The Stationery Factory, a repurposed mill in Dalton, MA, houses several businesses, and among them lie a mecca for guitarists – The Music Repair Shop.
In the Music Repair Shop, you’ll find two businesses where craftsmen tackle the instrument from two different angles. JW Handcrafted provides all your luthier needs, while Moddjobs will service or hotrod your amplifier. And both will custom build you the guitar or amp of your dreams!
Connecting Point’s Brian Sullivan takes us to Berkshire County in search of six string bliss.
Watch a digital exclusive piece on the sense of community in the Stationery Factory.
Read the full transcript:
Zydalis Bauer, Connecting Point: The Stationery Factory, a repurposed mill in Dalton, Mass, houses several businesses and among them lie a mecca for guitarists: The Music Repair Shop, an umbrella under which you’ll find two craftsmen who tackle the instrument from two different angles.
JWHandcrafted provides all your luthier needs, while Moddjobbs will service or hot rod your amplifier. And both will custom build you the guitar or amp of your dreams.
Connecting Point’s Brian Sullivan takes us to Berkshire County in search of six stringed bliss.
Brian Sullivan, Connecting Point: It’s a cold Saturday night in the Berkshires, and local musician Jack Waldheim is prepping to warm up the near-capacity crowd with some tunes at the Shire Breu Hous.
Once the music gets going, it almost sounds like there’s a lot more than just one musician up there. The casual observer may even assume that there’s a prerecorded backing track. Well, there is, in a way, only it’s Waldheim recording those tracks as he plays them through a looping system.
Now, this technology isn’t necessarily new, but it’s certainly gained popularity among lots of solo acts in recent years. It takes a real technician to pull it off seamlessly, and if anyone fits that bill, it’s Jack Waldheim. Not only is he a talented guitarist, but he’s the guy people go to in order to get their guitars fixed.
His office? It’s right here at the Stationery Factory in Dalton, Massachusetts. Just two stories up from the very restaurant that he plays at a couple of nights per month. Not a bad commute.
And on top of that, his business partner up here on the second floor also fixes amplifiers. With their company names emblazoned on the door, visitors may get the sense that they’re coming to see real specialists, almost like James Bond visiting Q in the old spy thrillers.
Jack Waldheim, JW Handcrafted: There aren’t as many instrument repair people as there used to be, perhaps. We have people coming in that have all sorts of different needs with their guitars, from beginners that don’t know how to restring them or someone who just bought a guitar and wants us to look at it, initially, to make sure everything is OK with it. Maybe they bought it from a big box store and they don’t do a really good quality check, they bring it to us, and we do that.
All the way through replacing pickups, hot rodding guitars, making them a better playing guitar for the specific needs of a local musician, all the way down to replacing frets or any of the deeper work that a guitar can need after years of service to get it to be playable for years more.
Brian Sullivan: Of course, this business wasn’t just some overnight idea that somehow came to fruition. Waldheim and business partner Nick Winnard had already established themselves as repair specialists, working side by side at a local music shop for over 20 years. Winnard’s side hustle in laser work was beginning to take off.
And as it turns out, it was the new economic landscape of 2020 that served as the final push for the two to officially go into business together.
Nick Winnard, Moddjobbs: Berkshire Laser Co. was was growing. You know, I was finding myself, you know, staying up, you know, some later nights, you know, in my — my shop that I had at home, you know, with some of the orders and things that were coming in.
And so, we had discussed a workshop space for quite some time and had actually begun the process of looking for something like this when Covid happened in 2020. So as kind of everything was, you know, kind of shut down we were we were building, you know, this this project.
Brian Sullivan: It was a project that they had no plans of allowing to fail. While most businesses were closed down during 2020, they continued to operate behind the scenes before finally opening their doors to the public in August of that year.
And neither of them is a one trick pony. Waldheim not only fixes guitars, he custom builds them and makes straps and cables. Winnard not only fixes and modifies tube amps, but custom builds them. And his laser engraving business is becoming very lucrative.
They may not have known it at the time, but 2020 turned out to be their best chance to get out of retail and turn their hobbies into their livelihoods.
Jack Waldheim: After twenty five years locally fixing instruments, we had a lot of customers that already knew about us and we’re looking to find us when we moved here. Also being part of the local music scene, there’s a…there’s a…there’s a community of of music around here that’s always been really positive.
And knowing everybody in that community as a musician, they also know me as a repair guy from my long time doing it and they have found me here.
Nick Winnard: I think that it’s been a decision that has been exciting, I mean, I’ve seen more growth in this year with both the custom amplifier builds that I’ve been doing, the repair business, as well as the laser engraving. And, you know, being able to kind of guide the the growth in those areas, I think has been the biggest thing, you know?
Because I — I — I know…they’re things that started off just as something that I did because I love to do it. They were they were hobbies that were supporting themselves, and then that started to grow into into something more.
