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Hi, I'm a 17 year-old guitarist, and I've been interested in lutherie for about 6 months. I've done quite a bit of research on it (mostly building electric guitars, as that is what I currently play), and I'm considering learning how to be a luthier. I sent an email to Fender and Gibson to try to see whether building guitars for them would be a possible job I could get that would support a family later in my life. However, only Gibson replied, and they didn't really answer my questions. I have a friend who has a friend who I believe works at Warmoth guitars (my friend couldn't remember the exact name of the place he worked, but it was similar to Warmoth), and I am going to try to ask him more about my options in detail, but since my friend has yet to give me his contact information, I figured I would try to find some luthiers who I might be able to ask about this. So, what kind of jobs are available to luthiers? Does anyone here know if the pay for working at a major guitar manufacturing company (i.e. Fender, Gibson, Paul Reed Smith, etc.) would be enough to support a family? How difficult of a business is it to get into and get experience? Are there any schools you might suggest in order to learn the tradecraft? (I've looked up some already, but a recommendation from a luthier who isn't affiliated with a particular school would be more appreciated than just taking a school's word for it)

Thank you for any information you can provide.

Hi. Welcome to the OLF. I'm the father of two young adults, so its
nice to see a young person thinking about and planning for the future.

I'm just a hobbyist, but there was a recent thread you may find interesting
entitled: "So... when do you start MAKING money?" :

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=20601

A quick summary is that lutherie is a tough career for making money, unless
you're one of a few hard-working, talented, and lucky folks. Many seem to
also do repair work in order to balance the love of building and the need
for enough money to live on.

I keep remembering an interview I read with an extremely talented and well-known
luthier (Fred Carlson) in which he stated that he had never earned more than $10K
in any given year in his whole career.

For what its worth, my local guitar shop (Gryphon Stringed Instruments) seems
to employ a lot repair staff who were trained at Roberto-Venn in Phoenix.

By the way, it probably help if you signed your posts with a real name

Good luck to you.

Eric

PS Sample luthier joke:

Q: What do you call a luthier whose girlfriend breaks up with him?
A: Homeless.

Only one out of a couple hundred are able to stay in business for more than a year, I am guessing but one in fifty of those make a profitable living out of it. You’re very young. Get a good college education, Put that education to use in a profitable for you and your future family and get some saving stored back. In the mean time you can lean the craft and hone your skills. Then if you truly have the passion then consider making this you vocation.

I think your dream is a possibility but you need some facts and I hope I am able to help. Companies like Gibson , Martin , PRS etc are production companies. The people there will work at a particular job in the process of building the guitar. People may fret ,another apply finish etc.
If you want to build guitars you can start with teaching yourself all you can. I have been in the business 10 years and I am learning more every day. There are a number of schools out there where you can learn the basics. There is so much to learn , acoustic , electronics , and on it goes.
do a search , Bryan Gallop has a good school Charles Fox also has one. Most classes , like I teach are geared to the hobbiest. To make a profession of this you must look at it as a business. Like becoming a doctor , machinist you must learn. Bryan has a course that may be of help.
You can start with kits , then learn about the wiring and what works and what doesn't. You can find old cheapies that won't cost too much. Tell you parents , they may be able to help encourage you along the way.
Once you learn the mechanic and wiring you can start learning to finish. Be careful with finishing as come of the chemicals in the finishes may be hazardous. You won't learn it all over night but with patience and determination you can succeed. Once you learn the guitar you have to look at what it takes to run a business and what is involved with that.
There is a demand for good techs so learn all you can by reading , experience and experimenting .
In electric guitars , you have to learn to solder and not all solder is the same , nor are parts. Radio shack parts are not very good quality and can cause issues. Quality parts are often less expensive.
I get parts from Hoffmanamps.com and from the guitar manufactures so I can have the good stuff. Learn about pickups and how they are made. Learn set ups and the geometry involved. Yes that math you thought you would never use will come into play. Physics , enginerring are all parts of learning the secrets of a guitar.
good luck to you and let us know what is going on and how you are doing.
john hall
blues creek guitars

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Completely uninspiring yet honest answers gentlemen. How depressing these "Can you make a living from being a luthier" topics are, and given that the end product of all this hard work and artistic flair will only ever be purchased by those with enough disposable income to do so, this current economic climate would seem to leave the grounds very infertile for the foreseeable future Michael is right, getting a degree and then adopting lutherie as a hobby to relieve the stress of your day to day seems good advice.

