Features and Reviews

Reviews

"Hi Eddie - I wanted to thank you for the excellent repair and setup work you did on my Tele. Each string is perfectly intonated, and your fretwork has made playing it a true pleasure. All strings are sounding loud and clear and every harmonic is ringing out. Your extra attention (tightening the strap button and restringing the existing strings for instance) is really appreciated. All for a fair price. I'm very glad you're around."

Keith - Knoxville, TN

Great service! Professional and friendly experience. Convenient location to downtown Knoxville.

Amy - Knoxville, TN

"Eddie went above and beyond to get my new guitar string action adjustment completed ahead of a very tight schedule. Thanks for the great service!"

Tim - Knoxville, TN

"Brought my Ovation Acoustic with a very high action and was a pain to play. Fixed action on my guitar while also restringing and applying beeswax to fretboard. Was going to upgrade to a nicer guitar, now I don't need to - it plays better than I could have imagined and for a really good price. Check them out"

Zach - Knoxville, TN

Quality guitars 🎸 repairs and accessories from good friendly people!

Anthony - Knoxville, TN

Features

Prado Custom Guitars opens on North Broadway

- Jack Coker, Shopper News, Knox News Sentinel

"Being the cradle of country music, Knoxville is no stranger to musicians. The mountains, the valleys push and shape our lives, and as a result, our songs.

Similarly, the luthier crafts a guitar, shaping it into an instrument with a kind of sound in mind. Eddie Prado, the head luthier of Prado Custom Guitars, is no stranger to this concept. As of Oct. 31, 1328 N. Broadway became the home of his craft.

Prado’s passion for guitars started when he acquired his first one, a Fender Lead II, when he was 14. His interests quickly grew from just making music into making the tools for the craft.

“In high school I loved woodshop. Instead of building birdhouses, I started building guitar bodies.” After going to school for audio engineering and spending 17 years as a chef, Prado ended up at the beloved venue Open Chord as their guitar tech. Starting in 2019, Prado turned his interests into a side hustle, offering his custom guitars for sale and helping repair others’ well-worn instruments.

Eventually, interest in his side hustle grew until it was no longer a side hustle, but his main gig.

“Doing two full-time jobs is difficult. They wear into each other. It was better for me to come here.” Occupying the former Potluck location, Prado’s Custom Guitars is a players' paradise. It will be used as a showroom for his work, a workspace for repair and as a venue for small jam sessions and lessons.

When commissioned to create a guitar for a musician, there is an order of operations. “If a player has any recordings, I like to listen to them to know what kind of tone they are looking for.”

Prado explained that the feel and the sound are the most important aspects of the electric guitar, with the looks following close behind. “I like to do stuff with stained woods. Old barn wood, pine would have some beautiful grain that I don’t want to cover up with paint.”

Prado said the tone is dictated by the neck and body. “They have to resonate with each other. If you have a guitar body that is a G and a neck that rings in a G#, they will appose each other. They need to match to sing.”

Besides guitars, the business offers vintage clothing and antiques for purchase. Prado explained that they wanted to offer things "besides a guitar" for a musician to hang on their wall.

Prado will also offer used equipment and a free box of old parts for adventurous customers to pick through, similar to McKay’s free bin.

Prado Custom Guitars is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday."

Knox Voyager

Local StoriesDecember 5, 2024

Daily Inspiration: Meet Eddie Prado

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eddie Prado

Hi Eddie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
- I’ve taken many different career paths over the years, which have all led me back to building guitars again —something I started doing as a teenager in my high school woodshop. Moving to Nashville from California in 2012 brought me back to recording music. While recording, the need for instruments to be in perfect shape required me to do tune-ups on everyone’s instruments. Moving to Knoxville got me back into doing full-time tune-ups and instrument repairs, leading me to do full builds for customers.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The pandemic was a huge obstacle. I wasn’t getting any work and in the middle of it all I moved from Nashville to Knoxville. However, I was lucky at the end of the pandemic to start working at a small music store and venue, Open Chord, here in Knoxville. That opportunity built the pathway to begin my own operation for repairs and builds.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Most of what we do here is instrument repair. Guitars, basses, mandolins, violins. Most stringed instruments. We also build custom guitars. We strive for high quality at an affordable price. Our guitar and bass repairs are most likely what we are known for. We like to listen to our clients and what they want as opposed to thinking we know better. We try to give them what they want while maintaining professional practices. Our attention to detail and our communication with our customers is what we believe sets us apart.

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
- I have a huge soft spot for animals. I used to foster many dogs throughout the years. As of right now, we have 3 dogs and would love to have more. Maybe even a farm one day with goats, pigs, and donkeys.