Official Luthiers Forum!

Having made a really dumb mistake when routing a Strat trem cavity last night, and then completed a pretty decent patch and repair, I just wanted to check the views and insights of the seasoned pros on here; I am very much an amateur with fewer than 10 guitars under my belt, but with every build I find new and inventive ways to make dumb mistakes. If you then have the chops to do a decent repair on your mistake does this make you a poor luthier, a luthier, or a good luthier?! I would imagine with experience the mistakes become few and far between, but do you guys will make them? Do you still misjudge the direction of the grain during fine chisel work, or set your router / forstner / drill bit too deep still?

I guess I'm just having this crisis of confidence where I sometimes think maybe this is not the path for me! Am I learning from my mistakes? Sure. I am getting better at fixing the mistakes? Absolutely. But do I still make notable mistakes on every single build? Yes.

I have been at the bench for 40 plus years, and I still butch up. Drive on.

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

Thanks, Chris! Means a lot.

17 years and thankfully the mistakes which require a call to the customer are in the past. Of course it could happen again. You learn how to make it right - with the instrument and the customer. Know your limits along the way. The very best craftsman in the business still make mistakes. Breath.

After screwing around with the repair side of lutherie for a dozen years I recently told my local store that I wasn't going to do it any more. I'll do a few special projects for a few special friends, but all of the other work I'm just going to pass on to someone else. There was too much frustration, too much uncertainly, too much worry, and since I don't charge the industry rates, too little justification.

The paradox is that I'm the only person within hundreds of miles that can (or will) fix instruments and instruments get broken. I've really struggled with this, the pandemic has made is somewhat easier.

I've backed off from doing a lot of repairs and pretty much just do setups for selected clients now. Life is better once you learn to say no

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Working on #20 and I still bang my head against the workbench. It's usually when I am trying to do "one last thing before I go to bed" and in the morning I realize I've jumped the gun and made the next thing to do way harder. For example, rough cutting the neck before routing the truss rod slot

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Marcus, we've all been there. I largely solved it for me by having a lights-out-in-the-shop rule: no work after 10 pm. Period. No starting something that can't be finished/interrupted by 10 pm. No exceptions, no just-this-one-more-little-bit. Worked so far. Wish I'd been wise enough to do it years before I finally did.

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Peter Havriluk

Peter and Marcus, my rule is that 5:00 is beer o'clock and I don't go into the shop after I've had a beer.

Also, Marcus, I try very hard to think of sequence of operations. I do everything I can on my necks that require square straight sides while the sides are square and straight - truss rod, the scarfed had and stacked heel, all of the heel cuts that I can make on a band saw against a fence. The minute you start cutting angles or curves you better have the straight stuff done.

I must be getting old, I never work in the shop past 3:00 pm or before 10:00 am (if I can avoid it). 4-5 hours seems to be the limit my aging brain can think about precise work.

There is always a demand for your services... if you a willing to be exploited. Sure I’ll fix your $600 guitar, using $20,000 of equipment, a private workshop I own, and three days of my attention and time for $50. Why not?

The only better is the $500 in materials, pickups, and hardware; sixty hours of work over three months, and the aforementioned workshop to sell you a guitar for $600.

One measure of a fine woodworker is the ability to correct "mishaps".

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

The master makes less mistakes and when he does is able to cover them up better. That's pretty much how it works.

Too many times, after midnight something goes "crack" and I know I have just added days to the job. Now if I am up late and want to do something in the shop, I clean it or rearrange tools to be more productive the next day.

It's not a mistake unless you can't fix it

Ed