Gene Liberty's Guitar Repair

Gene was polite and amiable towards helping me with my intonation problem on my guitar, and he may be a skilled craftsman but when it comes to repairs, he was clueless as to what needed to be done to fix my Martin acoustic. He hooked my guitar up to his Dr. Frankenstein type machines and proceeded to confirm my intonation problems, then applied some second-rate contraption onto my saddle and told me that my intonation was so far off, that he would need to mill the saddle on my bridge to attempt to fix it, and that Martin had placed my bridge in the wrong place. If I had listened to him, not only would my bridge be destroyed but my intonation would have never been resolved, because on second opinion from an actual authorized Martin tech, my new guitar was missing a neck shim and only need that and a truss rod adjustment. Now my guitar plays fine. Would never go to Gene for any repairs. Thank God. He didn't even take a scale length measurement and compare it to the specs for my guitar.

I have never, on my 37 years on this earth met somebody as nice and as wise as Gene Liberty when it comes to guitars. This man spent a few *hours* with me on a basic guitar setup and taught me more things in a few hours than I could in a few years of watching youtube videos. He is wise beyond his years and I wish there were more genuine luthiers like him on this planet. We'd probably all be better off for it. His guitar setups are impeccable. His attention to detail is insane. He set the intonation on my Jackson with an oscilloscope and a device he engineered which detects and visually shows pitch in granular detail. That's how much he cares about the craft. His hand crafted guitars are beautiful, he's a wonderful guy and I cannot recommend him enough to anyone looking for a luthier in Illinois. He's worth the travel. Please go there. You'll have a blast, learn a lot, and get some of the best, genuine guitar maintenance/repair/setup you'll ever have in your life.

Contracted Mr. Liberty to build a custom electric using my blueprints. 1. Totally wrong binding on front and back of the body. 2. Totally incorrect placement of tuners. 3. Neck angle insufficient to get my string action lower. 4. Frets off by 5cts. 5. Had to put a thicker fretboard on, not only were the frets off, because since he didn't put enough tilt in the neck I couldn't get the action low enough. Arrogant and demeaning attitude . Had to go to another Luthier to straighten out the mess. Pictures available apon request, along with all the corrections that had to be made. NEVER AGAIN.

Gene is a great guy who knows EVERYTHING about guitar repair. Recommended most highly.

I just got my Gibson acoustic back from Gene after she took a nasty nose dive and broke the headstock. I took it to Gene and you can hardly tell where the break was! Amazing craftsman ship! One of the best Luther's in the industry hands down. Highly recommended! I have been doing business with Gene for over 35 years with good reason!