His restorations are true artwork

I was moved by Debra Smith’s recent article featuring John Bentley of Bentley’s String Instruments (“Fretting over the music business”). I owe a lot to John. Thanks to him, one of my dearest old friends is still alive and well.

I got my 1973 Guild acoustic guitar as a gift from my father on my 13th birthday in Georgia. It was used, but in good condition. Over these past 32 years, that guitar has traveled back and forth across the country many times, had its neck broken in New Jersey, and been warped by time and weather to the point of being virtually unplayable.

I stumbled into John’s shop a few years ago with my crippled buddy, carried in a case held together by tape and nylon straps. John saw beyond the wear and tear to the original quality of its craftsmanship and assured me that it was worth saving.

To make a long story short, John worked his magic on my old Guild, and it plays better now that it ever has before. It’s the only guitar I own, and for now at least, it’s the only guitar I need.

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut wrote that a “flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” Perhaps doing “maintenance” wouldn’t be so distasteful if we turned it into an art, as John Bentley has done. We can learn a lot about the art of living itself from people like John, and when I finally do need another guitar, I know where I’m going.

Jim Strickland

Everett