MONTREAL—There's an interesting story behind Brad Barr's guitar, he guesses it's about 70 or 80 years old.

“I found it at an antique store in Austin, Texas just in the corner, covered in dust, but I could tell it had a lot to it, a lot of character, a lot of mojo,” said Barr.

The guitarist from Montreal-based folk group The Barr Brothers has seen the elements take a toll on his acoustic guitar. The instruments are sensitive to changing climates as the wood contracts and expands.

A cold winter in a heated Montreal apartment left Barr's guitar in desperate need of moisture.

“The back side of the guitar, when you flipped it over, had peeled up like a piece of paper. It just folded. It was so dry and really tight,” said Barr.

He brought it to Broken Headstock House of Repairs on Park Ave. where storeowner Dan Daoust plays the role of guitar doctor. Daoust has seen all kinds of ailments.

“The neck is twisted or the frets are worn out,” Daoust explained. “Acoustic guitars tend to dry out, so all the internal structure becomes unglued and can literally explode. We've seen guitars that are literally about to spontaneously combust.”

a guitar, he says, is like a car: regular tune ups are the key to reliability and a good performance. Daoust caters to a wide-ranging clientele, from the novice who comes in asking him to fix a broken string to the veteran looking for a complete guitar overhaul.

“Every customer is the same. Even the kid who just started and got his first guitar, to the guy who has a hundred guitars and plays on the world's stages—it's important to me that that guitar performs as best as it can,” said Daoust.

He gives each and every guitar the TLC that it needs. You'll never see him rushing though a job, painstaking precision is essential to each repair.

“To really just go above and beyond because I really want that guitar to perform as well as it can,” he continued.

Barr says knowing how Daoust works makes all the difference, especially when you have a sold-out show and you're nervous about how your guitar will come back to you.

“Is it going to retain the sound that you loved in the first place? I can safely say that these guys kept its authentic sound and it sounds just like the day I fell in love with it,” said Barr.

That is the ultimate reward for Daoust, who's just doing what he loves.