Chris Szczerbienski checks in a Gibson Les Paul owned by Paul Bland of the Pearl Jam tribute band No Code. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Chris Szczerbienski was planning to move to Connecticut a few months back to take a job as a technician with a major guitar retailing chain when he stopped in at Heritage Body & Towing in Shrewsbury with his father.
His dad was there to get his truck fixed, but what fixed the younger man’s attention was the vacant storefront out front.
Forget Connecticut! Szczerbienski decided to open his own shop right there, on East Newman Springs Road, in the former Chelsea Home Furnishings space.
“I figured the money I would spend moving and getting set up in Connecticut I could spend starting my own business,” he said.
Among the offerings at Be Sharp is a $7,500 replica Fender Telecaster, at right. (Click to enlarge)
Call Be Sharp Guitars, the one-man shop is Szczerbienski’s first solo effort to establish himself in a field in which the clients are highly particular about who they’ll entrust their guitars to. He repairs acoustic and electric guitars, ukuleles and other stringed instruments standing at workbench with a view of the Spirits Unlimited liquor store across the street.
“When people try to find a new guy to work on their guitars, they usually only go on a recommendation,” he said. “It’ll take a while to get the word of mouth really going, but so far, everybody’s saying they like the repairs a lot.”
Szczerbienski, 23, graduated from Holmdel High, having cut his guitar-playing chops on punk and ska, and Muhlenberg College, where he was enthralled with the theater program, working behind the curtain.
“I would always volunteer to do the sound, the lights, anything,” he said. “I started realizing I didn’t so much want to do theater so much as concerts, because I liked the music more than the theater.”
After college, he spent a month or so in Northampton, Massachusetts, learning the basics of acoustic guitar building and repair under the tutelage of two master luthiers, Harry Becker and William Cumpiano. Then he headed back home, to the Eastern School of Fretted Instrument Repair, in Freehold, where he supplemented his knowledge of electric guitar repair.
Be Sharp also offers a selection of guitars for sale, priced from $200 acoustics to a $7,500 master-built replica of a 1955 Fender Telecaster. He’s also got boutique amps, pedals and other gear for sale.
The shop’s been open only since April, but already is getting a good amount of business from bands using the Gear Rehearsal Studio nearby on Shrewsbury Avenue, Szczerbienski said.
