A couple of magic men on the island….

Hamid (left) and Cam check out the repaired guitar....

OK, I gotta tell you a story about two guys who do magic on the island.

Very different kinds of magic, brought together by a broken guitar.

Back in January, my son Cameron was returning to the University of San Francisco, and asked me to send his guitar to school by UPS, since he couldn’t carry it on the plane and because we had seen the video “United Breaks Guitars” and that made us a little nervous, even though he was going on Southwest. So we went to Post San Juan and Hamid helped us get it off with UPS, with insurance, packaged the way Cam received it in its hard-shell case three years before.

The guitar after it arrived in San Francisco....

Well, imagine Cam’s surprise when the guitar made it to SF…he opened it & the neck was shattered. Here’s where hero #1 comes in. Hamid was awesome. UPS refused to cover the total cost to replace the guitar, saying the guitar wasn’t packed right & it wasn’t their fault. They did say they would pay some, if it was repairable.

Hamid spent a bunch of time in the back & forth related to this, trying to set things right. When he’d see me at basketball games, he’d report the latest…he was a king, looking after us. I’ll go out of my way to do business with him & Dora anytime.

Bobby Warren

When the issue of whether it was repairable came up, I knew who I wanted to see it – Bobby Warren (hero #2, if you ask me). His guitar-making & guitar-fixing business is RAW Guitars – check it out here.

Bobby surprised me by saying, “Sure, I can fix that,” and then described how he would work the wood so he could make a new head that would fit right into the neck.

So, he took it to his shop. When I saw the finished product (and happily gave him all the insurance money that UPS gave us, thanks to Hamid), I was astounded. The guitar plays well, the fretboard allows for smooth playing, and you’d have to look to see where the two pieces are joined – you sure couldn’t tell otherwise.

People are always talking about islanders helping islanders – these guys do it! Thanks, Bobby & thanks, Hamid for being there when we needed you!

The repaired guitar - more solid than ever, thanks to Bobby

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