Great repair work shouldn't feel like a guessing game.
Fret Not is a one-person guitar repair service in Etobicoke built around plain answers, careful bench work, and a written quote before anything happens.
- Written quotes, no upsells
- One person, start to finish
- 60-day guarantee on workmanship
Why Fret Not exists.
Most players put repairs off. Not because the work is expensive, but because getting an instrument across the city to a shop and back is a hassle, and because it's hard to hand something you love to a counter and hope for the best.
Fret Not removes both problems. I pick up and deliver across Etobicoke and west Toronto, planning each week's trips around where the work is, so the bench comes to you. And nothing is ever a mystery: you get a ballpark before the instrument moves, a written quote before any work begins, and a straight answer about whether a repair is worth doing at all.
It's built for real players, students, parents, teachers, and home musicians. The guitar that gigs every weekend and the one that's been waiting in a closet get the same care.
How I think about the work.
- Diagnose before assuming.
- Explain the work before doing it.
- Make the instrument easier to play, tune, and trust.
- Recommend what the instrument needs, not what sells.
- Flat-rate pricing where the scope is clear, honest quotes where it isn't.
- Never rush work that shouldn't be rushed.
- Stand behind it: every job carries a 60-day workmanship guarantee.
One name on every job.
I'm Kjel (sounds like "cello" without the o), and Fret Not is me: one bench, one set of hands, every repair from first message to final playtest. When you write in, you're talking to the person who does the work. When something needs a judgment call, the person making it is the one holding your instrument.
I trained formally in guitar design, building, and repair, and started that training more than twenty years ago. The love of the craft hasn't let up since. My experience runs from basic restrings and setups, through full guitar make-overs, to custom instruments designed and built from the ground up. I started Fret Not to do this work the way I'd want it done on my own guitars: carefully, honestly, and without waiting forever.
One person means the accountability is simple. If your guitar comes back and something isn't right, there's exactly one person to call, and I'll make it right.
I don't just fix guitars. I build them.
Custom design and building is where my training started, and I still take on ground-up builds: an instrument designed around your hands, your sound, and your taste, made by the same person who'll set it up and stand behind it. If the guitar you want doesn't exist yet, you can hire me to build it.
Ask about a custom buildWhat comes through the door.
Fret Not is guitar-first and fretted-instrument first:
- Acoustic guitars
- Electric guitars
- Bass guitars
- Classical guitars
- 12-string guitars
- Mandolins
- Ukuleles
By request
I also take on selected work for violins, violas, cellos, and bows by request. These jobs are quoted individually after review.
Local on purpose.
Fret Not is based near Islington Station. Etobicoke and west Toronto are home turf, and I'm happy to arrange pickups out to Port Credit and east Mississauga. Trips are planned week by week around the workload, not a fixed circuit, so instruments don't sit in a backlog.
See the service areaThe bench you'll keep coming back to.
One person, every job by hand, and a straight answer at every step. Whatever it's doing (buzzing, fighting you, cutting out), describe it and we'll sort it.
Whenever you're ready.
Tell me what's going on, and you'll get an honest read and a written quote before anything happens.