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Lost arts: In these modern times, there’s value in old-world repairing skills

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Paul Macias, keeper of the neon flame.
Photo: Mikayla Whitmore

Fast fashion, plastic bags, paper plates, planned obsolescence and single-use everything. These days, it seems like all is disposable and nothing’s for keeps. But a few industrious and highly skilled Las Vegans are holding firm against the sea of waste. These artisans apply their creativity and unique knowledge to repairs and maintenance—and they’ve elevated it to an art.

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      James Brockett - Electronics wizard

      Rocky Top Electronics’ James Brockett has outlasted the full circle of technology. The 69-year-old has been repairing electronics for nearly 50 years. He started in an era in which stereos and televisions were built to last. He endured through the ’80s and ’90s, when technology became disposable. And now he’s enjoying a wave of nostalgia for the classics.

      “People want to fix up old equipment that they’re very attached to. It might be grandma’s radio.” He points to his workbench and says, “Cassettes are coming back. This is an 8-track I’m working on.”

      For Brockett, repairing electronics is a labor of love. “We’re practically a nonprofit here,” he says. “We’re not getting rich, that’s for sure.” To supplement his income, Brockett spent 20 years working as an engineer on the Strip. He rode Speed: The Ride (the rollercoaster at the former Sahara) to make sure it was safe. He climbed inside the Excalibur’s fire-breathing dragon to adjust the mechanics. And now, he continues on his own for the fun of it.

      After a lifetime of staying current, Brockett can fix pretty much anything—from VCRs to turntables to iPhones. But his favorite thing to repair is old tube equipment. Amps from the ’60s and ’70s remind him of his youth in Boulder City, when he played guitar in rock bands.

      Rocky Top Electronics 4300 W. Charleston Blvd. 702-878-7808 rockytoptvaudio.com.

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      Victor D'Agnostino - furniture restorer

      “I wanted to be an artist, but I needed a job,” says painter, sculptor and carpenter Victor D’Agnostino. “I knew a lot about wood and a lot about art. I hard to figure out how to put them together.”

      Through trial and error, D’Agnostino built a career that brought together his art-school credentials and his upbringing in his dad’s woodshop. He restores furniture, antiques and art. He paints murals and works with Venetian plaster, faux finishes and gold leaf. This contemporary renaissance man who owns and operates Las Vegas Furniture Repair sketches courtrooms for the local news, plays the drums and live-paints the “Mona Lisa” upside down in glow-in-the-dark colors.

      During the last housing boom, commissions to paint murals in new mansions brought the native New Yorker to Las Vegas. “When the stock market fell, our good clients lost all their money,” D’Agnostino says. Adapting to the recession, he changed the focus of his business from art to restoration. “People were no longer buying new but they were spending money for their stuff to be restored.”

      The irrepressible artist loves making repairs that involve re-creating missing pieces. Before-and-after photos show sculptures made whole and antique chairs transformed from bundles of broken springs to things of beauty. Above all, D’Agnostino loves to repair torn paintings. “It’s not something your general handyman can fix, but it’s easy for me.”

      Las Vegas Furniture Repair 702-787-0317 furniture-repair.vegas

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      Juan Soto - Luthier

      Just for kicks, Juan Soto likes to fix musical instruments others consider to be beyond repair. “You don’t make money out of those, but they’re fun,” he says. “It’s a satisfaction to put it together and see it played.”

      As a luthier, Soto repairs string instruments: violins, cellos, bass, guitars, harps and more. His customers include Strip musicians, Philharmonic orchestra members, school-music programs and mariachi bands. He might be the only person in town capable of repairing a mariachi’s vihuela or guitarrón.

      Soto grew up in Guatemala, without access to instruments or music lessons (though he now plays violin and viola and is learning mariachi guitar). He paid his way through night school working as an apprentice carpenter. When he finally became an accountant, Soto found the work monotonous, so after a few deskbound years, he transferred his skills in furniture and varnish to wood and string instruments.

      Soto loves that each presents a new problem to be solved. For example, Las Vegas’ low humidity causes instruments to crack. He painstakingly repairs them, through a multi-day process of clamping, setting and gluing. The biggest challenge comes at the end, when he must re-create the instrument’s original varnish. “If you get the color wrong, it will be totally visible to the naked eye.”

      As for those accounting skills, they come in handy when he does the books for his own shop.

      702-272-8938 sotoviolins.com

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      Paul Macias - Keeper of the Neon

      The tricky part about repairing neon signs is that old glass tends to crack. It’s easier to just replace the broken section, explains Paul Macias, owner of Paul’s Neon Signs #3 (his parents founded the first two). Then the challenge becomes matching the new color to the old, because the older the neon, the dimmer it gets. Macias’ favorite repair was the iconic Binion’s sign on Fremont Street. Otherwise, he enjoys the challenge of crafting small neon letters.

      Despite, or perhaps because of its difficulty, neon is Macias’ favorite type of sign to build and repair (his company makes all sign types, even neon-killer LEDs). The process of heating and bending glass can take a lifetime to master; Macias started learning at age 11. “Neon is a little bit more gratifying, because it’s something you make by hand,” he says.

      Neon is like the LP record of the sign world. New technologies are easier and cheaper, but they lack a certain richness of tone, a certain tactile joy. A decade ago, his family saw the beer signs dim and moved the business from California to Las Vegas, the last stand for neon. “When I first moved here, there were a lot of companies doing neon. Now, there’s only a handful.”

      Paul’s Neon Signs #3 3230 E. Charleston Blvd. #116 702-467-3958 paulsneonsigns3.com.

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