As I've mentioned I'm working nights now and loving it. I also only work part time now that I'm 66 so it's about 20 hours a week.
Last week was a typical week for me and I wanted to post pics of most of the guitars that I repaired personally. Mind you Dave Collins is there full time and his production exceeds mine (sometimes LOL) (we are competitive...) so you can get a feel for just how many instruments pass though our doors. These pics are of my production and I am pretty fast at this stuff working very efficiently.
We are repair only and will not change a string or even sell a string, no retail or any other BS that takes us away from our benches and paying clients. Our minimum is a full set-up for about $100 and that is pretty comprehensive as well an can be many different things depending on the individual instruments needs. One example is a Strat I did yesterday needed it's neck angle improved/shimmed and we did that as well as the full set-up and called it a full set-up.
What you see below is one week of 20 hours of work for me, a Day In the life of Hesh
so to speak. The guitars were in for fret work, cracks, pup instals, full set-ups, electronic issues and more. Everyone gets cleaned including electronics and frets as well because of Felix Ungar Hesh here....
Nothing overly interesting this week except that there were an unusually high number of electric guitars. We usually are about 50/50 acoustic electric since we are Martin certified for warranty work.
There was one signed by Les Paul himself who used to keep an engraver in his shirt pocket I'm told and he signed many guitars. There is also a baritone and a host of other stuff too.
Lastly my story is intertwined with the OLF. I was here early but not the earliest and I met my business partner Dave Collins on the OLF even though we both lived in the same town. He was already a Master Luthier having professionally repaired at Elderly's and taught Lutherie at the Galloup School. Dave is also a trained machinist which I'm finding is one of the most useful things one can have when they approach Lutherie.
Anyway we both acknowledged that we had a lot to learn, Dave about business and Hesh about Lutherie and we went at it. We did not profess to know it all or let our egos prevent us from learning all there is to learn along the way. And by the way even with thousands of guitars under your belt there is still always going to be something new to learn. The Guild in the pics was a new one for me last week.
Ann Arbor Guitars is ten years old this April Fool's Day
and we have already passed the 10,000 repaired guitar mark. We were born out of the OLF and that's why I'm telling the story here for folks who might fancy hanging out a shingle someday too.Now, lastly here is the best part of my life in Lutherie. I wanted to build a retirement gig for myself and that's what this has been about all along for me. For nearly 20 years now I had hoped to be able to learn how to supplement my income and pass my time around Lutherie and guitars. I now have a situation where I can work as much or as little as I want whenever I want and it's also very profitable because we provide real value and charge for it too as people should.
When I can't work anymore so be it but until then I plan on working until I die
Bury me with a Collings please 
Now he's thrilled with the work and said so.
- but they’re mostly cool and I’m constantly making friends in this job and connecting with people throughout my community who I otherwise would never meet.