Official Luthiers Forum!

OMG. I have been given a grand oppurtunity to interview a couple of individuals who like, are incredible caliber. Like holy tamoly. I'm shocked that its going to happen.

Anywho, my current list of questions for the blog interviews, are a bit too long for them, so I need to come up with some questions that won't take up to much of their time for the interview.

So I come to ask YOU, if you were to ask questions of some of the 'masters' and you only had 5 or so questions to ask: what would you want to know from them.

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Colleen, wife to Mark Kett and longterm lurker to the OLF
http://www.pearlinlays.com

Cool Who? It might impact what questions to ask

Not knowing who; here are a couple you never hear in most interviews.

With wood being the sometimes unpredictable media it can be; how do you approach or deal with a project when a set of wood just does not want to cooperate? Any tips on when to walk away and collect your thoughts and when to keep chugging forward?

What is your method of tracking a project? Do you keep journal notes? If so; how often to you refer back to these notes? How important do you feel keeping a record of build notes are at this point in your carrier?

OHHHHHHHHHhhhhh PERFECT THANKYOU.

I am pleading the 5th till its done, I feel like vommiting I am like sooooo nervous. I haven't set up the time yet, as I want to be well prepared. So I don't look like a FOOOOL.

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Colleen, wife to Mark Kett and longterm lurker to the OLF
http://www.pearlinlays.com

they are just human you know. Good luck and I look forward to reading the interviews. When do you expect them to be published to your Bog? the suspense is going to kill me.

Colleen I agree with my pal Michael that these folks are going to be surprisingly down-to-earth and I suspect that you will find this activity very rewarding and fun.

Some of the things that I would ask, once a rapport has been established are as follows:

You obviously have great passion for your work - for you personally what are the core and individual motivations that you draw from to pursue your work?

Regarding the guitar market in general, we are seeing more and more of some of the usual suspects i.e. Martin, Taylor etc. offering semi-custom models such as R. Taylor, the many Martin signature models and the recently introduced Martin "Authentic" series - do you think that this is at all in response to the availability of superb hand crafted guitars from independent Luthiers?

Digging deeper regarding the previous question who do you see as the real innovators in today's guitar industry, the factories, the independents, both?

Looking back what would you believe to be the single greatest innovation in guitar building?

Would you name some of the more recent innovations in guitar building that you believe advanced the craft and who was/is responsible for these innovations?

Looking forward what is your view for the future of the independent Luthier and how well the market will accept their/your offerings?

Regarding your beautiful guitars - may I have one please.......

Most builders have experienced the sound of a guitar that profoundly impacted them. It caused them to try to build a guitar that sounds like this guitar, or product a better sounding guitar. What was the guitar that did this for you?

Do you believe a great sounding top wood that taps beautifully is the key to a great guitar, or do you believe you can coax the sound you are shooting for from any piece of wood?

Those are just a few I'm interested in. Good luck, and look forward to seeing what you come up with!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Colleen, I used to do musician interviews for a magazine that has a subscription base in excess of 40,000. The first few times I mumbled and felt like an idiot because I was so nervous. But overall, the experiences were always really cool. Good luck

You know, here is a thought. Feel free to use or toss out at will. You could include at the end of the interviews one or two peer submitted questions per interview. But that would mean we would need to know who the interviewees are

Why should you look any different from the rest of us?

A good interview has rough guidelines, but let it go, you'll be surprized where it goes.

Don't forget to ask the interviewee if they would like to ask themselves some questions. They usually turn into chatterboxes then!

Pre-interviews are the most important part, that's why they do it on TV! And don't forget to listen well.

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Questions like ,
Would you do it the same way again?
What non luthierie things inspire you to build?
Who gets to have the most fun,the builders or the players?
What defines your instuments as uniquely yours?
If you never had to worry about money , what sort of things would you do?
What medium would a portrait of you be done in?
Do you have a whole vision of an instrument before it is ever started,or is it a progressive process for you?
The kind of thing that give a little window into the person and the resulting work.
How did we get here and where to now? Type of thing.
Just my take on it.
Good luck and don't be too nervous about the whole thing .You will do great.

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How long is that in luthyears?