how/why did you get into luthiering?

[jordan_frerichs]

i was talking with my luthier friend, and we talked about how we got into doing this, after all, it is not a very widely persued job of your average people.
here's mine. ever since i started playing, i had a thing for moding. last summer, at the warped tour, i just got this desing idea in my head. a p bass, with plad cloth covering it. i then printed off some bass images and traced them to a little note book, and in school, i would just sketch up designs when things got boring (basicaly the whole day). at that point, the drawing were only made to look cool. i planed to buy cheapo basses, and refinish them. then, in woodshop class , they said that we could decide our own projects. naturally bass came to mind. i then researched the technical stuff, and now i am in the middle of build number one, and always doin build number 2 in my head

[eleonn]

Ok here is mine. I wanted to have two basses one for songs played on E and one for D. Always had just one bass at the time but i got too lazy fro move everythign form E to D and viceversa. I though it was time for me to have at least two basses but the problem is that being in Peru you have to add more or less 20% to the price of everything that is imported like basses. Another point is 90% of all basses you find here are or MIM or Ibanez or Yamaha (the last two usually entry level basses) and why is that? Well prices are in $ and our income are not so if you buy the product A at $10, we have to add 20% and then multiply it by 2,7... so it would costs 32.4 which for us is like you have to pay 32.4 for that same product. Im mad about basses like Benavente, Sei, Nordstrand and such but there is no way Ill pay a 4 digit prize for one for a while so was looking at the southamerican version of ebay for a Ibanez or so when I saw a guy selling a digital copy of a book like Hiscocks. Then I thought that there should be plenty of information about that over internet and I start looking for it. I found a guys site where he shows how he built his gu*tars and thats it!!! I got shocked about how great those guitars looks. I have always like seeing and feel woods from its raw to its finish state even when I never did a thing before. It cames really clear to me that building a bass was an obviuos way to mix two things I really like: music and woods. A bit more than 6 months researching over internet. LC at TB was a great help for information and for making me jump into the pool. Hiscocks book was delivered. Two weeks later I was ready to start with my shoping list and a year later (I know I know... Im slow but this is no race, isnt it?) I had a bass I'm proud of. Bitten by the bug, a second built is going from here to there in my head. This is definitely like tattoos... once you get one and like it you will never stop.

One nice thing is that nobody here thought that I would be able to build a bass or at least have something playable... I shut everybodys mouth up!!

[erikbojerik]

I was a guitarist before I picked up the bass, so for me this started with guitars. I have the fingers of a bass player (read: short & fat) and stock guitar necks always felt a bit crowded. One day I decided to make myself a 12-string Strat from parts...strung it up as a 6 to do the setup, and discovered how easy it was to play on a wider neck. That was about 5 years ago...now all my basses and guitars have neck widths that are specific to my hands.

[Phil Mailloux]

Just like Eleonn, I'll tell my life story

It all started back in the mid-eighties (1987 to be exact) when I was in high school learning carpentry and cabinet making, I was alreay a guitarist for three years and decided to build myself an eletric guitar. I bought the only three books which were available at the time, Roger Siminoff's, Bill Foley's and Melvyn Hiscock's. Two of those books were completely useless, the other one made me dream (I'll let you guess which one that is ) I spent countless hours reading and rereading that book and dreaming of what I'd do for my first instrument. Of course, at 16 years old and without a job I didn't do much at all and dropped my idea back then

Fast forward to 1996, I started playing bass in a band, one of the guitarist made his own guitars, I had purchased the year before a 1974 Fender strat neck that was well loved for a number of years and went through a lot of changes over the years (change of tuners, refret, floyd rose locking nut added then removed and had a regular nut fitted in it ect...) so I asked my friend to help me build a body for that neck. We ended up building a new strat body out of Canadian Ash. The experience was amazing and I always knew I would build more intruments after this. That strat ended up weighting about 20 pounds , don't use hard Ash for bodies guys!! lol

Forward again to 2003, I wanted a 5 string bass and couldn't afford one so I decided to make myself one. I found projectguitar.com and spent about 6 months researching on the main site and forum before even registering and starting to post, I took all my old books out of the moth balls and read them like a maniac again (ok, only that ONE good book)... and the rest now is history I guess. I've been living and breathing bass building since that day.

