About Langston Guitar & Amp Works (LGAW)

LGAW is a full-service guitar, amplifier, and musical equipment repair facility. LGAW also builds high-quality custom electric guitars using Tempered Tonewoods.

I started LGAW in January of 2013. My name is George Langston. I have been officially practicing guitar repair and luthiery since 1977 when I attended the Charles Fox School of Guitar Research and Design in South Strafford Vermont. Previously, I had become interested in guitar building and repair during high school through reading books by Irving Sloan, Don Teeter, and Hideo Kamimoto. My interest was driven by two factors – my love for playing guitar , and my love for working with my hands. These two forces, coupled with the fearlessness of youth found me adding custom pearl inlays into my prized Martin D-18 that my parents bought me for my 16th birthday, re-fretting an old D-28,  and refinishing and rewiring my first telecaster (not such a good plan in retrospect) which I bought with summer job money while still in high school.

After attending the Charles Fox School of Guitar Research and Design in 1977 I worked in Santa Fe, NM doing guitar repair for a couple of local music stores until around 1984. During this time I also worked in some local cabinet shops where I started building custom Telecasters after-hours using the available machinery and eventually started my own workshop and finishing booth.

After years of struggling to make a living playing music and repairing guitars, I decided to follow another interest of mine which was electronics, which came about through working with musical sound-reinforcement equipment. I eventually put myself through tech school then engineering school while working in an audio repair shop and playing music in Albuquerque, NM. These efforts resulted in a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. I worked for a couple of semiconductor companies located in Albuquerque and San Jose, CA up until late 2011 when my last job was “outsourced”.

Luckily for me, this gave me the opportunity to get back to my love of guitars, guitar-building, and guitar amps, with a whole new set of engineering skills and a more structured approach.

At LGAW, I provide a full line of services for guitars, amplifiers, and musical sound equipment. I also build custom telecasters and other custom shapes using Tempered Tonewoods. Please feel free to contact me.