Metro Atlanta's Coco the Geek brings new life into old music electronics

Before you toss out your old music gear, you might want to send it to Coco Hankerson.

Hankerson is a music repair technician in the metro Atlanta area. However, she prefers to go by Coco the Geek, the name of her music repair business.

"I came up with the name Coco the Geek because I'm a geek of electronics," said Hankerson. "Why not go ahead and choose a name that represents what I am, a geek, I'm a nerd?"

Hankerson specializes in repairing a mixture of old and new music gear. She says the work is not easy.

"That's why you call me in. I'm the specialist. Y'all make the beats, and I be the geek," Hankerson said.

She started her business in 2020 as a recycling company, then she switched to music repairs in 2024. Now Hankerson receives requests to fix gear across the country.

"It's a lot of work. It may not look like it, but it's a lot of technical work. You gotta learn how to read schematics, you gotta know what you're doing because you can't get hurt if you don't know what you're doing," Hankerson said.

When Hankerson is in her repair shop, she sometimes gives the equipment she's working on a name.

"I just call them my babies, come on baby let me go ahead and get you right," said Hankerson.

Despite some of the technology being old, Hankerson says she still sees the value of getting the equipment back up and running.

"Why would you not want to do that? So to be able to contribute to him getting back to doing whatever it is he do or needs to get done with this, it feels good," said Hankerson. "Because if not, it'll be sitting where it was sitting, collecting dust. Those memories will be fading away."

Hankerson recalled moments when, as a six-year-old, she was frustrated with why her Sony Walkman stopped working. She said those moments motivated her to be where she is now.

"If I can go back and tell 6-year-old me, 'You have no idea, you are about to be one of the world's greatest techs,' I be jumping all over that bed, man," said Hankerson.

You can learn more about Coco the Geek's services here.