Thursday, February 26, 2026

It’s Guitar Night on Lincoln Avenue

By EDDIE RIVERA

Guitar owners wait faithfully in line to have their guitars repaired for free at Backyard Party’s ‘Guitar Night.’

In a nondescript industrial park, a ‘backyard’ sanctuary for broken strings and second chances

On a surprisingly cold Pasadena evening, a long line formed outside a warehouse tucked into an industrial park along Lincoln Avenue. Inside, beneath stage lights and the low murmur of guitars tuning up, guitars moved from hand to hand like patients in triage. Some needed strings. Others needed more serious attention—neck resets, wiring repairs, encouragement. Mostly, they needed someone who knew what they were doing.

The gathering, known simply as Guitar Night, was only in its second iteration. It already had the feeling of something inevitable, as guitarists of all ages—boys and girls, men and women—brought their precious guitars in to see the professionals.

Matt Chait, a guitarist who helped organize the event, traced the evening’s origin to the aftermath of the Eaton Fire and a pair of teenage girls who were raising money for fire victims through backyard shows. Matt met their mom, Sandra Denver, and a business partnership was born.

“I met her and we hit it off immediately,” he said. “I said, ‘we need a permanent spot to do these backyard parties.’”

The warehouse space, which of course, they call “Backyard Party,”  became that spot. It also serves as headquarters for Altadena Musicians. That organization  helped put musical instruments back in the hands of the countless Altadena and Pasadena musicians whose hobbies and livelihoods were swept away in a wall of fire last January, as they drove hurriedly out of the Altadena hills with maybe only a laptop and a blanket.

Chait and his collaborators now book as many as fifteen shows a month in the space, often featuring younger bands, kids just getting started. But replacing instruments lost in the Eaton Fire was only part of the recovery. The deeper problem revealed itself once the music resumed.

“They didn’t have somewhere to play,” Chait said. “And then once they played, we realized they’re all out of tune and their guitars were broken, and all these things.”

So he called in favors—from Fender, Guitar Center Foundation, and a network of professional players and technicians—asking not for money, but for labor. Guitar repairs can be expensive, and for young players especially, prohibitive. The result was Guitar Night: free repairs, setups, and instruction, offered by volunteers who normally do this work professionally.

At a long folding table festooned with guitar tools, Pasqual Campoletano, or “Pat,” a builder for Fender’s specialty brands division, moved methodically through a queue of instruments. He makes guitars for known artists and unknown customers, but here he was just donating his time. Tonight he was working on my German-made Harley Benton Rickenbacker copy.

The motivation, he explained, was simple.

“The one thing I always thought was in the immediate aftermath, everybody wants to help,” he said. “But really I think a lot of important help happens a year after, two years after, a month after whatever that is. Just not to forget it.”

Pasqual described music as a refuge in his own life, something that “kept me out of trouble, and it got me out of trouble. It was my outlet.”
Around him, young musicians hovered, watching closely. Volunteers showed them how to wind strings properly, how to adjust pickups, how to recognize when something wasn’t right. These were small lessons, but foundational ones.

“A big part of this guitar night is teaching them how to put their own strings on,” Chait said. “It’s one thing to do it for them, it’s another thing to have someone here who will teach them how to do it.”

The room pulsed with quiet concentration. Somewhere in the back, a newly tuned instrument rang out, tentative at first, then louder. Chait, surveying the scene, suggested the idea could spread.

“As far as I can tell,” he said, “something like this should probably be done in every city every week.”
Outside, the night had grown colder. Inside, guitars—once silent or stubborn—were finding their voices again.

More information about Guitar Night is available at altadenamusicians.org, and backyardpartyLA.com.