Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm just curious, those of you on this board, how did you learn your craft? Apprentice, School, Books? Videos? etc.

Thanks
Richard

Took a one week class with Frank Finnochio, then built, built, built. A class definitely shortens the learning curve, but there is no substitute to just doing it again and again. I learn a lot from each build. Any books I have are used more for reference now and then - not necessarily learning how to build from start to finish.

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John Ressler

I studied classical building with a professional builder for a couple of years. I then studied steel string building with Kent Everett. Like John I built like crazy and worked the kinks out of the system and then I had the opportunity to begin teaching the craft. I am still learning with each class I teach. With all the information such as books, internet, DVD's etc. out there today the learning curve is so much shorter than it was just a few years ago. I still think the best way to shorten the learning curve though is to take a class somewhere. I have been told that seeing something done is worth hearing about it a 100 times and actually doing it is worth 100 times seeing it done.

For the most part what I have learned has been here - from the OLF.

I started with a Stew-Mac kit that was very well documented with both a video and excellent instruction manual. After building two kits I found the MIMF and the OLF and started participating with the OLF as much as possible.

My philosophy on most things in life is that if I want to get good at something do as much of it as possible...... So I started building as much as I could and one year completed 5 guitars. With the help of the OLF and spending a great deal of time either building or reading everything that I could find about guitar building it came together for me nicely.

I'm with Hesh.

I'll pull out my DVD's from John Mayes as a reference when I'm doing something I'm not familiar with, and I have a few books that don't get touched, but when I need information, I use the search engine here before anything else. The body of knowledge everyone has put together is incredible. It's likely the most comprehensive and current resource available to me.

Jeff Traugott tapped a few tops for me in his shop, and I'm in Ervin Somogyi's upcoming class; Rick Turner has been very very generous with me . . . but the majority of what I've learned has been through this resource.

Robbie O'Brien didn't mention it, but he has produced a few instructional DVDs that I highly recommend. The DVDs by John Mayes are also good resources.

Probably one of the best ways to get started would be to jump right in. Look into getting a kit from Blues Creek or LMI or Stew-Mac. Its a great way to get started, and you will have something to be proud of in the end.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

The short answer is that I haven't yet learned lutherie, but I'm still trying!

I started getting an interest when I was messing around trying to work on some pawn shop specials. I got a couple of books, started with two kits from John Hall and am now starting to scratch build. I've learned a lot from the OLF and several other forums. There are really good resources available on the web.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Thats just not right...

I have not yet learned it. Too busy building all the darn jigs. I am actually becoming quite a "jigier". Will move on to lutherie soon. . But whatever, I will learn it here.

Mike

Read a lot, Was taught fine furnishing woodworking form my grandfather since I was 15 includubg French polishing. built a couple kits in the begaining.Lots of help from Frank Ford, Bill Compianoand others via emails and phone calls and last but not least this Forum. All this combined with lots of early builds given away to friends and churches.

I built banjos years ago and took in repairs to get through school, with Irving Sloane's and Don Teeter's books at my side. Rebuilt garage sale junkers. Learned fretwork on those. Also learned a lot looking at damage that I was putting right, both in repairs and fixing junkers. One guitar that had been left in a hot car on a summer day in its case curled up from string tension in such a way that it was very clear in what directions tension and torque are working. It was still together, owing to its being in the case, but everything that you would expect to happen did: the bridge pulled up, the neck block slipped, the fb extension took a dive. I learned alot looking at that one, and putting it back together too. Got a lot out of Overholtzer's book on building classical guitars back when if first came out, but some of his ideas are now considered a bit, um, off. Never did build from that book. Then Cumpiano/Natelson and Kinkead books and Robbie's DVD, from which I built my first, an LMI kit, in 2005.

A class would be a very good way to go, I think. Hoping to take classes from Charles Fox and Ervin Somogyi sometime before too long.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Book: Guitarbuilding by Cumpiano and Natelson

Forums: The OLF

Youtube: Video demonstrations

Real Life: meeting and talking to other luthiers...

A class is two hours away from where I live. Can't attend luthiery school due to family commitments.

I read the Book (Cumpiano/Natelson) through several times, and started to buy tools as I studied. I also pretty much inhaled knowledge from the MIMForum. The more I read about tooling online, and the hand tool methods in the C/N book, the more power tools I bought. When I felt like I had a good sense of what was required, I went to a hardwood dealer and bought some wood. I took it home, resawed it, found some scrap mahogany in a pile I'd been collecting, and got started. I practiced bending sides by making Shaker oval box reproductions. I bought some quartersawn spruce boards from Agent Orange and made practice tops to practice edge jointing and rosette making. For me, it was pretty much fly by the seat of my pants, and email William Cumpiano when I had a question. He was very helpful, btw, putting up with a lot of silly questions. I even made text for his newsletters. The one about using cat lacquer for a finish was mine. I love his answer: "Do you want to play flamenco on the guitar, or DANCE flamenco on it?!". I got the idea that he felt it was overkill....

