Depeche Mode Fender Duo Sonic II (1966) guitar repair

• Posted on 4 January 2024
• By Camiel de Kruijf
• 0

Depeche Mode Amsterdam 2023, Repair Assignment!

On a friday evening in May '23, I received a whatsapp message from a fellow production manager, asking if I knew a good guitar repair guy in Amsterdam. I knew he was working with Depeche Mode, who started their EU tour in Amsterdam in 2023. If I could help fixing an old Fender, with electronics issues. 
Yes, of course I do.

Can we pick up the guitar and work on it in our workshop or do we need to work on it in the venue?

Not all guitar techs are willing to let an instrument leave to one or another guy who says he will fix it.

As you can imagine. 

With the guitar came a note from Jez, the DM's guitartech, who informed us what the issues were. On tour he didn't have the time and tools to make it work. He has loads of work to do to make it all work for the bandmembers. 

Our electronics specialist Bas made time so we managed to make it work, in time and also in a way it passed our own quality check! 

We picked it up at the venue and took off the pickguard and found some bad connections. We decided to do a full rewire and make sure the instrument is bulletproof again. No quick fix, we did proper wiring, tested and were able to bring back the instrument before the next rehearsal.