Where can I get my guitar set up in Johannesburg?Honest answer: the forum threads don't name a specific Johannesburg tech we can recommend outright — most of the praise goes to Cape Town-based guys. Here's what the community does say: Alan Ratcliffe (our resident expert) has consistently recommended Foster van der Merwe as the go-to setup/luthier guy — but he's in Cape Town 1. Likewise, V8 praises Foster's and Gareth Travis's setup work 5. Marc Maingard (Guitars Africa) is another well-regarded builder/repairer, also Cape Town 2,7. If you're willing to ship or travel, those names come up repeatedly. For cost expectations, setup prices quoted on the forum were R250-R400 in 2008 (about R700-R1,000 in today's money) 4 and later R400-R500 in 2012 (about R800-R1,100 in today's money) excluding strings 8 — expect more now. If you're handy, DDDR4LYF suggests learning to do most of the setup yourself — action, intonation, truss rod and pickup heights are all user-serviceable — and only paying a tech for fretwork 8. Alan Ratcliffe agrees: electric guitars were designed to be serviced with common tools, and a setup book by Dan Erlewine plus some "skoolgeld" goes a long way 1,6. One caution from the threads: warrenpridgeon had bad experiences leaving a guitar with a shop's outsourced techie (long delays, damage) — so ask who actually does the work and how long it'll take before you hand it over 2. Since shop techs come and go, post a new thread asking members for a current Joburg recommendation — you'll get local, up-to-date answers there. From these forum threadsGuitar setup (2010)Setup rant thing... lol (2014)Who is the best person In Cape Town to setup my Guitar? (2008)Poll : How important is a well setup instrument (Guitar/Bass) (2016)Working on guitars (2009)Local Builder Spotlight: Marc Maingard (2018)Bass Guitar setup and service (2012)
