Hi everyone, I am really interested in becoming, but mainly learning about becoming a Luthier. But I dont know much of anything about it, and it seems to be the thing that you have someone teach you all they know about it, like an apprentice, but I dont know how to get started. There is a Luthier in my town, but hes kind of a dick, and someone like him would not teach someone like me all the stuff he knows, so where should I go? Is there any literature I can read? I am just really interested by everything that goes into making an instrument sound the way it does, and how the electronics work, thing like that. Im sorry if this is a dumb question, I just really want to learn.
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Where do I start?
- Thread starter BottomFeederJax
- Start date
Stickies + LOTS of hours over internet + http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=456688
PD: When I mean LOTS, I really mean lots and those are more than you can imagine.
PD: When I mean LOTS, I really mean lots and those are more than you can imagine.
dblbass
Commercial User
- Mar 24, 2007
- 368
- 74
- Disclosures
- Owner of MBJ guitars, Maker of fine sawdust for Carl Thompson Guitars
Books and talkbass probably wont help that much. get into a shop and start actually doing it. a guitar makers shop would be nice but a furniture maker is helpfull too, your neighbor with a shop in his basement, college woodshop or anything that gets you some hands on experiance with the tools. Its nice having melvyn hiscock show you how he makes pickup holes but if you've never used a router than his pictures aren't goin to do much.
If there is a guitar maker in your town then use that resourse. he's a dick...deal with it if you wanna learn to build a guitar. Hes probably very pationate about what he does and that might come across as him being a dick. dont ask him to sit down and teach you every little thing he knows tell him you want to watch him work and clean up after him. You can learn alot from hanging out in a shop like that if you are really paying attention.
Whenever I read something like that I have to check the location to see if you live in my town
Actually I do think that is better to have the theory clear and know why you are doing something before actually doing it. After you got the theory clear you can grab some scrap or go to your town guitar builder/furniture maker and spend sometime as apprentice.
Whenever I read something like that I have to check the location to see if you live in my town
that really made me lol. wish there some luthiers here or better still wish is was in the states
dblbass
Commercial User
- Mar 24, 2007
- 368
- 74
- Disclosures
- Owner of MBJ guitars, Maker of fine sawdust for Carl Thompson Guitars
Why are you cutting a hole...to put a pickup in.
if you're talking about where to put the hole than the problem with what you suggest is that not every builder is going to put it in the same spot. A guitar builder should be the one to teach you the theorys behind what he does not a book.
Ok, so I think this whole apprentice thing is BS, of course it would be great to watch someone, but I read martin koch's guitar book and that was pretty much it. Learn as you do, its the only way. Draw it up full scale and start cutting. Learn from your mistakes too. Its only wood.
I'm just a little further along in the process than you by the sound of it. I've got and read (several times) Hiscock's book and I'm playing around with design ideas.
I intend to make my first, full size bass in cardboard, the second in foam and the third in pine. Only the fourth, in hardwood, will be playable.
I'm not generally a fan of "Watch and learn young man, and in a few years you can start gluing up blanks".
I say dive in and experiment with cheap materials and tools. It doesn't really matter if you ruin a pine neck, or two or ten (although after ten I might be thinking about getting someone else to build the thing for me).
I intend to make my first, full size bass in cardboard, the second in foam and the third in pine. Only the fourth, in hardwood, will be playable.
I'm not generally a fan of "Watch and learn young man, and in a few years you can start gluing up blanks".
I say dive in and experiment with cheap materials and tools. It doesn't really matter if you ruin a pine neck, or two or ten (although after ten I might be thinking about getting someone else to build the thing for me).
dblbass
Commercial User
- Mar 24, 2007
- 368
- 74
- Disclosures
- Owner of MBJ guitars, Maker of fine sawdust for Carl Thompson Guitars
ive read plenty of books and i cant say i learned much. but i started working with a guitar builder and i learn alot every second that im there. learning on your own is cool if thats what you really want to do but you cant deny that learning from someone with 40 years of experiance building and repairing instruments doesnt help.
what i am trying to say is that someone elses way is not always the best way. Maybe for them it is, but everyone has different strengths
Why is this attitude so prevalent in the US these days? Sure, there are bad mentors as much as there are bad apprentices but to discount a tried and true system for imparting knowledge from one generation to the next is ludicrous.
As far as the luthier in town being a dick take a longer look. Is he really a dick or just tired of wannabee's taking up his time and then never doing anything with it, or worse yet gaining a little knowledge and then competing with him by taking in work at cut rates because they don't have the overhead of a real shop. If the guy is good I suggest that you find a way of letting him know you respect his talent and that you are in some way deserving of his time to teach. This is best done in a humble fashion and not by bragging and boasting about how good you are already.
When I was an (informal) apprentice in a cabinet shop I was lucky to be working with a grumpy old craftsman who knew his stuff but wouldn't help anyone else. I got some good advice from my father in law and just started helping him out, by cleaning up after him and offering to do the "grunt work" for him. After a month or so all of a sudden this highly skilled man began to show me his secrets and give me an education I would have never gotten otherwise. He was still as gruff and inhospitable as before, but I now knew that this was his way of scaring off only the most serious of the apprentices in that shop.
I recommend that everyone read William Cumpiano's "A pedagog's lament" whether they wish to be a luthier or do anything else in life that requires a higher skill set than being able to smash pixelated aliens on their computer screen. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
End rant.
Greg N
