New
Fender & Squier
Authorized dealer for new Fender and Squier guitars and amps, with full manufacturer warranty.
Repairs · Guitars · Accessories · Luthier — Forest Park, IL
Guitar repair, restoration and handmade guitars on Madison Street.
Danche Ivanovic has built more than 200 guitars and repaired thousands of string instruments over more than forty years at the bench. Bring yours in for repair, find a new or used guitar on the wall, pick up strings and accessories, or let Danche sell yours for you.
Authorized Fender dealerand service center
200+
Guitars builtby hand, start to finish
2015
Best of Oak ParkMusical instruments & teachers
1,850
Square feetof shop, stage and showroom
Repairs
A full-service repair bench for every kind of guitar.
From a string change and setup to a neck reset or a refret, the work is done in the shop by Danche. Bring it in during shop hours for a look and a quote.
Most popular
Setups
- Acoustic 6 and 12-string
- Electric 6 to 8-string
- Tremolo and Floyd Rose
- String height, nut slots, truss rod, fret polish and clean
Frets
Fret work
- Full refrets, bound or unbound necks
- Fret dress and leveling
- Loose fret ends
- Pearl and dot inlay replacement
Structural
Bridges, cracks & necks
- Bridge reglue, replacement or custom hand-built bridge
- Top, side and back cracks
- Loose braces
- Neck resets, bolt-on and dovetail
- Broken headstocks
Tone
Nuts & saddles
- Custom-cut bone nuts
- Bone saddles, compensated for accurate intonation
- Pickguards, precut or custom
- Tuner replacement
Wiring
Electronics
- Pickup installation, solid and hollow body
- Acoustic pickup installation
- Cleaning scratchy pots and jacks
- Resoldering and rewiring
Amps & pedals
Amp repair
- Tube amp tune-ups: tubes, bias, controls, jacks
- All Fender amps, tube or solid state
- Speaker upgrades and replacement parts
- Most guitar pedals
Also on the bench: basses, mandolins, banjos and ukuleles, refinishing, strap buttons, shim jobs on bolt-on necks, and the odd vintage amp that someone painted green in 1971.
How a repair works
Straight answers before any work starts.
- Bring it inStop by during shop hours. For bigger jobs, call ahead so Danche can set time aside.
- Diagnosis and quoteDanche looks the instrument over and tells you what it needs and what it costs. Some amps need to be opened up first.
- You approveNo work starts until you accept the quote.
- Pick it up and playYour instrument comes back adjusted and ready to play.
Fender authorized service center
Warranty repairs on Fender guitars and amps.
Danche Guitars is an authorized Fender service center. If your Fender guitar or amp is still under warranty, bring it in with a copy of the original sales receipt.
Restorations
Old instruments, brought back the way they were made.
“A repair makes an instrument work again. A restoration also matches the original lacquer or shellac, and replaces missing wood with the exact same kind.”
Over the past decades Danche has repaired thousands of stringed instruments: violins, violas, archtops, and acoustic and electric guitars. Before opening his own shop, he restored violins professionally, and he learned the trade alongside respected luthiers.
Worked alongside: Tomas Keller · Jorg Scherbaum · Joe Campagna · Kenneth Bachelder · Božo Podunavac · Hugh McFarland
Guitars for sale
New, used and handmade guitars, all set up before they hit the wall.
The shop sells new Fender and Squier guitars and amps, a changing selection of used and consignment instruments, everyday accessories, and Danche's own handmade guitars. Stock changes every week, so come in and play, or call to ask what is in right now.
Used
Pre-owned guitars & amps
Acoustic, electric and bass, checked over and set up on Danche's bench before they go on sale.
Consignment
Guitars sold for their owners
Instruments local players have brought in for Danche to sell. New ones arrive all the time.
Selling a guitar? →Handmade
Guitars by Danche
One-of-a-kind archtops, acoustics and electrics, built in the shop from wood aged fifteen years or more.
Accessories
Strings, picks, cables and everything in between.
Run out of strings before a gig? The shop stocks the everyday gear guitar, bass and ukulele players need, and Danche can tell you which strings suit your instrument and how you play.
Handmade by Danche
Carved by hand from wood aged fifteen years or more.
The flagship archtop
DZ 57
A carved archtop in the tradition Danche learned from Božo Podunavac and from years of restoring violins. The top is hand carved from European spruce.
