Welcome!
Greetings from your friends at Ground Floor Guitar. If you are new to the shop, we are a full service guitar shop located at 4009 Farnam Street in Omaha’s historic Blackstone District. The shop first opened in 2016 and has been in its current location, sandwiched between Cheese Burgers and Super Groovy’s, since February 2018.
We pride ourselves in our knowledge of guitars, amplifiers, and effects pedals, and strive to serve everyone who walks through our door. If we don’t have what you’re looking for, we are always happy to point you in the right direction. Our shop offers new and used instruments at various price categories to cater to the new player or the veteran collector. Every musician deserves help on their quest to find the gear that best suits their needs and we hope to be a part of the journey for all musicians that venture into the shop.
All guitars need special attention to keep them playing at their best. Our repair and restoration shop can replace a broken string from rocking too hard, help fix a cracked neck from rocking too hard, and just about anything in between. John Svatos, owner of GFG, is a graduate of Atlanta Guitar Works School of Lutherie and has been a traveling guitar tech for Bright Eyes, Cursive, and the Good Life. Aside from being a traveling tech, Johnny has worked on and repaired guitars for artists that have come through the Omaha area like B.B. King, Phoebe Bridgers, the Lemonheads, Dr. Dog, the Wailers, Deer Tick, Sleigh Bells, and many more. Johnny stands by his work and always takes the time to address any issue a guitar may have. We would love to help get your guitar playing better than it ever has.
Why a guitar needs to be properly set up.
Just as you need to do routine maintenance to a car, you should do routine maintenance to your guitar.
If you start to notice a buzzing when you press down on certain frets, the weather changes, or your guitar just isn’t easy to play, you may need a luthier to give your guitar a proper setup.
Even brand new guitars should be given a setup. After being built, a guitar could sit in a factory for an unknown amount of time before it is shipped (often times internationally), unboxed, and then put up on the wall of your favorite guitar shop to played by any number of aspiring rockers. The varying conditions can affect the guitar’s playability and if not addressed, can leave that brand new guitar unplayed due to it not “feeling right.”
Having a guitar setup should end with the guitar feeling right. If you play in an alternate tuning, your guitar may need the action addressed to account for a heavier gauge set of strings. If your guitar isn’t staying in tune, the intonation might be off. These adjustments are often simple, depending on the condition of the instrument, and can bring the right feel to your guitar or bass.
At Ground Floor Guitar, our setups include the following steps:
Removing the strings, tightening tuners and screws, and an initial polish.
Mirror polishing the frets with very fine steel wool, degriming the fretboard (if needed), and properly hydrating the wood. Different woods, like maple or rosewood, require a different amounts or types of oil to hydrate the neck of the guitar.
Restringing the guitar with brand new strings according to the customer’s preference.
Adjusting the relief in the neck. All guitar necks have a natural bow to them and should be adjusted to fit the needs of the player. In order to do this, the truss rod will be adjusted to either add relief to straighten the neck or tighten the rod to create more bow. Careful measurements are taken while doing this and only little movements are made at a time because if a truss rod can snap if it is overtightened, causing a very expensive repair.
Checking the intonation of the guitar. With a chromatic tuner, the intonation is checked by playing the open string and 12th fret of the same string. Depending on whether the 12th fret is sharp or flat, the saddle is adjusted to create perfect octaves across the board.
Playing the guitar to ensure no fret buzz remains and it is starting to have that right feel.
A final polish before placed safely in its case, ready to return to its owner.
When the guitar is picked up, we always encourage the owner to sit down and play it to make sure it is to their liking. If no final adjustments are needed, it’s time to go home!
A setup is a process and truly a labor of love. If you’d like your guitar to be given this amount of care, stop in and leave it in our capable hands. We hope to return it to you better than it has ever played before.
Meet the team: Hank
If you’ve ever walked into the shop, chances are you’ve seen Handsome Hank, the shop dog. Hank is a 6-year-old American Bully that Johnny and Jeanette adopted from the Humane Society. Peek in our window if you’re in Blackstone before we open and you’ll most likely find Hank chilling on the couch watching the neighborhood go by.
Hank’s likes: his trusty red Kong, chasing squirrels, eating anything he can get his hands on, taking naps
Hank’s dislikes: squirrels, Journey, baths, delivery guys that walk in too fast
Hank is a retired dog model for a CBD company whose work helped sell a multitude of dog treats.
Thanks for your support!
We would like to thank all of our customers for their continued support. If you are satisfied with your purchase and/or service, tag us on Instagram - @groundfloorguitars - and tell your friends to come in and see us. We are open Tuesday - Saturday from 11 - 6 and Sunday from 12 - 5.