Official Luthiers Forum!

I didn't mean it in a political sense at all, and I didn't post a pic of Joe Biden.

Todd Stock wrote:
"All real luthiers are broke, brooding pessimists, ..."

No; the pessimists and realists get out of lutherie and take paying jobs with benefits. Only an optimist can keep on luthing, year after year, in the hope that, at some point, they will break out into the rarefied atmosphere of the 'greats', and actually start getting paid something close to what the instruments are worth. We are, of course, delusional, but those of us who are particularly lucky have a spouse who's even more so: laboring on to support our lutherie habit in the fairy-tale hope that, some day, they'll be able to retire and WE can support THEM. We luthiers, on the other hand, know in our heart of hearts that we're on the Luthier's Retirement Plan:" feet first; it's the only way". Of course, since we do what all of our students and friends want to be doing, why would we want to retire?

OTOH, a little vacation now and then.... *sigh*

The abiding optimism is one reason we always miss delivery dates. One time you managed to fit the neck joint perfectly in only an hour and a half. Thereafter, that's the time you budget for the job, even though it usually takes more like a day.

The other reason is 'luthier time'. This, I've decided, has to do with the 'Balck Hole Filing System' we all bought into back in the '70s: the one where you throw stuff in and it disappears from the known universe. We didn't realize at the time that it's based on a tiny quantum singularity, with an atomic scale gravitational field of almost limitless strength. The concentrated gravity causes a relativistic time dilation, such that time in the shop passes much more slowly than it does in the rest of the world.You spend what seems to you to be an afternoon at the bench, and find that you haven't been see in the real world for almost a week, and the job that was supposed to be done in a couple of days is now a month late.

Thanks for the explination Alan, I'm glad to know this is a real phenomenon and not alien abduction. Often I will put my daughter to bed and sneak down to the workshoppe to (insert minor operation here) real quick. I don't get much done but when I get back upstairs my wife is asleep with the TV on and it is 4 hours 'til the alarm goes off.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Filippo, how did you get that? I have been trying to get one of those for a long time. Despite repeated attempts, I am still dissapointed (shamed actually).

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Brian,
To get one of those you first have to pay your dues...A.K.A. -TUITion

You win this round, to wit, I can't think of a clever response.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Hi, strange and funny reading this topic, and the discussion about the meaning of these two french words
If it could help... in France an "artisan" is a professionnal (not an amateur) who work in a way that could be opposite of industrial, it is more an administrative word and you could meet "artisan boucher" (butcher), "artisan plombier" (plumber), "artisan peintre" (painter, for houses or boats or anything else than pictures) etc... so of course you see "artisan luthier", I'm one of them.

Since few years you could see in France th apparition of a new term, used by some luthiers that want to add an excellence/quality/artistic meaning to the name of their job (even if they are bad luthiers); they call themselves "Maitre luthier d'art" (meaning something like artistic-luthier-master...), personnally I find it more ridiculous than informative but... business is business

_________________
http://www.cherubin-luthier.fr
https://www.facebook.com/FranckCherubinLuthier

That explains alot . Its French , and I been lookin in the " redneck Dictonary" NO wonder I didnt find it ! I shant be using the word Artisan since im a hacker !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Franck - thanks for the information. I got a good laugh from your last sentence...replace the word 'luthiers' with 'spruce' and you have a situation that is very familiar here. As you said, business is business.

Vous est vrais Franck, est merci pour l/explanation.