Repair, Don’t Replace w/ Jeff Leavitt (Tone Ranger) & Ben Matin (RestoWraps) episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 14, 2026 · 1H 23M

Repair, Don’t Replace w/ Jeff Leavitt (Tone Ranger) & Ben Matin (RestoWraps)

from The Tone Mob Podcast · host Blake Wyland & Sound Talent Media

On this episode of The Tone Mob Podcast, I’m hanging out with Jeff Leavitt of Tone Ranger Guitars and Ben Matin of RestoWraps, two guys who have gone impressively deep into the worlds of guitar building, vintage gear restoration, and keeping perfectly good stuff out of the landfill. Jeff builds Western-inspired guitars using locally sourced urban lumber from Los Angeles, turning trees that might otherwise have been discarded into instruments with a story. Ben approaches vintage amp and cabinet restoration more like art conservation, repairing old Tolex, recreating grill cloth, resurrecting Hammond hardware, and generally doing everything possible to preserve the history already baked into a piece of gear. We get into how both of them found their way into these extremely specific corners of the guitar world, why repair work can make you a better builder, repurposing old Hammond reverb amps into killer guitar amps, the importance of questioning “tradition,” what separates good craftsmanship from great craftsmanship, excessively dangerous capacitors, flatwound strings, stereo rigs, Westerns, and quite a bit of pizza. It’s a wonderfully nerdy conversation about building things well, fixing things properly, and occasionally asking, “Why are we doing it this way in the first place?” Check out more at https://www.tonerangerguitars.com/ https://restowraps.com/ and https://malibumusic.com/ Support The Show And Connect! The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577 You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tonemob.com/reverb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tonemob.com/sweetwater⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tonemob.com/stringjoy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Repair, Don’t Replace w/ Jeff Leavitt (Tone Ranger) & Ben Matin (RestoWraps)

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