Official Luthiers Forum!

Welcome back Mario! It is good to have you here and just know that at least some of us appreciate what you have to share.

I have something to say here that has been eating on me for a while, and I know of no better way or place to express it than this thread, since it will be gone soon anyway.

My Father was a master machinist all of his life. It was amazing to see some of the creative things he could do with metal and how precise he could be also. He had a lifetime of experience to draw on, and a knowledge of tools that was beyone comprehension. While I was growing up, it was my nature to doubt his expertise on things. I guess all kids doubt the knowledge of their parents, especially teens?

When I would go to my dad and ask his opinion on certain things, he would give me the information I would need, and in a way that I could understand and that didnt belittle my intelligence even though I was dumb as dirt on the subject I was asking about. He was an expert on machining metals and had a knowledge of metal that would boggle anyone elses mind. He also had an expertise on metal working tools, especially the ones he worked with on a daily basis.

As my dad got older, I would discover him doing things that was wasteful in materials and in labor. One example of this was drilling holes in gate posts for the screw in hinge pins for farm gates. I found him doing this with a brace and bit one day, so I quietly went and bought him a battery powered drill (a good one) and some drill bits to fit. He was happy to have them and said it would help him out alot. A month or so later, I caught him out in the field again with a brace and bit drilling a hole. I was furious about it and confronted him with it immediately. To make  this story shorter, the bottom line is that he didnt have confidence in the tool I had given him nor in my method of drilling holes. The method he had used all of his life worked for him, and he just plain didnt care about any new technologies or tools.

Understanding this took me a while, but I finally did come to an understanding of my dad's philosophy. The older I get, the more I am able to comprehend the importance of listening to my peers when they explain a solution to my problems. There is a limit to all of this though. When someone belittles my intelligence, no matter how knowledgeable they may be, I lose respect for them and for anything they have to say. No matter how correct they may be, I have no interest in listening to them or learning from them.

I am finding that sometimes the problem lies with one person not fully understanding the question, or the other not understanding the answer. Perhaps if you find yourself (or myself) getting frustrated, it is because of one or the other of these problems. Asking the "asker" to ask the question again using different words or the "answerer" to use different words to explain the solution will solve the problem with minimal effort and no feelings hurt or respect lost for either individual.

We are all friends here, with a common love of music and a goal of producing guitars that excel in quality. When one gives an answer that resembles "my way or the highway", or "you are an idiot and I know all", I have lost respect for anything else that person has to say, no matter how old, experienced, or qualified they may be. A wise man will listen to all explanations before making rash judgements. I can, in most certain terms, learn from someone who is much less experienced than me and is much younger than me. When we converse, I am careful not to portray an arrogant tone to my conversation. and to do more listening than talking.

The flip side of this is that I also take each solution to problems or pieces of advise with a grain of salt. There are many ways to solve problems, and each one has his or her own way of doing things. I dont take single person's way of doing things as a "supreme authority" even though what they are doing is working for them.

I spent over 25 years making chemicals. I was an expert on the chemical processes, working with the equipment I had to work with. When I retired, I found out that they were able to produce just as much as when I was there. They have young people working there now, and they have upgraded some of their equipment to produce the same things at faster rates and with less labor. The quality remains the same or in some cases is better than the way I did things.

If you understand what I am trying to say here, then bless you! If you dont understand any of this, then please ignore this post and continue on with what you were doing. Be assured that my heart is with the continued success of this forum and the lifelong friendships and bonds that it helps to create.