A couple comments/questions/observations if I may please.
David's comment on the importance of health care insurance is a very prudent comment. For our UK, French, Canadian, and Israeli bros and sisters this is not an issue. But for stateside builders who are considering Lutherie this is a HUGE consideration.
In Michael Moore's most recent film "Sicko" a guy is given the choice, since he can't afford both options, of which of two fingers to have reattached - one will cost $12K and the middle finger will cost $60K to reattach......
Moving on to the more upbeat considerations - it would be interesting to pole the membership, although it would be skewed by the nature of this forum, as to how many folks here use Lutherie as their sole source of income AND benefits including health care. Conversely how many builders who sell their guitars are supplementing other sources of income and benefits with Lutherie activities.....
I wanted to bring up attending guitar shows as well for two reasons. First - attending shows like Montreal, Healdsburg, GAL, and ASIA is a great way to see how your chops stack up against the competition. It will also give you a feel for the market as well when you see what people are buying and why.
One of my favorites reads that lives in my "study".... is the Healdsburg Guitar Festival program. For each Luthier there is a picture and a short write up on these individuals. Many of these folks participate here on the OLF.
The kinds of things that are listed in the write-ups are things like years of experience, who they may have studied with, and what I like to call a builders unfair competitive advantages or what their individual vision for guitar building may be.
With this said we have not touched on the idea or the value of studying with a master Luthier AND, this is the my real question here, the value of having these credentials to list when pursuing your own career in Lutherie.
Surely there is great value in learning from a master Luthier but what I am wondering is this: I see that many in the HGF program who have studied with Somogyi, Fox and others prominently indicate so in their marketing materials. Many who have not list nothing.
So my question is beyond the unquestionable value of learning from the masters do credentials in Lutherie sell guitars?
Lastly - having met a fair number of you now I find that some of the demographics have a number of things in common. First, I have yet to meet a builder that was much more than 10 years older or younger then I am (51). Many if not most of you were/are wood workers in some form prior to pursuing your interest in Lutherie - hence the table saws.......
And everyone has seemingly had a life long love affair with guitars. It is this last demographic or more accurately, common and life long interest in guitars that interests me most for the sake of this thread.Do you think that something that we are passionate about may cloud the realities of the odds that Lutherie is something that as a profession will make us truly happy? Of course, when you consider this question YMMV and we are back to what Mario and Stan offered in that it is different for everyone.
Personally, if I consider what John shared, what I have seen others who took the plunge go through, the realities of the economics of this business AND strip the rose colored glasses tinted with my passion for guitars away, if this is possible, the romance fades a bit........ And it is this passion for and the romance of guitar building for me that I never, never want to lose.
Great thread Mitch!
