Bringing new life to old guitars from a tiny workshop in downtown St. John's
We follow guitar tech Chris Kearsey as he restores a guitar originally purchased at O'Brien's in the 1950s
Like a lot of young guitar players, Chris Kearsey's initial desire to learn was driven less by the art and more by the attention that came with playing music.
"A buddy of mine, he had an electric guitar, and to be honest with you he played it one day and his girlfriend looked at him, and I was like, 'I gotta learn how to play guitar,'" he said with a laugh.
However, after his mother purchased a second-hand guitar for him, that adolescent desire for attention quickly transformed into an obsession with the music and the instrument itself, one that has lasted for more than three decades.
Kearsey began teaching himself to play, and also started tinkering with the guitar: taking it apart and putting it back together piece by piece, trying to understand not just how it worked but why six strings suspended over a piece of wood and tuned just right could elicit such a broad range of emotions.
"That was so mind-blowing to me," he said.
Now, years later, as the head guitar technician at O'Brien's Music in downtown St. John's — the oldest music shop in one of the oldest cities in the country — that obsession with what he calls "the essence of why a guitar is a guitar" has also become his career.
Gigging musicians … use their tools as part of their livelihood.- Chris Kearsey
Kearsey brings new life to old, beat-up string instruments, provides much needed TLC to guitars owned by working-class musicians in the city, and even builds new guitars from scratch, all from a tiny, second-floor workshop above the O'Brien's store.
"I get a lot of players who are active, gigging musicians who literally use their tools as part of their livelihood and they treat their instruments almost like a car if you were driving back and forth to work," he said.
"And I'm just happy to be able to make them work better."
Every now and then, a guitar lands on his bench that for many would be a lost cause. But if the sentimental value is there for the owner, you can be sure Kearsey will do everything he can to restore the instrument to its former glory.
That was the case in early 2020, when a person showed up at the shop with a scratched, dinged-up and otherwise dilapidated 1950s-era S.S. Stewart flat-top acoustic guitar.
WATCH | See how the staff at O'Brien's Music gave new life to an old guitar — an instrument that had its roots at the venerable store:
Except it wasn't the customer's attachment to the guitar that made it special. In fact, they were trying to get rid of it.
No, what made this particular guitar stand out was its shared history with O'Brien's Music.
"When the gentleman mentioned it was originally bought from this store from my grandfather, [store clerk Steve Hussey] contacted me and said, 'Can I buy this guitar? It's not playable, but I think you should own this guitar,'" said Dave Rowe, owner of O'Brien's Music and grandson of Roy O'Brien, who opened the shop in 1939.
Even though the guitar was nearly "in pieces" when it arrived, according to Rowe, Kearsey's talent and passion for fixing guitars will give it a new life at O'Brien's.
"I'll take the time to make this run perfectly again. It's totally worth it," he said.
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