Today we’d like to introduce you to Ron Richards.
Hi Ron, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have played guitar most of my life. When I was about 11 years old, I took guitar lessons on a very difficult playing guitar. Good guitars were hard to find in those days at an affordable price, especially living on the back roads in Indiana. Through the years I learned to make adjustments on my own to help them play easier for me.
Even more expensive guitars today need setups and the guitar stores acknowledge this by offering a guitar setup for an additional fee.
I created KC Guitar Setups to be a home-based business with great personal service and quick turnaround times. I was always setting up my own guitars and some of my friends liked how I did mine. I was told I should open up a shop and didn’t really think it would do much. After creating my website and google biz page, I started getting a few calls, and then they told their friends.
Before long, I had make room in my shop for two workbenches. It got me thinking about players who perhaps couldn’t afford a setup and had a guitar given to them so I began accepting any work to help them.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Some folks were bringing me guitars in pretty bad shape. They were family heirlooms and they just wanted to be able to play them again. Those were challenges to dig deeper into how far I wanted to go with this business. I was working full-time in healthcare IT as an Integration Engineer and I had to make to turn some guitar work away due to my time I had available for more intense Luthier work. I usually recommended them to a full-time shop on those points. Overcoming the fear that I might do harm to someone’s guitar was often a struggle, but any mistakes I made was a learning experience and to stay with what I do best, and that is setting up guitars, or making modifications to them that enabled me to have a fast turnaround time. Guitar players want their guitars back asap!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The guitar and bass setups are focused on playability and some general maintenance. I keep the customer’s preferences in mind such as low action with little or no buzzing of the strings. Some like them the strings a little higher.
I restore the guitar to the proper measurements and then I make final adjustments personalized for them by playing it, ensuring it feels right. Finding that sweet spot for their guitar and style of playing may take further discussion and work.
I also have an Electronics background which allows me to fix most electric issues in a guitar. Sometimes the customer brings different guitar pickups, components and parts they prefer to install.
Getting to know each customer and their playing style helps me to give them their instruments back playing better than ever. That is where I think the reward is mostly.
My customers love the fast turnaround time I can give them and their reviews reflect the personal touch I try to achieve. I guarantee my work meaning if they wanted another adjustment or weren’t happy with the work they don’t pay anything.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
On the home page of my website, I wrote, “Ron’s Professional Guitar Setups will help you “…play skillfully, and shout for joy” I am quoting from a bible passage in Psalms 33:3. I suppose I measure success as being able to help my fellow players. I know the struggles of not having enough money to buy the best guitar out there and to get them to feel right or sound good.
I find success in meeting my customers. One customer knew I was a Chet Atkins fan and he brought me guitar stool that Chet sat and played a concert on for a college. I love hearing the stories on their guitars they bring to me as well.
Many customers bring me a much cheaper guitar which often is more difficult to play. I treat them the same as those who bring a $4,000 dollar guitar. I had several customers giving me their old guitars to fix up and give away.
Another customer paid me money to use throughout the year to do extra work on those customers who I thought might not have the money to pay for the extra parts, or work. He always thought if he had a better playing guitar when he was younger he might have been a better player today. That same customer has provided me with 15 new beginner style electric guitars to setup and give away as well.
It is rewarding to see this happen and the success for me is seeing them “play skillfully, and shout for joy”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kcguitarsetups.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kcguitarsetups/
