Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone, my name's Melissa, I'm 18 years old.
In my final two years of high school I built a custom electric guitar and amplifier, it was during that time that I knew building guitars was what I wanted to do with my life. I graduated last year, and I am beginning to take the first steps towards my guitar building career. Basically, I've just found a job (just working at a retail store) so that I can use the money to buy all the necessary tools to set up a workshop in my garage, buy some materials, and just practice building different guitars in whatever spare time that I have. When I have perfected my guitars and start selling them and earning a bit of money I will cut off the hours of the job I have now and eventually build the guitars full-time. That is my plan.
Do you think that would be a good way to get into the business? Is there any specific/crucial tools or materials I should buy?
Any particular construction tips?
Just anything that would help would be great! .

Also, I have attached a picture of my first guitar, the body is made of Queensland Maple, Neck is Purpleheart (beautiful wood) and fretboard is Ebony.

Thank you.

Melissa,
The guitar looks great! I am only a hobbyist when it comes to electric building, but my experience with repair/rehairing stringed instrument bows gives me valuable exposure to other people's work. This has helped me understand what not to do at times. With regard to guitar building, I would suggest also exploring doing regular setup and repair work (and training).

By working on a variety of guitars with different design concepts and ailments, your knowledge will grow exponentially. This knowledge can be applied to modifying a classic design or replica or gathering new ideas for an original design.

Also, for someone getting started in lutherie, discovering tools that can be used and modified for multiple tasks will be to your advantage. Since I'm a hobbyist, this is the only way I can afford to do it. The temptation to buy all the widgets in luthier catalogs is strong!
peace,
Rodger

Hi Melissa,

Great looking axe! Right up my ally

Being your as young as you are, I would suggest searching out a school. In the US we have many, from our sponsor Sound Guitar Workshop, to Bryan Galloups school, Roberto Venn and may more. Doing it on your own is very possible, but you can hit the fast track with some education.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Melissa,
Congrats on your first guitar. It looks very nice.
I agree with Lance that a good luthier school is the way to go!
Good Luck and have fun!!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Hi Melissa,
I am 18 too and trying to get into the craft, but not full-time like you. I can't give you any sage advice but one thing I can say is you need to be building building building and reading tons. The more knowledge and experience you have the more people will want your guitars. Do you want to do electric or acoustic or both? What venue you take really depends on what you want to specialize in I think. One thing that has really kept me from saying I want to do this professionally is how much is out there on the market not only from the huge brands but also the custom builders. To go pro I think you would really need to strive for perfection and innovate wherever you can, this includes having your own unique style so your guitars arnt just like the rest but are "Mellisas". I dont know what the market is like in Australia but maybe there is a local niche available there for you to tap into. Keep in mind too that this will require a large investment in tools and machinery, depending on your style of building. Don't want to frighten you, I think its a great profession if you can hack it.
Just my opinions from what I have seen so far.
Best of luck to you!

Melissa -

Good on ya, mate - what a great thing to have a plan at 18. I'm 45 and still struggling to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

I'm a hobbyist - not a professional luthier, and there are others on the forum who have much more real life experience with luthiery,but here's my two cents.

Go to the best luthiery school you can find and afford - I'm sure there some good ones in Oz, but if not, there are many here (having met Bryan Galloup at the last Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans - I'm sure his school is tops). The "head start" referred to above is painfully clear to me as I struggle through my builds, learning most things the hard way...

After that, I think I'd try to find a job (or you could try to do this right now, come to think of it) repairning guitars working for the best repair guy or gal you can find. Building and repair are two different things, it's true, but I've become convinced that there's some advantage to be gained for the builder by working in repair - by refretting a couple of hundred instruments a year you can develop the skill and speed to set up your own instruments exactly the way you (and the clients) like them. I've also read about some of the top builders who spent time at Gruhn's (or others) doing work on old Martin guitars until they really began to understand and appreciate what made them tick.

Whether you're going to be building electrics or accoustics, I'm not sure it matters. The principles are the same.

At any rate, good for you, and good luck. One of the most important success factors in life is finding your passion, and pursuing it - looks like you're more than halfway there!!

Thank you very much for your answers.
Summarising the answers I've got so far it seems like education, repairing and practice is the best option!
I have looked at lutherie schools here, but they're all far away and rather expensive. I have contacted a number of luthiers around the area for advice, maybe I'll land a job as a repairer with one of them. But for now I'll just read everything I can and practice it and offer to repair peoples guitars when I can
Thanks again! Helped a lot

Melissa...in case you are unaware, there is an Australia/NZ forum which has a great group of folks who I know will steer you in the right direction. http://www.mcguitars.com.au/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=98fc7d655686159f85c6bd8ff1949190

Check them out.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Hi Melissa,
Very nice work,.
I'm not sure where Queensland is in relation to the Perth area. But I would contact Perry Ormsby in Beaconsfield Western Australia. Ormsby Guitars..http://ormsbyguitars.com/index.html

Tell him Mikro sent you
Mike

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.

This is the path I took/am taking. If you choose this route, I'd offer a few suggestions:
1- Learn online as much as possible. It's free, and there's a wealth of information available. I'd start with Frank Ford's site, http://www.frets.com . Any books, videos, etc, that you can find as well. http://www.stewmac.com is one good source for that.
2- Learn to do setup work(nut work, saddle/bridge work, fret levelling, crowning, etc., setting intonation and electronics work on various electrics). You'll get more work of this type(at least in my experience) than in repair. Plus, if you can make folks' guitars play and sound great, they'll come back for other things.
3-Find old, broken instruments, and see if you can repair them. You can find these many times at little to no cost, but don't expect to recover any money you spend this way. They are for learning, and you won't make anything from them.
4-Before you try any type of repair work on a customer's guitar, be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN of your ability to complete the work professionally. I can't stress this enough. If you're not certain, don't be afraid to tell the customer to go elsewhere. The last thing you want is a reputation as a butcher. If word gets around that you do shoddy work, your career will end really fast. It's better to limit yourself to what you know, and work on increasing your abilities on instruments that don't matter.
Good luck!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.