- Top
- Hand-carved European spruce
- Back, sides
- Tiger maple
- Neck
- Maple, 24 frets
- Fingerboard
- Ebony, custom abalone inlay
- Hardware
- Ebony bridge, tailpiece, pickguard
- Scale · nut
- 25⅜″ · 1.8″
Archtop
Nostalgia
- Top
- Bosnian spruce
- Back, sides
- Maple
- Neck
- Two-piece flame maple, 23 frets
- Board
- Ebony, white pearl
- Scale · nut
- 24⅝″ · 1.85″
Ask about availability
Jazz-blues electric
Jazzica
- Body
- Chambered solid flame alder
- Neck
- Flame maple
- Board
- Rosewood, 23 frets
- Pickups
- Joe Barden
- Scale · nut
- 25⅝″ · 1.825″
Ask about availability
Nylon string, electro-acoustic
GoGo Nylon
- Top
- Engelmann spruce
- Back, sides
- Rosewood
- Neck
- African mahogany, 24 frets
- Electronics
- Fishman piezo with mic
- Scale · nut
- 25⅜″ · 2″
Ask about availability
Steel string acoustic
GoGo Steel
- Top
- Sitka spruce
- Back, sides
- Rosewood
- Neck
- One-piece mahogany
- Binding
- Tiger maple
- Electronics
- L.R. Baggs pickup
Ask about availability
Concert classical
MGD
- Top, back
- Cedar
- Sides
- Rosewood
- Neck
- Bocote, 23 frets
- Ebony
- African ebony headstock, bridge, board
- Inlay
- Rosette, top and back
Ask about availability
Made to order
Your guitar
Pick the body, woods, neck, frets and finish, and Danche builds it with you. See custom orders below.
Call to start a custom build
Custom orders
Tell Danche what you want to hear.
A custom guitar starts with a conversation. Danche asks how you play, then helps you settle the specs that fit your sound and your budget. Acoustic, electric or bass, with your own body shape if you have a drawing.
Handmade bodies in the shop, ready to be finished to your spec.
Authorized dealer
Fender and Squier, on the wall and ready to play.
As an authorized dealer, the shop carries new Fender and Squier guitars and amps, Come in and try them through a real amp.
Sell your guitar
Let Danche sell it for you.
Have a guitar, bass or amp you no longer play? Bring it in and the shop will sell it on consignment. It hangs on the wall where players come in every day, and you get paid when it sells.
- Bring it inDanche looks the instrument over and tells you what it should sell for.
- Agree on a priceYou set the asking price together, and the commission is agreed up front.
- It goes on the wallBuyers can try it in the shop, set up and playing its best. If it needs work first, you get a quote before anything is done.
- You get paidWhen it sells, you receive the sale price minus the agreed commission.
Lessons & workshops
Learn to play. Or learn to build.
Build your own guitar
From a block of wood to a finished guitar, one-on-one with Danche.
The skills of the old craftsman are becoming a lost art. In this private workshop you build your own instrument under Danche's direction, using dry master-grade wood aged at least ten years. You leave with a guitar you made, built to last a lifetime.
- Solid body6-week course
- Acoustic8-week course
- FormatPrivate, one-on-one
- ScheduleFlexible, come when you can
- ToolsAll provided
- MaterialsYour choice of wood and hardware
Music lessons
Weekly private lessons for all ages and levels.
Thirty-minute lessons, paid in four-week cycles. Beginners welcome.
GuitarBassUkuleleMandolinBanjo
Call or stop by the shop to find a time slot and current rates.
About Danche
Archtop tradition, violin-maker's hands.
Danche Ivanovic was born in Belgrade in 1950. He played guitar for twenty years before he began repairing them, then studied the craft of string instruments under master luthier Tomas Keller in Munich. He ran a music business in Yugoslavia until the war in 1991 sent him to Salzburg, where classical guitarist Eliot Fisk was among his best customers.
In 1993, with the blessing of fellow luthier Božo Podunavac, maker of legendary archtops, he came to the United States and restored violins and violas. Taking apart old archtops and violins taught him the masters' secrets. That tradition is in every guitar he builds today. His guitars have been played on record and on stage by Blue Note artist Fareed Haque and classical guitarist Goran Ivanovic.
- Born in Belgrade
- Trains under master luthier Tomas Keller
- Moves to Salzburg, Austria
- Comes to the United States, restoring violins and archtops
- Opens Danche Guitars at 906 Madison St, Oak Park
- Voted Best of Oak Park, then moves to a building twice the size at 7232 Madison St, Forest Park, and becomes a Fender dealer
Visit the shop
7232 Madison Street
Forest Park, IL 60130
Phone · (708) 488-8004
Email · Dancheguitars@yahoo.com
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 12:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Wednesday | 12:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Thursday | 12:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Friday | 12:00 – 7:00 pm |
| Saturday | 10:00 am – 6:00 pm |
| Sunday | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm |
