Official Luthiers Forum!

Just wondering who here spends all of their time or the bulk of it doing repairs instead of building? Would it be fun if we knew each other and kept up on what we were workng on? Or am I just tripping from super glue fumes again?
Evan

_________________
http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

Hey Evan, I do a small amount of repair (maybe 15/20 year) and like doing
it, mostly acoustic guitars, which is what led me to build a first flat-top. I
thought, why not? Of course I'm hooked…

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

cool Laurent, are you working on anything now? I have about 13 in the shop now including a really old Collings and one of OLF's own John Kinnard steel strings.
Evan

_________________
http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

Hi Evan

I mainly build but, do the odd repair.

I use to do a lot of repairs but aviod as much as possible. I am in a small market area and a lot of the reginal performers are my build for clients. I do a lot of their repair work since they help support my building but out side of tht i avoid what I can.MichaelP38755.9870833333

I do more repairs than building. I do a lot of BFTS retro fits.

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

I have little interest in building anymore, largely because the market is so
swamped today. I built several hundred guitars in my time at Bryans, but
when I came to southeast Michigan I was amazed at the incredible void in
quality repair shops. It seemed like far too fertile a market to leave
untapped.

In all honestly, I actually enjoy repair and restoration more than building.
Even if I did decide to get back in to building I would always want to keep
a steady flow of repairs through the shop.

_________________
Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I enjoy repairs, and I've been doing more lately. I don't have a day job, I'm eating only on my skills, so repairs can be important. 70% of my time is building, but probably 50% of the money is repairing. jfrench38756.0887731481

_________________
Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

i repair more than i build, and over the years a majority of the build orders have come from repair clients who want to step up to a custom built instrument but also wish to deal with someone whom they know and trust.

cool this is good stuff to know, I repair full time and will sometimes go to the kitchen and build a sandwich.
If anyone wants to share what they are currently working on or interesting jobs it may be fun. Monday I had a very early Humphrey Millenium in my shop, very cool guitar.
Evan

_________________
http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

I like repair work myself,It can be challenging for sure.
I'm really getting into buiding now so I'd say it's 50/50

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

    I repair refin and build

Hi folks,
     I'm a full time repairman trying hard to eek out the time to build instruments - mostly for the purpose of having a creative outlet. I've built four and have four in the works.
     I have 30-40 repairs go across my bench every week and usualy have a backlog of about 20-30 instruments. During the busy time that backlog can reach about 60, once surpassing 80. Not much sleep being had at that point 8^P. Ugh.
     Good news is I'm buying a house and will have the room to set up a shop for building instruments in the basement. Wahoo!

[QUOTE=Evan Gluck] I repair full time and will sometimes go to the kitchen and build a sandwich.[/QUOTE]

Still plan to build that ultra-light "Tele"?

[/QUOTE] Monday I had a very early Humphrey Millenium in my shop, very cool guitar.
Evan[/QUOTE]

Did you happen to notice if one of the cross braces lies directly under the bridge, or do they fall on either side of it? I know vertical braces do lie under the bridge. I heard a Millenium in a quartet setting once ( the L.A. Guitar Quartet), and it made the other three Spanish cedar-tops sound like they were stuffed with cotten. Big volume AND big tone!

Full time repairman here. I'd love to build more but never seem to find the extra time.

[QUOTE=jfrench] I enjoy repairs, and I've been doing more lately. I don't
have a day job, I'm eating only on my skills, so repairs can be important.
70% of my time is building, but probably 50% of the money is repairing.
[/QUOTE]

How do you find the extra 20% time? I'd love to know if you're willing to
share the secret!
Any pics of what you're working on at the moment? I really enjoyed the pics
of your last here.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

[QUOTE=Evan Gluck] cool Laurent, are you working on anything now? I have
about 13 in the shop now including a really old Collings and one of OLF's
own John Kinnard steel strings.
Evan[/QUOTE]

A bunch of '70 and '80 Martins, most in need of neck resets, most with the
PG crack (in need of new guards as well, anybody knows where to buy
celluloid sheets??? Just kidding…), one D 12-20 with fingerboard crack,
refrets for all I think and so on… Nothing exceptionnal. The only work I
dread is refinishing, really. Touch-ups are fine and can even be fun.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I live here in the Atlanta area on the south side and have noticed that there are no full-time repair shops within 2 hours that I know of. No one around here can do major work like finish work, neck sets, re-fret jobs, ect. There are a few experienced builders in my area but most want to limit their repair work to their own guitars. I am interested in all aspects of lutherie but as soon as I get my chops up I want to do repair mainly with a little custom building on the side. I have met a few owners of pre-war Martins and one guy with a Loar F-5 at a local weekly bluegrass jam that don't like the idea of shipping off an instrument to have it fixed. I like the idea of being able to fill a need locally but I don't feel comfortable yet with working on five and six figure instruments. Maybe a couple of years down the road.

Evan-
Thanks for starting this thread, it's nice to know others share the same interest in repair and restoration that I do.

Later-

_________________
John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I repaired a Classical that a rugby player had fallen on whilst having a drink or two, it wasn't even his guitar - Whoops

Very cool responses, sounds like we have a good mix of part time repair guys and full timers like me.
John, if you build it they will come!! If nobody in Atlanta is doing quality work you can fill that void. In my case although there seem to be many repair guys in NYC I have found an amazing niche. People like to go to a dedicated repair shop and not a store for their stuff.
I seem to be averaging 80-90 guitars a month, and 1-2 new clients per day. I think I have such a hight traffic because I am in NY. What is the traffic like for everyone else?
This is fun,
Evan

_________________
http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

[QUOTE=laurent] [QUOTE=jfrench] I enjoy repairs, and I've been doing more lately. I don't
have a day job, I'm eating only on my skills, so repairs can be important.
70% of my time is building, but probably 50% of the money is repairing.
[/QUOTE]

How do you find the extra 20% time? I'd love to know if you're willing to
share the secret!
Any pics of what you're working on at the moment? I really enjoyed the pics
of your last here.[/QUOTE]

What I meant was, though I only spend 30% of the time repairing it brings in 50% of the cash (to put it another way).

I'll post some pics of something interesting once I finish the details in the next few days if you'd like to see... an interesting one in progress, and a long time coming.

_________________
Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

I am recently back to building. I was a full-time repairman from 1970 til '85 in a very high volume store. I couldn't treat my family right on the available wages at the time and changed careers. I've always kept repairing for a few select clients and friends.

_________________
Mark Joy

mjoy Guitars