How difficult is it to become a career luthier?

[SpoonyJank]

I dropped out of college about 18 months ago. I was doing really bad mostly because I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and I got into trouble with the law. I really had no earthly idea what might interest me as an occupation. Right now I have a pretty horrible job, but I'm tolerating it pretty well. It's a night-shift manual labor type job. I actually like being active.

 

Sorry for being vague about my situation, its kind of embarrassing. I was going to a nice college with a good scholarship not all that long ago. I used to be one of those most-likely-to-succeed type people. Hardly ever did my homework, aced tests. but now my options are a bit more limited. I turned into one of those stereotypical young adults that live in their parents basement, just not quite as lazy. I have plenty of money set aside for school and all (and also a big chunk of cash thats ready to be sent to the GAS chamber), but the thought of community college just makes me depressed. I can tolerate any kind of work if I see the point to it, but I'd rather do something that actually interests me. Unfortunately the only real interest I have nowadays is in acoustic guitars, and I can't exactly bank on being a rock star ; I haven't even been playing all that long, but this is the one time I know something is going to remain a part of my life no matter where I end up. And the whole nature of it interests me, and I can't say that about anything else. And every talent I have seems like it would be well suited to luthiery. I'm more than a little skeptical about it as a viable career though, and I don't even have the testicular fortitude to honestly tell my own parents about what may very well be my one potential interest in life.

 

There aren't any 4 year colleges that have "luthiery" as a major unfortunately:rolleyes: even mentioning that seems silly. Most of luthiery schools that exist seem workshop oriented, like you cant spend the better part of even a month or two just learning. but a select few seem to have attained the status of professional schools. It makes me wonder if any kind of "job-security" even exists. I know I could probably easily aspire to work in a factory type setting, but something about the word "factory" really scares me. It would still be exponentially more satisfying than what I'm doing now and I could even manage to possibly eek out a really meager living with my current, horrible job.

 

I know it starts out as a little hobby for most with one faithful stewmac kit. But I feel as if I've already burned lots of time. I have the money and the space to start going balls out on a new hobby, and I may very well end up doing just that, regardless of where I end up. But it doesn't seem like I'd want to do it just for my own gratification (dreams of truly custom guitars). we all want to be millionaires while doing what we love at the same time, after all. Life in a factory type setting might burn me out on also trying to do it as a hobby/side-job though.

 

This is a weird place to ask these questions. they stay pretty on-topic on luthier sites and they're all professional strangers.

 

Anyhow one thing I'm dead sure of is that I'm definitely going to build one.

[joeybcdt]

It doesn't sound like money's an issue. So, it seems to me that the SMART thing to do is load up and move to where ever there's a college AND a busy luthier.

 

Enroll in college. Don't waste your time and Dad's money on stupid stuff...like art or PE degrees. If you're gonna spend the time and money to go to college at least get a degree that you can make some money with. Be sure to take a few business/finance/accounting classes for sure if you ever aspire to own a business.

 

While in college get a job with a luthier. Work for free if you have to. If you become valuable to him he'll start paying you. As with anything manufactured by hand there are a lot of very valuable tips and tricks that you can only learn by working under a master. Immediately starting out on your own would be foolish.

 

Joey

[guitarcapo]

Here's how you do it:

 

#1 Consider it a lot like trying to be a professional musician. You start off by having a "day job" to pay the bills. During that time you hone your skills an build up your inventory of tools and wood you'll need for the rest of your life. Take on repair jobs from a local music store and build a few guitars from kits. Sell a few guitars to local stores or offer to leave them on consignment.

 

#2 It's best to have a few different sources of income within lutherie. The big 3 tend to be building, repairing, and wood dealing. If one of the 3 is down the other 2 pick up the slack. For example I might buy 10 sets of koa wood wholesale at 75 dollars a set and sell half of them online for 150 dollars a set and keep the other 5 as "free wood" Repairs often pay way more than building guitars. Learn how to do neck resets, refrets, and crack repairs and you'll find work pretty fast from music stores and pawn shops. I've made a lot of money buying broken guitars and fixing them for resale too.

 

#3 When you are making enough money at it, quit your day job. beware that this might take a while. Musicians as a rule aren't easy to get rich off of because they aren't that wealthy but there are a lot of expensive guitars being sold to baby boomers right now...and I predict a wave a repair work coming up as these guitars age over the next 10 years.....

[Cams]

I don't know much about luthiery, but I have been through the school of hard knocks and ended up turning out okay. I was the opposite of you - didn't ace any tests and was the least likely to succeed. However succeed I did and I've worked my way into a happy life.

 

I think if there's something in life you want to do, then you should strive to make that a reality. If building guitars is what you want to do, then start a plan. Guitarcapo's advice sounds good. I wonder whether any luthiers would be willing to take someone on? I'd write to them all and ask. When I was visiting the Brook workshop, I jokingly asked whether there were any jobs going, and was told "yeah, there's always something needing done" - not that I was interested, just overwhelmed by what I was seeing!

 

Best of luck!! Shall I put my name on the list for a SpoonyJank now then?

[Preacher Will]

A good buddy of mine is a full-time professional luthier who owns his own one-man shop and does nothing but repair, build and play guitar full-time. Check out his site at www.philtone.com.

 

Phil has a bachelor's degree in music and is a graduate of Roberto Venn. He did several years of work with PRS as their in-house repair tech. After that, he went out on his own renting space in a local music store. Now he has his own shop and is getting ready to move to a new location right across the street from my house. The kicker is that his wife's a public school teacher and he's often said that he couldn't make it without her constant support. Phil is one of the best repair guys in the Baltimore-Washington area, maybe one of the best on the east coast. But even he finds making it a full-time, support-a-family income, type job a challenge.

 

My guess would be: If you want to make it a career, you'll need to get a good basic education in guitar repair and then look into an apprenticeship somewhere. There's a lot more to it than most folks think. I don't know any real-world tech/luthiers who work exclusively on acoustics. Whatever gets brought into the shop is what you get to work on. You might have three re-frets today, a wiring job tomorrow, and neck re-set and re-finish the day after. You've got to have the skills to do it all well or you won't get any repeat business. After that, you'll need to spend some time building a reputation and acquiring the thousands of dollars worth of tools you'll need.

 

I'll bet most of us have dreamed of a life building dream guitars like an Olsen or a Manzer where you have fifty people wanting to give you $10,000 just for the privelege of being on your waiting list. I know I have. But the odds of that happening for most of us have got to be a million to one. Most guys who go into luthery as a career are going, at best, to be the local go-to-guy for whatever breaks on your axe. And they aren't going to get wealthy at it. They might, however, be quite rich because not everything of value can be measured in dollars and cents. You're the only one who really knows what you need to live on and what you need to be happy in life.

 

The Preacher

 

P.S. If you go to Phil's site and look through the gallery, you'll the see the custom acoustic he's built. It's one of the sweetest little guitars I've ever played. I'd dropped one of my guitars off for some minor work and complained that now I didn't have anything to play (Phil knew I was yanking his chain). He reached behind the counter, picked up a case, and said: "Here, take mine till I get yours finished." He handed me his "baby" and I kept it for a week. It was a week of dodging my wife, my secretary, even my dog so that I could play that guitar. I must have played it five or six hours a day. Simply awesome.