Official Luthiers Forum!

     It bothers me to go into a GC and see all these, for lack of a better word, guitars hanging on the wall and I know they sell them!

     Playing is believeing! I've heard more than one case of luthiers offering shipping tryouts for people interested. There's a problem there because most guys I know building are up to their eye balls building now, or they're small just building out of a garage!

     A well presented web site is important, but in my opinion a small one.

     I think, for the buyer, its pretty scary to commission, what's really, site unseen! I think word of mouth, is much more important, than word of mouse.   

     There were two asses called the Kip brothers who built tooling for the plastics industry, as much as I had problems with their approach, they did have a excellent philosophy that applies to luthiers as well.

     They would say, "take care of quality and profits take care of themselves"!

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Billy, I think the problem with guitar sites is exactly as you say---word of
mouse (I like that phrase!). Music isn't literate, but we present it as such.
The web can do so much now that would help people experience your
guitars. High quality video and audio along with interaction through pics
and blogs would be so much more effective than asking your reader to
read endlessly that you too use the highest quality materials and try to
blend form and function.

Professional design is part of branding.

Jim Kirby wrote:
"In the classical guitar world, it is clearly assumed that the instrument of choice is going to be from an individual luthier - factory guitars don't enter the picture beyond the advanced student level. Why is it that, in the steel string world, the factory brands still hold sway over the individual reputations?<snip>What is the difference? "

I'll disagree with the answer you gave to your own question: it's not _just_ tradition. The fact is that it's more difficult to make a classical guitar with world-class tone than it is to make an equivalent steel string. It has to do with the way the strings work, as much as anything. The factories can work to averages, and design with the idea that their weakest set of braces will be end up on the weakest top, and still hit it once in a while. You can't do that with a classical: any overbuilding will sink it.

[QUOTE=James Orr] Billy, I think the problem with guitar sites is exactly as you say---word of
mouse (I like that phrase!). Music isn't literate, but we present it as such.
The web can do so much now that would help people experience your
guitars. High quality video and audio along with interaction through pics
and blogs would be so much more effective than asking your reader to
read endlessly that you too use the highest quality materials and try to
blend form and function.

Professional design is part of branding. [/QUOTE]


I agree completely.

Design is one part of branding... it isn't "branding". So many people I advise about marketing seem to think a graphic treatment is a brand. In fact brand is the feeling/knowledge you have about a product (or company). So in effect everything is brand -- from what you wear to a guitar show, to how your invoice looks, to how you answer your phone. Brand is a 100% full contact engagement.

But with respect to the internet... I think the thing that it does best for young builders is to help build name recognition within a core audience. I know some folks buy guitars sight unseen and without ever trying an instrument from a builder, but I agree that this is an uphill battle. It seems the best way to go is to find a way to get exposure from the Internet and then find ways to put your guitars into prospective buyers or influential players. I think you have to approach the internet audience in a multitude of ways -- not just digitally.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com