not having to think of the next step. Meaning to say, from kindergarten to primary school, primary to secondary, secondary to poly, and then poly to uni if you want, or you can go work. That’s the standard templated path. So when you do something that’s unorthodox, people will be like, “Why did you do that, man? You’re risking financial stability.” I would like to say that without risk, there is no reward. People will always ask me like, how did you get out of the quote-unquote rat race but like bro, it’s because I put two feet in the pool. I didn’t put one foot in the pool bro, I put two feet in the pool. It’s all or nothing. I had this conversation with Rasyid from Wormrot just the other day, and I was asking him like, when did you start becoming more, y’know? He was like, “Bro, that was when I put two feet deep, bro. When I left my day job.”
Singaporeans do not want to take the risk. Knowing that there is a path for you that has financial stability, Singaporeans will always choose financial stability. Let me tell you something, man: I honestly think I’m no different from any Singaporean. I’m a guy who works normally. It’s just that I did something unorthodox, something niche, and people see me in a different perspective, but honestly, please don’t. I’m just a guy who is following my heart. Singaporeans are the only people I know who are okay with working a job they don’t like just to earn money. I’m just saying, man. You can be rich, and being rich is great. But there’s a lot more to life than just riches lah. I think everybody has their own definition of what wealth is, my wealth is fulfilment.
Singapore, 2025
Photo credit: Jace How