Official Luthiers Forum!

We need to find what members want. I am 66 learned with the early internet and thank Kathy Matshushista with here openness. Sad truth are many forums are often filled with amatures that want to learn and often there is more misinformation than truth and when you don't know what you don't know often it can be hard to discern that value of true information.
OLF started and looked for early support at an ASIA symposium in 2005 . For the guild to go to the next level there has to be an understanding of what a guild is. We are member driven. There are people that support the guilds strongly and with many of us Gray Beards getting older it is time to turn things over to the next generation to carry the torch.
Without ASIA I know I would not have made the connections I did that helped my success. I an thankful for the support and we do need to get younger members involved and that is what we will do. I am hoping in the new year to get the new social media sites up. There is always a desire for article so please feel free to send them along.
If you have something to offer do it. I am hoping to start a repair section. I think I learned a few things in the last 20 years and I am always working on something interesting. I hope you enjoy those articles . Information needs to be shared. Again thanks for this opportunity and if you wish to get involved let me know we can use all the help we can get

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

We can get bogged in detail and diversions pretty easily. How about offering interested folks a free issue of the journal wrapped up in a 'special offer' and see what happens. Wouldn't cost much at all if a back issue is used as the bait, these are sitting around taking up space and that's one way to move them, maybe to good effect. And not much up-front cost or debate. Easy enough to try it and see what happens before getting hair on fire 'reforming' the group.

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Peter Havriluk

that is a great idea

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

That's not a bad idea. I would pay for shipping of an issue just to see what is in it. I don't really have much of a feel for what the publication is all about and if it might appeal to me.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I am a member of both organizations. Although not a youngster, at 51yo I’m not ready for retirement either.

What I want from the organization is a sense of community and verified information. I get both of those at the Symposium and from the publications.

The publication could be improved with more content. I really find articles from builders detailing how they do specific tasks REALLY helpful. They don’t need to be experts, they just need to be competent. Even a beginner documenting how they build something and describing their struggles and how they get over them is a help.

LOTS of info is available on YouTube and the net, but it’s not always clear how good this info is. The editor of the publication would be able to verify that.

I REALLY enjoy the symposium too. Great session. Good to meet other builders (hobby and pro) and shopping for wood and tools.

If many of us wrote an article about a build (or even an interesting step in a build) there would be tons of new info for the publication.


So, I’ll pledge to write something in the coming year. Who else will join me?

There is an elephant in the room that has only been alluded to. I’m not sure how many young people are available to become members.

I know there are many of my contemporaries that love to bash the current generation of young people as somehow lacking the focus or moral rectitude to learn a craft. As someone who was involved with a luthier program at a community college for twenty years I can say that the young people I met there were hungrier, more focused, and more willing to sacrifice to learn a craft than anyone I knew when I was that age.

But despite that desire, it simply was an impossibility. The economy has changed. None of them could make guitars out of the back of a truck, like Bob Taylor did, and somehow out rent. Or pay back student loans racked up while at “public” college. Or cover health insurance. Or pay insurance and registration on that truck. Or keep a phone so customers could call them. So on and so forth. Bob Taylor wasn’t competing with $20 guitars from China, either (What a $300 guitar would be in 70’s money).

So they built a couple of guitars, fell in love with the craft, sold a couple to friends, and then had the crushing realization that they better learn to be a dental tech or get into sales because this will never be more than an expensive hobby. And none of these hard working kids had hobbies, expensive or otherwise.

So why would they join ASIA? What is GAL going to offer them?


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I spent many years deeply involved in building and flying model airplanes, the whole 'club' experience. And I watched over and over how folks pined to recruit 'the youth' to join their pastime. Generally without success. We weren't going to prevail over pursuit of the opposite sex, cars, tribal bonding, formal education, or anything else the kids' peer society put up. And folks tried and tried, and do to this day. Better that they recruited the kids' parents or grandparents, folks with money and time. I don't think ASIA will have any effect on the headcount of folks building instruments. Better, I think, to find ways ASIA can add value to the folks who participate in the amateur luthier experience and get them to have a relationship with ASIA.

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Peter Havriluk

I’m 37, and I’ve been around luthiery for close to 20 years. When I was a teenager in love with the acoustic guitar, it was mostly retirees enjoying an income hobby, but anyone paying attention can clearly see the trade is becoming younger, and luthiers my age or younger are making some of the best instruments in the world. What I’ve always loved, and still love, are the how-to’s that I can experiment with in shop setup, toiling, and processes. Less so the articles on random instruments from the 1800’s.


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John, I cannot help you with specific ideas about what to do to engage with the younger audience but I can give you a few data points about my own experience.

I’m 42. I built my first “thing” from a SM uke kit in the early part of 2015. I’ve since built another 8 instruments. I plan to attempt selling instruments once I’ve built 10 of each (guitars and uke’s). I have a hectic professional life so it will take time. I feel like I will have a good handle on processes by the time I finish 10. I’m a member of the GAL and read AL cover to cover when I get them. I only really engage in luthier topics online with the OLF and IG. Facebook groups are usually pretty toxic and the Luthier Talk Facebook group is cornucopia of bad ideas and misinformation. Minus the sane responses from the OLFers I see there.

I say all that to say that I had not heard of the ASIA until your post. It’s possible I’ve got my head in the sand (or up wherever) and just not paying attention. It’s possible I saw it somewhere and misunderstood what it was. In any case, there might be more folks like me who are paying attention to Lutherie as a hobby but just not seeing ASIA.

Now, you might think - that’s why you want social media. I will give my two pennies about social media. If you want to really get traction, especially with a young crowd, you’ll need to get help from the influencers in the Lutherie space. Folks like Isaac Jang, Michi Matsuda, etc... in the builder space. People like Paul Heumiller in the seller space. People doing awesome stuff in repair like Ian Davlin. These are people that I pause and look closely at what they are doing / saying with every IG post.

My opinion, there is also a perfect way to have people tune out on your attempt to promote on social media - don’t do the goofy “What’s your favorite file to use for necks? Comment Below!!!” kind of stuff. I don’t know about everyone else, but watching people argue over the merits of the costly dragon file compared to their modded harbor freight rasp are the kind of thing that causes me to unsubscribe.

Maybe some of that is useful.

Brad


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Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

IG?

Instagram?

IG is Instagram.

I have a guitar in right now, a few years old, sold by a "newer" luthier. Extensive issues, both structural and geometric in nature. The builder sold a guitar that was early and should have never gone into the wild. He effectively told me so when we entered a discussion as a result of some needed interaction on the repair, for the client.

My mentor told me to never sell a guitar I could not warrantee, that I could not repair. It's not how many are made before sold, as much as the builder has some confidence in the instrument, and the builder can repair it. In the above case - like many people that call themselves "luthiers" - the man could construct a guitar but did not have the skill to repair its shortcomings. It becomes easier once five or six hundred guitars have come across the repair bench.

Back to ASIA - my best wishes to you, John.

I have seen people of all ages that take an interest in the hobby and there is one Brian Itskin he is in his 20s. I knew him as a pup. I do think there is interest there and thanks for the advice . We now are looking for the people to help lay out the social media. I know it won't happen over night but we have some ideas.
thanks again for the constructive criticism .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it