From Santa Monica, CA. Neil Smith is the owner of Vegas Guitars Custom Shop. He founded the shop in 1997. He has been working with guitars since 1970 and building and repairing professionally for over 27 years. Neil apprenticed with master fretted instrument technician Jim Anderson of the Notorious Guitar Hospital in Sparks, NV. In addition he holds the only Fender Custom Shop Custom Care authorization in Nevada (only 20 in all of N. America). Neil has worked with Fender since 2002 and is currently the only publicly referred FMIC Gold level authorized technician in Nevada or Utah. Neil is a professional level member of the National Association of Musical instrument Repairers and a level II Buzz Feiten installer (acoustics and electrics). Examples of Neil’s repair work has been published in two major lutherie magazines. As a fully committed guitar builder – Neil has built countless custom guitars and basses – including the custom 12 string guitar currently played by John Wedemeyer (lead guitarist for The Beach Boys). Finally, he earned two college degrees at CSN (Honors) and UNLV (Dean’s List, Honors). Over the years he’s repaired and built for many celebrities big and small or their band members. However, Neil and his partner Susi treat everyone with the same courtesy and attention.
