Official Luthiers Forum!

Al,
    I wondered what a butting wheel was as soon as I hit the post button
and glance at my post. I'm guilty of typing way faster than I should and in
the dark way more often then I should.

   I've seen some factory guitars with nice wood bindings, but ots of
shortuts are usually taken when they're used. Miters are not present in
most cases...if purflings are on the sides and back at all.

   I agree that we need to raise the awareness that the bulk of the market
has of custom builders. I know i'm not alone when I say that many people
who come into my shop for the first time never knew that a guitar could
be built in a small shop by a solo luthier.

   I guess because it's what deal with on a daily basis, I think everybody
knows what we do.

   Well.....gotta get back to the butting wheel.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

I know i'm not alone when I say that many people
who come into my shop for the first time never knew that a guitar could be built in a small shop by a solo luthier.

That's for sure.  I bet I've heard the following, word for word, at least 5 times:

"Wow, I didn't know people actually built guitars."

No one should have to endure holding back so many possible wise cracks so many times...

 

_________________
http://www.chassonguitars.com

Yep...that's the reaction to the guitar Don Williams built for me, and now for my own. "You built this. In your basement. Like with wood and stuff."

I love it.

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Yeah people for some reason seem to think that guitars grow on trees.....

Ladies and gentlemen we are part of something that becomes more and more lost with every passing day - craftsmanship.  My hats off to all of you for helping to keep it alive and well.

    I had a famous country artist here while he was in our area a few years
ago. His lead guitarist uses my guitars among other brands that he is
paid for endorsemtns for and wanted me to give a few of his guitar a
quick tweak and to repair one while they were close.

    They had someone from the venue drive them the 30 minutes to my
shop and we were able to sit and play a little before the front man asks,
"Can we shoot over to your factory to see where you build your guitars?"

    Well, I pointed to the door across my foyer from the iving room and
said, "It's right through there." As we walked into my 1000 sq. ft. shop, he
said, "No way!! You actually build those guitars in this shop?!"

   He asked how my "endorsement program" worked and if i'd like to give
him a guitar in exchange for permission to use his name. I declined and
simply said that he could buy a guitar from me so that I'd be able to give
one away in the future to a player who really needed to have one given to
him. He politely said that he understood, but that he'd just gotten a
bunch of new guitars and gear for free from several of the larger builders
for the tour he was on at the time.

    He'd only ever been to the big shops that hand him a dozen or more
guitars for free when he visits and take him on the special executive
guided tours for photo opps and press purposes so he had no idead that
we do what we do and in the places that we love to do it in.

    My old shop was a full 2200 sq. ft. and my move back in 1997 put us
in a larger home with a smaller shop with the intentions of my building a
2000 sq. ft. building in the few years following. As fate would have it, I've
been in this smaller shop since then and have enjoyed the smaller space
with the exception of my larger machinery having to be off site and some
in storage since.

   We are really part of a segment of the guitar industry that is not widely
known among a very large part of the players in the world. Even though
the awareness of our presence has grown alot in the past two decades,
we have a long way to go.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

[QUOTE=Hesh]Ladies and gentlemen we are part of something that becomes more and more lost with every passing day - craftsmanship. My hats off to all of you for helping to keep it alive and well.[/QUOTE]

This is important to me. I really enjoy being a young student to it all. Hesh, you might appreciate something I wrote a few months ago. At the cost of some embarrassment, I'll paste it:

It's a very biblical thing to be blessed by someone elderly; it was good to be re-introduced to that feeling last week when a new friend came up to me in the local woodworking store. He's in his late 70's and just moved here from Brooklyn. His thinning skin hasn't stopped him from wanting to learn to make bowls out of wood burls, and he's been in the shop both times I've been there this month, trying to learn how to correct the latest issues he's run into.

When he saw me, he walked over, smiled, and held up the maple blank he'd been working with. What I learned this time, he smiled, then paused to look back down at the blank, is that you can't take it off once you started. You might put it back on the lathe in the same place, but something is going to be just, then he gestured with his hand, just a little off. And he shrugged, proud to learn something new.

