Ronee's Bio

...Multi Platinum Record Award winning guitar builder Ronee Peña's  interest in guitar building began right at the same time he began playing the instrument during the mid 1970's, "I wanted to find out what was making all that great sound and ended up modifying my SG copy. A friend of mine showed me how to use a soldering iron and it was on from there!" Ronee started hanging out at a small local guitar shop called Barth's Guitar Shop in Riverside California, "I would ride my bike over there all the time and just be blown away by the cool guitars those guys were making... putting lefty Telecaster necks on a flying V body and funny things like the toilet seat guitar". Ronee learned all he could and soon started working on friends guitars in which he gained a reputation as a go to guy for guitar repairs and modifications.
Ronee worked in local music stores repairing electric and acoustic guitars, cellos, banjos, violins, mandolins as well as teaching guitar lessons and playing gigs at night until 1994 when he was hired by Fender Custom Shop co founder John Page. Although Ronee's main responsibilities was in repairs, customer service and product support he was used often as an extra guitar builder. When all the master builders during that golden era got too busy, Ronee either built for, repaired, restored and worked on guitars for some of the most prolific and legendary guitarist of our time such as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Duane Allman, Rory Gallagher, Elliot Easton, Richie Sambora, Jon Bon Jovi, Dave Amato, Bruce Hall & Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon), Tommy Shaw, Ricky Phillips, James Young & Lawrence Gowan (STYX) Nils Lofgren, Melissa Etheridge just to name a few. Many of these guitars Ronee has built are still being played today on some of the biggest stages in the world.
Also during that time Ronee was solely responsible for introducing a rusting process that would be used on Fender's top selling line the Relic Time Machine Series. "John Page said we had to come up with our own process to properly relic guitars. The Custom Shop's earliest versions of the Relic guitars were aged by a vendor we were using out of state, he wasn't about to tell us any of his secrets so we had to come up with our own way. Some of the guys were trying to rust parts using battery acid, soda pop one guy even tried putting screws in salt water and leaving it on his roof for weeks. Nothing seemed to work. A little light went on in my head and I recalled a time when I was making my own stomp boxes. I used to burn my own pc boards using etching solution I got from Radio Shack. One night after making pc boards I forgot to put the lid on the etching solution tub. The next day all my tools that were hanging above the tub were rusted. I went and got the etching solution, poured some in a cup and dipped a neck screw in it and it was instantly rusted. The next day I came into the shop and showed John Page and the rest is history!"
Ronee is also the only guitar builder to have one of his creations made into part of a collectible figure of Richie Sambora holding the relic Double Neck Tele Ronee made for Richie, in which he first performed with during Super Bowl XXXVII halftime show.
After an illustrious 18 year career with  "the big F", Ronee is now available to build YOU your favorite aged version of those great American classic iconic guitars from the 50's and 60's. Ronee's Classic Custom Guitars also offers a wide variety of services such as custom aging of new guitars (must be finished in lacquer) restoring vintage guitars and repairs.