Official Luthiers Forum!

JF I'm still hoping that this will come full circle and the Internet resellers will suffer the same end that they brought to the Mom and Pops. I've studied professionally why people buy what they buy in my former career, buying styles and people really want to buy from other people and not a web site. We want to be able to pick it up and sit down and try it too.

Sadly I've yet to see it come full circle but I'm still hoping.

It also never occurred to me until I read your post that the Internet resellers hurt small store Luthiers too by putting the stores out of business. And they did, sadly indeed.

In my neck of the woods local brick and mortar is still surviving but only those who have specialized. The mom/pops who sold a vast range of student to mid-range guitars, pianos, trumpets, violins are all gone and people just buy their $229 Yamaha or tin whistle online. The hipster guitar stores selling vintage gear, the guy whose store only sells and services classical guitars, and the boutique that stocks high end flat tops from Santa Cruz, Collings etc still seem to be doing fine.

One of the shops I used to do work for (and still get referrals from) survived by going on line. They are still in my town but do not have a store front any more. They ended up doing quite well selling high end stuff: https://www.rocketmusicshop.com/

After some time there was enough of demand for another brick and mortar shop to open up and they have been in bizz for at least a decade. They have asked me to do repairs but I kindly denied because I have too much work really. And I like people coming to me now instead of picking up and dropping off at stores

Kids like my nephew who's 23 years old or so are into film photography and vinyl records and they think Facebook isn't 'cool' so yeah there is hope.

Since this thread is drifting as on the Gulf Stream, I'll add this to carry it a little further to the Sargasso Sea....
Film photography and LP's (as us oldtimers called them) are kind of a niche market, similar to the Audiophiles who would buy an album, play it once to record it on a high end reel to reel and store it away to keep it undamaged. Today these things have gone "digital" and my kids trust having their stuff on the "cloud" not wanting to be burdened with the care and ownership of physical objects. We Luddites still cling to the idea that "clouds" are somewhat ephemeral things.
I will still break out my old 8X10 camera, 2 1/4 Hasselblad, or an old (even to me) Contax rangefinder and shoot film and make "silver prints" as the last photographic process before digital photography has come to be known, but digital photography has so many advantages that can not be ignored. I'm more likely to grab my Olympus M5ii than my OM-1 for even casual photography. The creative possibilities are so much greater.
That Mom and Pop's morphed into online sellers and ditched the storefront to survive is not that surprising. I think it may work in the short term, but they don't have the buying power to compete with the Corporate Behemoths. The "buy to try" schemes these places offer depend on volume sales of commodified product.
I have noticed that many of the people in the workforce are wanting to work "remotely" now and avoid the daily commute and physical contact with a workplace. I'm thinking there is someone in India wanting that same job, and willing to do it for less.
Random thoughts pushing things a little further away....

... I'm thinking there is someone in India wanting that same job, and willing to do it for less.

Already happening in call centers.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks - I have certainly benefited from your work, like the dent repair with a soldering iron tutorial (I had forgotten about that), and your action setting routine (although since I work mostly with Classical guitars, I might not play purple haze).

And I'll help with the push . Cool post Clay. When the pandemic was on it's way here I was in a cardiac ICU for four days watching the news reports from a place called Wuhan, China. Having lots of time on my hands and tethered to my IVs it seemed to me that this thing was going to come our way. And so it did, sadly.

So when I got out since I have a 90 year old blind Mom who is a two time cancer survivor Dave and I decided that I had better go hide for a while based on a criteria and case count in our university town. That March day 2020 I walked down my two flights of stairs after saying good bye to Dave and did not return, not once, not even at night for 15 months. Dave being young and invincible AND willing..... willing ran the show and I will forever, forever be grateful for what he did for me and my Mom.

But I digress. After going down two flights of stairs I stopped on the way home at a camera store and spent about $15K on a Sony A7 RIV, 200 - 600 lens, 100 - 400 lens and a 24 - 104 lens. Then I went back to my youth and spent 15 months in the woods taking pictures of bald eagles, deer (made friends with a deer to that followed me around), you name it even fish. It was a good time and I was able to avoid human contact for months and months.

Anyway my intent even though this is framed by the pandemic is to talk about photography with you. Absolutely the digital stuff is hands down much easier to use, much smarter than my old film Nikon and I will go so far as to say for a hack like me more fun too because the percentage of good shots is way higher. There is also the immediate gratification available as soon as I can open Photoshop too and no waiting for film processing or the cost.

Some cameras today have real time, bird's eye auto focus for birds in flight - wow incredible and it works too. Pretty impressive.

These days I'm back in the shop but woking nights to avoid people and I like it better, no phones, no jerks, even the pan handlers on the street are off drunk someplace and leaving me alone. I did find a dead guy in an elevator at 2:00 AM and called the authorities and then went and fixed guitars. Talk about a bad day, for him.... not me.

Strange times, kind of a nightmare really but on the other hand I'm pretty OK and could do this indefinitely. Never liked people much anyway.... JUST KIDDING.

So anyway a tip of the hat from me to you for being a photographer too and it sounds like a pretty good one from the film days too. PS: Life long audiophile as well here who still uses a turntable

Yeah Purple Haze is optional. If you saw my record collection you would find a lot of Miles Davis, blues and classical too Jimi got me playing guitar too and Elvis made it look like guitar players get all the babes. Maybe if you're Elvis..... but it didn't work for me

Hesh, with your planned retirement, and the pandemic situation, I’m guessing we’ll never see another setup class?

Maybe but I don't want to give up either. I can see certain times perhaps in the summer with low case counts, etc that it would be safer to do.

I've been prodding Dave because I want us to do an on-line set-up course and this would be different this would be just set-up and not fretting, nut making, etc. Would want everyone to be capable of doing professional quality set-ups on both electrics and acoustics and of course it all translates to basses and mandos and even banjos too.

There is a sequence that I work to since I am an old programmer I do things in a sequential order and hope to not have to get lost in any subroutines.... JF will relate he's an IT guy too.

It would be a lower cost thing but we would need a lot of takers, dozens and dozens to make it worth our while. We also proactively cut Lance in too without him even having to ask because we appreciate him and this platform.

So Chuck there may be more classes especially if we reach the endemic stage of the virus's life and/or lower case counts, summer, windows open, etc, etc.

And maybe an on-line offering but this year is going to be tough on Dave and I because we have never had this much business. We are turning away over half of it now and most are not deterred and want on a very long waiting list.

We could be like the BBA with a big bubble It did work pretty well for them. Anyway maybe is all I can say for sure right now but there is some desire here too to do this.