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Well, this is a good place to insert my answer: Locally, I worked with a seasoned pro during my first kit build, and I found that experience to good. But I supplemented that experience with information from Don Williams (see above), who took me under his wing and answered a bazillion stupid questions, with highly insightful, intricate/detailed answers that I STILL usually screwed up. Don was invaluable. And I bought a guitar from him that I'm still trying to live up to.

Other than that, it was surfin', and reading, and surfin' until I found an answer so simple that I believe it best suited my non-existent woodworking skills, and I then I tried it.

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

I learned most of what I know from Mr. Robbie O`Brien, who has answered your post.And I thank you Robbie.I highly recommend his videos.If I was anywhere near Colorado,I would definately enroll in his class .
James W B

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

The answer for me is etc.
I built my first guitar following the instructions in an article published in Popular Science. Of course other publications as well as observation have been helpful.
Mostly its been 40 years and too many repair projects to count plus dozens of restorations and over 90 complete instruments which has been my instruction and shaped my particular set of methods and preferences.
My only formal training was last summer when I attended Jose' Romanillos' guitarmaking course in Spain.

What I have learnt (so far, and I am new to this) has been from books and the OLF
The books being Companio and Natelson's book: "Guitar making a tradition and technology" and "The art of violin making" (can't remember the authors names) for violin making... I highly recommend both books

I also wanted to mention that Frank Finnichio's excellent DVD set was pretty priceless to me and about as detailed as any DVD set that I have seen. It is expensive though but well worth it.

Robbie's and John Mayes DVDs are excellent as well - I just found Frank's first so they had a major impact on how I build.

And not to diss Cumpiano at all - I respect him for his work immensely, I did not completely care for Cumpiano and Natelson's book. Since the book was first published Cumpiano has changed many of his own methods and details many of these changes on his excellent web site. Some of these changes are significant and include the discontinuation of the use of a work board in favor or an outside mold. Much of the information is very useful but many builders are using more updated methods than you will find in the book. Should you buy and read it? Absolutely but check out the very fine DVDs from Robbie, John, and Frank too - they are IMHO every bit as important works.

Books and the OLF.

I studied the books by Cumpiano, Kinkead, Jim Williams, and Sloane, then started sanding. Scratch built from the beginning. I kept a journal of that first build and that's my main guide as I continue to build. I do still use the books for reference.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

AND he did it in his spare bathroom! Some of the new folks here may not know about the legendary "Flushtone" series. Some of the cleanest workmanship ever done by a beginner came out of that watercloset!

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Carlton Macksam
Muskegon, Michigan

"How did you learn lutherie?"

I'll tell you when I'm done learnin'.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Read books, the internets, mayes/benedetto/ect. videos and Kent Everett week long steel string class.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

Galloup school, apprentice/work for two shops. Lot of hard work and figuring things out. Asking questions here, reading and looking at others shops, read articles in ASIA and GAL mags, learned to get a plan with a build and stick with it for that build, learned to get a few under the belt before going off on a new idea. That is what is called getting the basics down, which I had a hard time doing, but once drilled in and did it, made things easier in the harder stuff. I will say most of what I have learned and use everyday and look to more than anything is time WORKING AND LEARNING from Bill Moll. He has taught me focus, basics, figure it out and do it. If make mistake, learn from it, and don't do it again. Still learning from him, just not there everyday any longer.

At about ten years old, I came to the sore realization that my Dad was not going to ever pay for a
repair on my guitars so I started taking them apart to see what made them work. By the time I was
a sophomore in high school, i was the guy that all the players in our school an surrounding schools
were bringing their guitars to for string changes, set ups, pickup and electronic installs and mods
and even finish touchups and refinish work.

That was almost completely on electrics until I was 17 and I took apart a pair of old Martins that
had been in my Granfather's attic for a couple of decades. I disassembled every single part of them,
cleaned them and reassembled them while documenting every dimension, angle and location. I visited
the Martin plant about three times a week during those rebuilds to pick the brains of a few family friends
who worked there.

It was different at Martin back then and a lot was till being done by hand that has been converted to
automation now so the tooling and jig and fixture ideas were more conducive to being adopted in a
small building or repair shop.

It's been over 35 years since I started repairing guitars for other people and learning from each one.
I've done thousands of repairs and have had opportunity to just about anything under the sun that can
go wrong with a guitar. I have thousands of pages of notes and lists and documentation of repairs and
diagrams in a cabinet here.

Ive built 470 or so acoustic guitars and more than 2000 complete electric guitars as well as making
more than 10,000 electric bodies and necks during the early to mid 80s. Many of those bodies and necks
ended up being used by several major manufacturers that contracted me and my shop to make them for
them.

While at Martin in the early 90s, the most commonly asked question during tours was, "Where do we get
to see them do some things by hand?'. This made me believe that there was a deep desire in a lot of players
for a hand built guitar with lots of custom features that made it unique to them.

I have to say that my education in the craft has come from just getting my hands on as many guitars as
possible and trying everything that came my way. Repair, build, read, ask question and pay close attention
to small details on every guitar you see.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars