Summer Availabilty
This is a bit of a difficult post for me (more on why in a minute), but it's an important one. Please bear with me along the way.
I want to let you all know about my availability over the summer. Essentially, I’m going to be taking some time away from repair work
What does this mean?
Well, I’m going to be unavailable for new repair appointments from 4th July to 29th August.
And, that's the TL;DR (Too-Long-Didn't-Read) takeaway from this so it's worth restating:
I'll be unavailable for new repair appointments from 4th of July to 29th of August.
Why?
There are a number of reasons…
New Builds
Firstly—and most importantly—I have a number of builds that I need to work on and repair work is currently filling all of my time. Unless I can carve some time specially for builds, they won’t get done.
’Extra-curricular activities’
Secondly, I have a number of other projects that I’m working on and they’re not getting done either. Without dedicating a period of time to them, they’ll continue to just trickle along. I want to speed things up and that means taking a hit.
Personal time
Thirdly—and this is weirdly hard to say—I want to take a break. Over the last six or seven years, I’ve taken about twenty to twenty-five days off a year. That’s not twenty days holidays on top of weekends and bank holidays—that’s twenty days total. I tend to work Saturdays and Sundays most weeks and I don't take a lot of holidays.
I’m not complaining, by the way—I’m just saying this because I feel like I have to justify my decision. Truth is, I love my job. I can’t imagine a better one and I consider myself massively lucky that people trust me enough that I actually have this much work to do.
And that’s exactly why taking this time away is a difficult thing to do…
That difficulty I mentioned
I am hugely grateful that you guys have faith in me to get your guitars, basses, and miscellaneous stringed things playing their best. That means a lot to me.
And that's why I feel crappy thinking I might cause anyone hassle by not being available.
I'm sorry if this makes anyone's life more stressful than they need to be. I really hope it doesn't cause too much inconvenience.
How it’s going to work.
I’ll be unavailable for new repairs from from 4th July to 29th August.
I’ll be available by email all through this period. Feel free to mail me if you need some advice or whatever.
I’ll continue to blog, and email, and send I'm-Still-Alive messages throughout.
I’ll update here and the usual social media spots when appointments open again. If you’d like me to email you directly with this information, just pop your email address in the box below.
Availability between now and then
My calendar was pretty full for the next four weeks. However, I’ve hacked anything non-essential I can from my schedule and I’ve made a few more appointment slots available.
If you’ve something you’d like me to look at before the summer, make an appointment.
Thank you
I just want to finish by saying thanks. Thank you for trusting me and for letting me work on your instruments. I hope I won’t cause you too much hassle, and I hope I can see you again.