Jerry Greenberg loves guitars. He has been customizing or repairing them since 1970.

Back then, he was a travelling musician from Montréal and began repairing other musician’s instruments while on the road. The official name for a guitar builder and repairer is a luthier, and Greenberg apprenticed to become one under George Essery.

Greenberg worked for Canada Music Supply until 1997, customizing and repairing guitars for customers. That job kept Greenberg connected with many musicians known in Montréal and who visited the city to perform. He remembers one time a bassist for Alice Cooper wanted a new guitar but in pink, for a show the following day. Unable to quickly order the item to specifications, Greenberg improvised by using pink paint he purchased at a hardware store. The bassist bought the guitar with the instructions that he would need a more permanent fix to maintain the guitar’s pinkness.

Canada Music Supply was also a distributor for brass, woodwind, and accordion instruments, so Greenberg also became an expert at making repairs to those items.

“I had to service everything,” he said.

After the position with Canada Music Supply ended, Greenberg kept his contacts from there so he could keep on serving established clients. In semi-retirement, he moved to the Hawkesbury area in 2010 and did repairs for the former L’Escale Music store in Hawkesbury. His home workshop is still busy with various guitars being repaired, although Greenberg no longer builds the instruments from scratch.

During the 1960’s, Greenberg also followed the trend set by the Beatles and Ravi Shankar and learned to play the sitar. His instructor was Indian polymath Rooshikumar Pandya, whom he met through a chance encounter while Pandya was evaluating exams at the high school Greenberg attended in Montréal. Pandya was also the second husband of Annapurna Devi. Her first husband was Ravi Shankar.

Greenberg said he never plans to completely retire.

“I enjoy it too much. I just love it.”

Greenberg said the musical instrument business has changed a lot in 56 years. There are few independent instrument retailers left. However, the need for repairs will never go away.

“Our business will never die,” he said.

To contact Jerry Greenberg about guitar repairs, call  613-636-1094.