He's tender. Both times I've seen him in the shop, he's worn tucked-in button up shirts and treated me like royalty for listening.

My friend is elderly, learning something new---that's why I like him. He likes me because I'm young, learning something old, part of a world he used to lived in. We like hearing the other talk about something, and we like talking about the latest thing we've been up to in the world of wood. Therein lay the friendship'schemical bonds.

It's a new game now in this world, one we're each happy to be naive to. He's supposed to be afraid of going outside because he could fall on the pavement, and I'm supposed to think dovetails are the things that hang behind birds.

I had the great pleasure of seeing CSN&Y a while ago.
CS&N changed guitars with each song (Neil only a few times). I watched in amazement as guitar after guitar came on the stage- Nash had some real killers that I couldn't identify- but from where I was sitting it didn't make any difference- they all sounded the same.

I guess my point is that depending on your customer, comfort, playability, and appearence may score more points than overall sound.

I wonder what it would take for Rick to tell us some stories about his famous clients.....

_________________
It's not the miles ahead, it's the stone in your shoe


In Markham,Virginia

     One thing that stands out is the trust in professional opinion! Emmanuel's hearing was blown out by an infection when he was very young. He can hear the guitar well, as he says, but can't hear the range of human voice well.
      
     I've heard more than one complaint about Kotke's sound too! Just because these guys play extraordinarily well, does not mean they're good judges of what most would like.

     Also, a few like action to be very high and with all kinds of weird set-ups because this is what they have become accustomed too, or prefer it for less fret limiting, or whatever.

     Some like real sloppy strings, therefore, requiring a different setup in bracing and soundboard thickness. Vis-a-vis Wechter/McLaughlin!

     I've had guys cramming certain guitars in my hands to play in music stores because this is what fits their playing style, not mine. I respect that they like it, but, again, not me.

      What I kind of had a high regard for is Manzers desire to hear a client play first before building a "build" !

     This shows a concern over this very issue. People prefer many different things for different reasons!

     Sometimes even a specific condition not even related to sound comes into play. I kind of have a pet peeve(perhaps feral ) with small guitars. I have not found one that stands up in tone to a Jumbo! BUT I'm 6'4" having to stretch my arm over one of these big bastards is not a problem.

     How much does comfort, or appearance, color preceptions of tone... Huhm, who knows! I try not to get too judgmental over such things because of the subjective, but I do try to always recognize the fact!

      I think, many times, the preference for the D-18/28/38/45... is nothing more than some cerebral autocoitus, but again the ambiance is something many people like, so I try, typically, not to be too negative. I believe the same variance applies to Factory vs Handmade! Very subjective - both ways!

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

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

I think the realities of marketing complicate this question. Generally speaking, handbuilt guitars cost more than factory guitars. That difference in price has to be explained to the potential customer in such a way that they're convinced they're receiving equal or better value when they go handbuilt. Explaining it as "this is how much I need to make to pay my bills and support my family" doesn't do it in the long run. Explaining it as, "my guitars are vanity items that you can show off to impress your friends" may be true, but doesn't make for good copy.

So that ultimately leaves us with the party line that "a handbuilt instrument is always better than a factory instrument, of course."

Hopefully, that's true in enough cases that the average buyer stays thrilled with their purchase. But I think the basic question of this thread can only be answered one way by any luthier who intends to make it financially...YES, whether that's truly the case or not.


Andrew

A quote from one of my favrite builder's web site


"I tell all my clients and prospective clients, “If a guitar that is reasonably well built, reasonably well intonated, with reasonable string action, and reasonable tone, and looks just like the one your favorite popular artist plays on stage, fulfills your requirements for a instrument, then by all means, save some money and buy a brand name factory built production model guitar. Many will come out of the box as wonderful instruments."

"However if you require an instrument that is as individual as you are, one with the exact tonewood combinations, appointments and hardware your want, one that is set-up to your playing specifications when you get it, and one that will be more a partner in your music than just the instrument you play. I would be honored to build it."