Cheers

Kim

The "classic" way of begining a career in lutherie is-

step one- start working on junkers, your own, pawnshop finds, friends cheap guitars, anything you can get yor hands on. Read everthing you can, and then start fixing and "improving" instruments. This is to become familiar with the nuts and bolts of guitars, and this is where you start to aquire tools and tecniques. If you can find someone more experienced than you to mentor you a bit, it will help a lot.

step two- get a job at a music store that provides a repair service. Try to work your way into the repair department, hopefully there will be someone experienced there to help train you. You may have to start out restringing and polishing guitars all day for a while, and you may have to deal with sales(oh the horror), you then work your way up to doing setups, structural work and finish touchup. All the experience will be invaluable to you later as a real live luthier, remembering the future value makes it easier to bear the endless repetition of fret filing, setup work, and finish repair. You may even get to work on some cool/beautiful/unique instruments while you are at it.

step three- build some guitars, you can start doing this at any time, but any repair experience you get in first will help you get a feeling for what makes a succesful guitar. Once you feel that you can produce an instrument that you wont be ashamed of, try to sell it, for cheap if you have to. Maybe the music store will consign your instruments, maybe a friend will buy one. Build them, get them out the door, and get some feedback on what you are doing right and what could be improved.

step four- the guitar store environment gets to be a bit stiffling after a while, so you will probably want to open your own shop once your skills and reputation are high enough. Maintaining a good relationship with your old employer is a good idea if you stay in the same town, try not to directly compete with the place that trained you and fostered your skills. A mutually beneficial relationship, where you each send work to the other is ideal. There are not that many of us who can make a living without taking on repairs, so you will most likely have to keep your repair chops fresh. Thankfully, being an independent luthier means that you can turn down the jobs that bum you out, like cheapo unplayable unrepairable junkers that are just no fun to work on, and refer them to the store you used to work for, pretty cool, huh.

That outlines a pretty common road in to lutherie, all the repair experience will give you a big head start on your own guitars, and it keeps you fed while you are waiting for your real life as a self employed luthier who answers to no one to begin.

bad luthier joke #2:

Q: what is the difference between a luthier and a large pizza?

A: a large pizza can feed a family of five.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

I went to Roberto Venn seven years ago with just enough money to pay tuition, room, and board. If available I was prepared to take any good job anywhere. I had several options at the end of the course. I moved to Boston and have had a very successful career as a repairman for six years and am just starting to build guitars. Bought a house, got married. Worked well for me. Go for broke, work harder than those around you, don't be too cautious, don't slow down, don't turn back. Good luck. Make your life extraordinary.

Thats the spirit!

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

As someone who in their late 30s, wished I had taken a different carreer path, I woudl say go for it. You are young and DONT yet have the responsibilties of wife, kids and mortgage - which is the only time in life where being broke is manageable - Learn and follow your hearts desire (but do get a good education first - teh college advice will give you a fall back) - but life is too short not to follow your dreams. Will it make you rich? NO, will you forever be struggling financialy?, yup, will you be happy? most likely!

I'm only a couple years older than you ( im 19 and started when i was 15 or 16 so i can relate) and i have only built a handful of guitars , but i can also attest to the fact that you should go for something you are going to love doing. i have been at Purdue University for a year in the Engineering program and it was not really what i could see myself doing, but the occupation pays well, and let me tell you i am getting out of it as quick as i can, to wake up every morning and totally dread what you are doing before you have even started actually working in your field of study is pretty depressing. i intend to pursue luthiery as part time supplemental income and gradually work my way into a full time occupation. i decided that if i can work out in my shop for 12 hours, love what im doing, and have the time pass quicker than 1 hour working on a design project then that is what i would rather do even if im making 3 dollars an hour. so i'm kinda in the same boat as you, i'm still going to get a degree to fall back on but building guitars and playing music is what i love to do so im going to try my damnedest to make it work while i have the freedom and the ability to do so. best of luck to ya

~shad peters

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Over on MIMF (Musical Instrument Maker's Forum) there is an article in the FAQ section that addresses many of your questions. It is of course the product of the collective wisdom / consesus of those contributing to that article, which others may or may not agree to.

http://www.mimf.com/going_pro_faq.htm

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I think of it this way, we probably will only get to live this exact life one time. My life is made up of what i percieve as time, hours, days months, that is what my life is made of. That being the case, the greatest crime i could possibly commit against myself would be to waste my time doing something that is not meaningful to me.

I want every moment of this life to be spent in the pursuit of knowledge and beauty. I often fall short, but it is a purpose that drives my day to day actions, and the "little" stuff, like making money, will either fall into place or not, i dont find it to be worth considering.

That sort of lifestyle is probably not for everyone, but it is not a myth. I support a family with income that comes strictly from activities i would happily do for free, which for me are building instruments and playing music. Sometimes living is tight, sometimes i'm flush, but i never regret not having a stable job.

The advice to "get a real job, and then find hobbies to make your life bearable" is completely unacceptable to me.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

I couldn't follow that advice either, but I still think it's worthy advice. I've got roughly 1200 guitars under my belt, but it's taken me most of my career to get to the point of having a "decent" wage. I figure I'm 10+ years behind my "day-job" peers financially. Financial stress is probably not as bad as dreading every day at work, but it's no picnic either.

I read about a term called "Trade Sense". What it refers to is are you the type that regularly makes good deals, or are you the type who's resources dwindle either by paying too much or charging too little. It doesn't even have to be money i.e. marbles, trading cards, toys etc. Some people just have a gift for making the right deals and accumulate because of it. I've often wondered how good trade sense would affect a luthier.