Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone,

This is my first post on this forum and i am very excited to have found it... A little about myself i live in Winnipeg, MB, Canada currently working in the restaurant industry as a certified sommelier. I just found out that my wife is pregnent with our first child and i have made up my mind that it is time to turn my love of guitars into a profession. I have looked into some luthier schools both in canada and the united states... My wife is on board with this and says that now is the time to do this. With my current position it would allow me to work almost anywhere and still be able to go to school working evenings. Where do i start??? Guitars have been a major passion of mine for as long as i can remember and i am serious about doing this. I want to do this the right way and will not spare any cost to get the proper knowledge. Any help would be sooooooooo appreciated as looking through the options i am feeling a little overwhelmed. Thanks

Vbbish - I may not have the answers to your questions, but let me be the first to welcome you to the forum! P.s. You have got a great wife! She is a gem to let you persue your dream.

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

vbbish,

There is an awesome Luthier in Winnipeg. Allan Beardsell is also a nice guy! http://www.beardsellguitars.com/. It might be worth sending him an e-mail and see if allows a guy to drop in and chat about the business. Sergei De Jonge teaches near Ottawa and David Freeman has a six week course in Saskatchewan out in the middle of no-where! Summit School is on Vancouver Island. Those are some good Canadian Options and there are some really great US options as well. Probably best though to either build one or two of your own or with the help of some one local and then go to learn about it. You have meaning questions then for which you will be seeking answers. There is a TON on these forums and in print as well. I have lost count of the books I have on the subject now!

Good luck on your quest!

Shane

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Canada

Welcome to the OLF Vbbish!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Welcome to the Best acoustic guitar building forum,the OLF !!
I would recommend going to one of the schools that Shane mentioned above.
And the Cumpiano book is a must in my book. That IS very cool
that your wife is onboard with this. Good Luck and have fun with it!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Welcome to the OLF VB!

Lucky guy!
Step at a time! You didn't learn about wine overnight!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

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

What's to learn? Open, Drink! Mmmmmmm!

Buy wood! Build!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I was having the same questions about where to start - I did a great deal of research, bought a few books, and decided for me, the thing to do was to go to a school. I ended up at Vermont Instruments - the cost was reasonable. George Morris is a great teacher - I was in education as an industrial arts/technology teacher for 31 years, and I can spot the great ones pretty quickly. Not only did I end up with a guitar, but came away with about $1500 dollars in future savings, as George welcomed us to copy his patterns for both guitars and jigs. I can't say enough good things about it.

You can read about the experience on my blog. http://www.vermontinstruments.com

BTW build number two will start in approx. one month. I have appreciated the help I have received from the people at this site.

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Ken Bremer
Madison, Wisconsin
http://www.bremerguitar.blogspot.com

Wow.... Thanks very much for all the help.... im off to buy Guitarmaking' by Cumpiano and Natelson.... I can say that i think a school is the best answer for me... I have a much easier time learning something by watching and doing rather then reading... Does anyone know anything about the Sergei De Jonge school??? I am not in any sense thinking this is going to be an overnight thing, but a life change... I probably cannot add much help with guitars right now but if anyone has any wine questions send them my way... lol

A really good sommelier in a four star restaurant in NYC or some similar place can make six figures. Building guitars for a living is a Major Crap Shoot. There are many folks here who build great instruments who are not full-tome because it is insanely difficult to make a living at. My advice - keep your day job, and learn to build in your spare time. Take some short-term classes and gain knowledge, and hone your woodworking skills over time. Jumping out of a good job and into a quagmire like lutherie is almost certain financial suicide. Think it over really good, a nd don't make a decision based on emotions with this. Emotions lie.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Really?

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

vbbish-
I second Don's advice about keeping your 'real job'....
I don't know if you have registered here at the OLF or not, but it's not possible for me to send you a 'PM" aka private message.
Get in touch with me privately if you want some info about Sergei deJonge's course (I took the 5 week course last spring).

Cheers
John

Hey guys,

I certainly appreciate all the advice... I am lucky enough to start a restaurant here in winnipeg which has put me in a finacial position to be able to purse my other passion... Dont get me wrong i plan on being very active in my current position. But with the new baby on the way (which i just found out is going to be a boy!!!!!), i would like to be able to stay at home more and with the temp/humidity changes here in winnipeg i think i could make a fortune just doing repair work out of my garage... Seem like a pipe dream???

To think of it as a pipe dream - so it becomes. To make it an ambition - it becomes an attainable goal. The trick is to how to get past dreaming and into realistic, purposeful and thoughtful work towards achieving the ambition.