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How did you get your start?

B

BitterRoot

Mar 17, 2011
60
0
Buffalo, NY
#1
Hey LC!

I have been wanting to build instruments since I was about twelve, I'm 22 now and sick of my job and want to start building in my spare time.

I have made a few unconventional instruments ( whamola, hank tank, other abominations) and want to make a proper bass.

This leads me to my subject line, how did you start? I'm all for just doing it, but I'm a careful planer, and learn best from on hands instruction. Will luthiers ever take on an apprentice? I'm only looking for knowledge, not money.

Thanks guys!
 
#2
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#7
Well one day i just said hey why don't i build a bass instead of buying a new one. So after about 100 hours or research i did my first build, which was frustrating, even with all those hours of research i didn't know what to do. But know i know how to do things, and i build in my spare time and enjoy every second of it.

Kevin:eyebrow:
 
#8
Rickett Customs said:
Reading and research will be your chief source of information, I suggest 2 books:

Make Your Own Electric Guitar: Melvyn Hiscock

Building Electric Guitars: Martin Koch


Goes over all the basic questions, that you might have. Then you can save the good questions for the LC :)

I've been through both books several time over, always something new.

Your day job however, I cannot help you with ;)
Click to expand...

thanks jason. i just, errr,"bought" :ninja: the pdf versions of thoise books and printed them at work. lots of great stuff to look at in there. cant wait to dig in!
 
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#11
mikeyswood said:
Not cool. Martin and Melvyn are very active in teaching young luthiers about this art and I am very lucky to call both of them my friends.

Buy the damn books. It's the best money you'll spend.
Click to expand...

I knew I'd get burned.

I'll try not to sound like a douche, but when I come across em I certainly will. I don't have a credit card, those have ruined my family, I'm a cash and check only guy.
If ya want I'll go order em on fri, from a local bookstore.
 
#15
Rickett Customs said:
For sure, besides that, Do you have a bank account? Paypal works great......
Click to expand...

Yea, I could do it. I know how, I do have a debt card but I try to keep it for emergencies only. I was operating in the flawed logic of the Internet age. it's there, it's free, I'd probably be buying it used anyway. Not fair to the authors, I know. Guess I'm too used to being anonymous, don't want a bad rep here, especially on the LC board.
 
#17
Brother used to put me in to chase parts and workers came out, my brother and his friend dashed, and I was the dumpster criminal, had to sweep up after school for 2 months as restitution, ended up working summers until I was 18 and learned from the guys there. Pretty much it in a nut shell.
 
#18
Started building because I wanted something along the lines of a PRS Custom 22 or a Les Paul DC, but didn't have the $2K - $4K that those cost at the time, so I bought the Hiscock book mentioned above, and then spent a couple days in Seattle at the shop of one Dave Bunker, luthier and former Boeing engineer (man, that old coot knows SO MUCH about guitar making and science!). I drove the 300 miles back home with a body and neck that were "cast offs" for him (binding flaw on the body, small knot on the curly maple fingerboard), and a TON of advice. Ended up with a good-looking axe that I had to refinish 3X because I knew nothing about finishing.

From there, it was an addiction, and not a cheap one, either. No matter how many you have, you want to make more, in greater variety. So, then you sell a couple (just to make room, of course, or maybe to pay for that new Performax 1632 thickness sander you can't live without), and then people start asking if you can make *them* one. It's a slippery slope, my friend. ;)

Buy the Hiscock book, it tells you nearly everything you'll ever need to know on constructing solid body guitars and/or basses. I re-read that book about once a year, just to refresh myself, and to re-discover the joy of it.
 
#19

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