So the short answer to the thread question: to make myself a bass I couldn't afford

[teej]

For my high school graduation gift, my grandmother wanted to buy me a new computer. The computer I had at the time was still in great shape, though, so I didn't really need a new computer. I did, however, want a sunburst Fender American Deluxe Jazz. My grandmother agreed, but later that month, she was diagnosed with cancer. Medical bills were soon involved, and I never got the Jazz. It was only my 2nd year as a bassist, but I've been a Joiner all my life, and if there's one thing we Joiner's know, it's how to build things out of wood. I ordered some jazz bass templates, a slab of alder, maple, and various hardware and electronic bits and created what I've called the "Fusion." It's called the Fusion because it combined the two things I love -- art and music -- and it's from that that Joiner Instrument Design got it's slogan: "An art of passion for the passion of music."

Since then, I've either build or am currently building 5 basses and 1 guitar (2 more guitars and a bass are on-order), restored 2 basses and a guitar, repaired 4 guitars, built 2 cabs, assembled custom cables, and crafted several dozen hardwood picks. The only thing I haven't done (yet) is make my own amp, otherwise, all of my equipment is JID-made.

And for the record, Joiner Instrument Design (JID) is currently nothing more than a figment of my imagination, but it's a figment that I would really like to pursuit, and for that reason, I often refer to myself as a company.

[renniw]

I began to build my own basses because I'm not an outdoor guy anymore and in the long long long Quebec's winter, I get bored doing nothing.

I always wanted to have a single-cut bass and in the way over taxed Quebec I'm in, I can't afford a custom made $3k bass.

I love working with wood ( I love the smell and feel)

Is 3 reasons enough?

[Ramstien]

Did you guys go a luthier in your area and ask them or just start out of a garage or something?

I have considered this as a job, but I'm not so sure how to go about it.

[SDB Guitars]

When I was in college circa 1994, I spent some time hanging out in the shop of Ron "Honest Ron" Lira, in Oklahoma City. I was fascinated by the idea of easily accessible custom instruments (most of his stuff was under $1000, many of his guitars were Strat clones, and were selling for sub $600 prices).

Fast forward to 2001, I wanted a new guitar (started on bass, but was seduced by the dark side early on) in the PRS-ish vein, but couldn't afford one. So, since I had moved to the Northwest, I made a road trip up to Seattle and hung out for a day or two with Dave Bunker (now *there* is a guy with some innovative ideas). He sold me an unfinished carved top body (same model as this one: http://www.bunker-guitars.com/2k2.html) that he had in his shop, along with one of his necks and custom bridges. I finished and assembled it, but found that the neck felt too much like an Ibanez for my taste (too thin). I made 4 or 5 more guitars, learning to build, and learning what I liked, and sold each one to finance the neck.

Then, in 2002, my best friend (bassist in my old band in college) expressed an interest in a custom fanned-fret 5-stringer, and so I tackled that (without telling him) and surprised him with it at his wedding reception. I've been building mostly basses ever since. The design that I made for him is pretty much what I still build today.

I still have things to learn, and there's always room for improvement, so I keep building, and learning, and some day I will build *my* perfect bass. Maybe then, when I'm satisfied, I'll stop (then again, building is so addictive, that I don't really BELIEVE that...)

[blipndub]

I'm not a luthier but a builder. I got in to it because I thought production basses were a rip off and Bill Nash taught me how to do it right.

[#include <MK>]

I haven't been building long, but all I wanted was a 6 string without parting with more K's than it's worth. I finished a 5 string bass and guitar recently, with more on the way (6 and possibly 7 string basses, 5 string fretless bass, three guitars), LOL. During those first two builds, I got into making things I never thought I would (eg. tools, pickups, truss rods). I started making my own pickups after picking my jaw off the ground when pricing a set of 6 string pickups. A friend and I designed a winder from scrap material, all free except the counter.

I did a fair bit of research and designing prior to building. The usual books, forums (particularly this one) and Phil M's site are a great source of information. The forums are great, lot's of ideas and discussion. Before building, I assembled a few franken instruments, repairs, setups and so on, just tinkering.