Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm about 6months and $5k into it. I had minimal wood working skills. I can say it is a HUGE commitment. I'm fortunate to have a great luthier that I work with. you have to have the time and dedication. This is an art that takes lots of practice. Honing of many different skills. and that's just the beginning. If something doesn't go as planned, you have to be analytical enough to figure out a work around. And believe me things go wrong

The first thing I say to prospective guitar makers is that it is a woodworking project. Sad to say, many of them are guitar players who don't know how to hold a chisel.
I tell them to start with learning how to sharpen knives, planes, chisels and scrapers, which are my primary hand tools. Next, it's learning how to use these to work wood.
You don't learn this stuff by reading about it and looking at pictures on the Internet.

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John

To BE or not to BE... That is the question!

- You just might be a luthier if you bought a broken guitar for more money than it's worth just so you can fix it.

- You might be a luthier if you've been caught at the lumber yard holding a piece of wood up to your ear....

- ...and then smiled when you whacked it with your knuckle.

- You might be a luthier if you thought that it was a shame they used that mahogany for a boat/doorframe/staircase/etc.

- You might be a luthier if you have even considered that different types of wood contribute (or not!) to the quality of sound.

- You might be a luthier if it made you happier to see your instrument in the hands of someone who can play it than it did to get paid for it.

- You might be a luthier if you made a tool that only is used to make a guitar (Or you may just be insane)

- You might be a luthier if the question as to whether it is "easy" to be a luthier doesn't make sense. You just are.

You might be a Luthier if you lick wood

I used to work with a lot of brain surgeons and have been in over 1000 brain surgeries before I was kicked out of that career and you know what? All it takes is will to be a brain surgeon. I know lots of luthiers who would be much better with their hands than many of the neurosurgeons I've worked with.

ultimately, I'm not sure I see the point in this question. Actually, I'm sure I don't see the point in this question.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

It is a silly question. I will venture a simple answer: it is NOT easy

Woah nice rides! My oldest is a '82 Guerciotti that I still take out on the road once in a while. Sounds like we need to arrange a luthiers (or what ever ya wanna call us) bike ride one of these days.

I guess the thread seems silly. I started this thread because of how easy luthiery seems to have come to me. My first guitar turned out pretty good but not perfect, and my second guitar turned out professional looking. This was all without professional mentorship by the way. I mean perhaps since I thought it was so easy for me to build a guitar and have it sound good, I thought everyone else could do the same. Then all the repairs I did when I started doing this professionally just seems so easy and intuitive that I could never imagine someone having difficulty at it.

So I wonder if it's just me...

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Well, i guess it's what you mean by being a luthier... So far, my first also seems to be coming out "OK". A couple of small goofs that i would like to do over, but they're the type of errors that most people won't see.
Al keeps telling me it'll sound good too, but i don't have the experience to tell if that will be true until i play her.

I wonder if you might be confusing raw talent with skill. I think that's been suggested on this thread. I am pretty adept at mechanical things, i consider myself creative and make my living by solving problems. I find many things pretty easy. I think those talents lend themselves to doing a decent job on my first baby... But don't ask me to predict how shaving a brace at various points will affect the vibration patterns or what effect that will have on the tone. It will be a while for me to be able to build a guitar with a "signature tone" (if that's even something I want to achieve!).

In the end, i think becoming a luthier is more about earning the respect of those who have already reached the level of "luthier" and being able to contribute something to the evolution of the art/science.

Merely building the thing falls short of that.

Hello, again, Tai,

I don't think you've posted a silly thread. However, it's difficult to respond in a useful way without knowing YOUR definition of luthier. I've followed a lot of your threads. As I've said earlier, you have shown us some very good skills--particularly in your repair and restoration work. In my view, you are a luthier. It doesn't come easily to a lot of people.

Being successful and in-demand, so that a person can support one's self with this craft is much more difficult than building nice instruments--even more difficult than doing excellent repairs.

There are other aspects to being a successful professional luthier that go beyond building skills. There's marketing and sales, customer service, finance, employee management and a host of other business skills that have little or nothing to do with building instruments.

I can't comment too much about those aspects because I avoid them. I owned a successful advertising agency for twenty years, and I managed all those business obligations until they got to the point of keeping me away from my true passion about advertising: The creative aspect. I now work alone for a few hand picked clients and I can devote all of my client time to the things I love best. I have no desire to go down that path with my instrument building. I've made some pretty nice instruments, too, but I do it for fun, as a hobby. I don't want it to become a business for me. Ergo, while I consider myself a moderately competent instrument builder, I don't even want to be a professional luthier.

I doubt this response is of much help to you, but those are my honest feelings.

Patrick

Working on numbers 11 and 12 and finding a whole new set of mistakes to make

I sure hope they give out extra luthier points for persistence.

Steve

Hey Steve, I see you've made the move from Hog Town. I was out your way golfing in Port Hope yesterday, and I'd have to say that Cobourg/Port Hope is one of the lovliest areas along Lake Ontario.
I know that you'll enjoy living out there.

And now, back to our scheduled discussion.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Yes, Tai! It's just you! You're special! You're like some kind of guitarmaking savant, nay, god! I have no doubt Torres himself would bow at your feet.

If you're finding Lutherie "easy" then you're doing something wrong. It seems the thing you find really easy is getting enough time, money and tools to build at all! How nice that would be for the rest of us mere mortals.

In all honesty, tai, proficiency is not that hard, but mastery takes a long time

You got that right.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

The first rule of holes...

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George :-)

....hand the shovel to someone else?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Hey Alex, loving it out here in the country. Nice big oversize two car garage for a shop. I'm in heaven. I'm thinking of doing a little luthier gathering sometime in the spring. You in?

Count me in, Steve! I'd love to meet you, and any others that could come. I could bring souvlaki and roasted maple head plates!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

I assume that you haven't tried to teach luthierie....at least not to some of the 'dreamers' like I have encountered. 'Sound good' is a relative term.

That would be great. Lynn Dudenbostel is into restoring and riding older Raleighs with 531 frames. I have several Atalas, including a day-glo orange 1972 Record Pro that is all Campy Record equipped.

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John

I have a crappy steel frame bike... I use it because it has virtually no risk of being stolen since it has a cash value of about .00002 cents.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I owned a couple Raleigh's over the years. Nice bikes come out of Nottingham


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Count me in. I did all my racing in the 80's on a 531 Trek with Nuovo Record. Still have it.

Vintage builders on vintage bikes. I like it.

When things go south in the shop a good ride soothes the brain.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Alas no more-

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/catfoodrob ... y/end.html

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

That's a shame I owned a Raleigh and my wife a Triumph. Both 26" three speeds. Better bikes you couldn't ask for.


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