RESTORATION GUITAR, a storefront & fretted instrument workshop in Camp Washington, opened in the heart of Northside on Saturday June 27th 2015. CHRIS SISSON, the shop’s owner & craftsman has been a working Lutheir in Cincinnati for over 35 years. During the 1980’s, Sisson’s shop was in the historical Lofts on 3rd street - “The Big Four Building” (at 517 West 3rd) with artists and photographers and the likes of 5th Floor Recording & McCrystal Wood. In recent years he’s been restoring guitars & selling person-to-person via online, sending restored guitars all over the world (including to Japan, Australia, Sweden, Holland, England, Ireland, France, and Russia to name a few). Sisson’s history is full of local groups and individual musicians. He worked closely with local jazz guitar icon Dave Baney, built an entire custom seven string jazz guitar for Kenny Poole, and worked on George Benson's guitars when he was in town; among doing work on a regular basis through a number of area music stores (such as Lammers music, Machinot music, The Music Store of Blue Ash and Midwest Music). RESTORATION GUITAR, will be a place musicians can bring their instruments for service and dialogue - from “it won’t play in tune or doesn’t feel right,” to “my girlfriend stepped on my guitar & the neck broke off,” or “I want something unusual that I can’t find anywhere else.” With music stores today being massive franchises (like Guitar Center and even Amazon), Sisson sees the lack of community-based shops - where musicians come to play, and more importantly, build a relationship with the Luthier. The shop will offer a complete range of fretted instrument services including authentic vintage finish and re-finishing, complicated structural repair of damages (including broken necks, broken body rims, broken backs & sides, missing wood, destroyed fingerboard, fire damage, and poorly done repairs), complete fret services, neck resetting, modifications, restoration (cleaning, polishing, adjustment), replacement of destroyed parts, Bromberg/Umanov arch-top conversion, and also build custom instruments from the ground up – a specialty of the shop.
“That’s what’s missing in today’s market – service!” says Sisson. He is excited about the recent Cincinnati OTR growth & that of Northside, hoping not only to offer the services for musicians but also be a great part of the community.
