| PHILOSOPHY
Frett'd Treasures, Inc. is a company dedicated to the preservation, documentation, and restoration of classic fretted musical instruments. It is a company founded on love and appreciation for the master craftspersons who bring together the arts and sciences of fine woodworking, jewelry, inlaying, finishing and acoustics.
We take a museum curatorial approach to the process of restoration and repair, honoring the originality and historic nature of many of the instruments we undertake to restore, and follow generally accepted principles in the museum trade to retain the historical integrity of the instruments while bringing them back (often from near basketcase condition) to structural integrity, easy playability and near original beauty.
Our specialty is pre 1940's acoustic stringed instruments including guitars, mandolins and related instruments.
Our businesss philosophy is simple. Just as the craftsmanship is a fading art in today's robot manufacturing mindset, so is the idea of personal service to our customer base. We believe in a return to serving our customers with extraordinary personal attention and fair service. When someone calls our offices, they are greeted with a human voice ready to try to answer their questions and provide them answers and service.
Our approach to the instrument repair and restoration is to honor the originality to the greatest degree possible. Toward that end, we've had to learn and adopt nearly lost techniques from the distant past. For example the use of French polishing for instrument finishes had largely been abandoned in the 20's when spray lacquers became widely available and economically a much better option for instrument makers than the time intensive and tricky French polishing technique.
Our Reputation has largely been built by relationships we've established by selling our restored instruments on eBay over the last several years, as no matter how large a single city is, the market for the instruments we restore is spread out over the world. Here is what our customers say about our work and how we conduct business.
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KEEPING TRADITIONS ALIVE
In our work on pre 20's instruments, we have learned the nearly lost arts of French polishing, formulating and applying historically correct formulations of spirit varnishes and black lacquers, and hand crafting and sculpting near perfect replicas of instrument components using the same materials that were originally used.
We've established relationships with suppliers around the world for some of these rare and expensive materials, made more difficult by endangered, restricted or even extinct supplies.
ECOLOGICAL RESPONSIBILITY
Materials such as Brazilian Rosewood, elephant ivory, black abalone, and Honduran mahogany were routinely used by the original makers, and in our restoration work these are the materials we still use today to replicate and restore these rare instruments to their original condition. On restricted or endangered materials, we routinely use recycled materials from other early instruments, and only purchase materials from legitimate legal sources. In the case of ivory, we insist on proof from our suppliers of the CITES documentation verifying we are using materials brought into the country legally. In spite of having to use rare and endangered materials in our work, we take an environmental and ecological responsible approach to our work. Being a green friendly company is to us a matter of professional integrity and responsibility to the planet and our children.
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OUR PEOPLE:
Our company is our people. We do this because we love the instruments. It's the nature of the work that the company is comprised of highly creative and multitalented people. All are professional level musicians and performers in their own right. All do it more for the affection for the instruments and the opportunity to keep alive the traditions of master lutherie and craftsmanship, than for the modest pay.
To learn more about who we are, click the link, please.
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STOCKHOLDER RESPONSIBILITY
The restoration work, by itself, cannot produce wealth for any of us involved in it directly nor for our stockholders. However the documentary research that the restoration work makes possible, with offshoots in publication and broadcast production does provide the opportunity to subsidize the time intensive work involved and higher economic rewards for the company and it's stockholders.
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COMPANY STRUCTURE:
Fretted Treasures, Inc is a Chapter C type Corporation registered in the state of Texas, with it's offices and workshop in Austin, TX.
The company was initially formed in 2000 as a one man shop and within 10 months had reformed as a partnership dba T&T Marketing. That partnership was dissolved in 2002 and the company founder and investor incorporated and reorganized as Frett'd Treasures, Inc. The nature of the work hadn't changed but a more formal business structure and additional capital was necessary to permit the company to grow and take on a larger staff to handle the growing workload as the company's reputation for quality workmanship grew. |
For information on investment opportunities in the company, please contact us for a prospectus and business plan. |