Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

A Classic:

Owner Mark Brown of Mark's Guitar Repair in Campbell mends guitars old and new, like a custom Stratocaster that is valued at approximately $2,000. Brown has been repairing guitars in Campbell for more than 10 years.

Brown's touch is considered tops

By Martin Nobida

Although Mark's Guitar Repair is located just blocks from the heart of Campbell, most residents have never seen nor heard of the business or its owner.
While people every day fail to notice its nondescript storefront in an industrial building at the far end of Dillon Avenue, local musicians recognize the repair shop as one of the best places to go when their six-strings get out of whack. It's also the place where retailers like the popular Guitar Showcase on S. Bascom Avenue refer their customers for any kind of guitar work.

Mark's Guitar Repair, owned and operated by Mark Brown since 1994, comes highly recommended for good reason, says Jeff Mayer, a local professional musician who became a customer after hearing about the shop from the Guitar Showcase.

Inside the shop, a musician can find all the guitar-repair equipment imaginable. From spray booths, sanders and grinders for finishing the surface of the instrument, to milling machines for making custom parts, to buffers, metal lathes and band saws, Brown has everything one needs to get a guitar-repair job done.

But the equipment in the shop isn't the main reason Mayer and other musicians consider Brown the go-to guy for minor and major guitar mending.

They go to him for his experience.

He finishes guitar surfaces, fabricates custom parts, makes adjustments on every part of the instrument, replaces frets and does all kinds of electrical work, Brown says.

"I can also build them from scratch," he adds. "But I don't do it, because there's no money in it."

His customers trust his expertise in everything.

"Anything you can do to a guitar, he's done it," Mayer says. "And he's probably done it many, many times."

Shining discs along the walls of his office suggest that Mayer isn't exaggerating. The gold and platinum record albums—Once Vices Now Habits, The Best of the Doobie Brothers, Taking It to the Streets, and Minute by Minute—hang framed as a testament to Brown's contributions to the success of the Doobie Brothers, one of the most popular rock & roll bands of the 1970s.

From 1972 through the 1980s, Brown served as the technician for the band, tuning and repairing the band members' guitars as they traveled around the country.

"I took care of their guitars day in and day out," he says. "And we often had six shows a week in six different states."

In all, he says, over the course of 20 years, he must have worked with them on more than a thousand concerts. And on some tours, he was in charge of keeping 15 guitars performing and sounding as reliable as possible.

The Doobie Brothers band members have come to trust him so much that they still call on him when they need work on their guitars.

Though Brown, a native of Santa Cruz, had been tinkering with and repairing guitars since he was a child, his first association with the famous band had nothing to do with instruments. When he found out that the Doobie Brothers needed someone to haul luggage around on its 1972 tour, he readily volunteered.

"Sure, why not," he says. "Anything to get out of Santa Cruz."

One day, while preparing for a concert, the band members arrived so late for a sound check that they didn't have time to tune their guitars. Brown explains that every hall has completely different acoustic qualities, so bands typically have to play or rehearse before the concert so the sound mixer can adjust the PA settings to match the venue. Brown immediately put down everything he was doing and quickly re-tuned their guitars so they could get on with the check.

After seeing what he could do and how quickly he could do it, the band members found it convenient to have someone there with them to do the tuning on the road, he says. "And afterward, they made me their technician."

The experience working with big artists who need to produce studio-quality sound must have been educational for Brown, Mayer says, commenting on how impressed he is with Brown's ability to give him exactly what he needs. "Artists can be very picky."

For his part, however, Brown says the Doobie Brothers weren't as demanding as people may believe.

"None of them were in any way pushy or picky," he says. "They were all great people. They just needed things done. And they needed things done right."

Regardless, Brown's commitment to professionalism has made him a favorite resource for locals—like the former musician who goes simply by the name of "Piper"—who appreciate quality instruments and their upkeep.

"The Doobie Brothers aren't going to have some bozo fixing their guitars," Piper says.

Piper has been coming to Brown for 2 1/2 years. He's become so impressed with Brown's work that he considers the shop owner to be the only person he can trust to do any kind of work on a 1967 bass guitar he received as a high school graduation present.

"I wouldn't trust anyone else with my precious baby," Piper says.

But repairs aren't the only things Piper trusts Brown with. He also seeks Brown's professional opinion on buying guitars.

When dealing with guitar dealers, Piper says, one must be very careful.

"There are plenty of unscrupulous guitar dealers out there," Piper says. "And buying things like vintage guitars is even more risky."

Piper says whenever he considers buying a classic guitar, he goes to Brown for advice as to whether or not it's even worth the trouble of purchasing and repairing.

But, Mayer says, for professional musicians like himself, Brown earned his popularity by giving artists exactly what they're looking for.

Brown is more concerned about the sound people get from their guitar than are other technicians around, Mayer says, and adds that he seems much more attuned to the needs of the artists.

Mayer has been playing guitar in the local group called Garage Band for more than two decades. He also has been teaching guitar lessons at the Music Village in San Jose for the same amount of time.

Although Mayer readily admits he's achieved nowhere near the same stature as the Doobie Brothers, he says Brown understands that artists like him nonetheless rely on their guitars to make a living, so he understands their need for a quick turnaround and customizable sound.

Mayer says that too often repairmen insist on doing things their own way.

"Technically their work is OK, but they can't quite get exactly what I'm looking for," Mayer says. "There's no bull about Mark, though. I value his expertise."

Mark's Guitar Repair is located at 279 Dillon Ave.
For more information, call 408.378.6007.