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Mark knows a good guitar!

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Bump - So I've been bringing work home with me often now and especially on weekends. We are always so busy it's hard to keep up and I do the stuff that is promised the next day.

This is my home shop and I'm proud of it. Unlike our commercial shop filled with tech and bleeding edge tooling what's very different about my home shop is the economy of tools and space but with this small space I can do most of my work. I may have to bring a shared tool home with me such as my reamer for pup installs but I can do most of what I do here.

The shop, both of our's are insured and my work is also specifically insured in transit with me wherever I need to go with it. Heritage offers this service and we have it.

So you become friends with your clients, at least I do and that means they come to your place and you go to theirs and you jam, drink, jam, drink, etc. Some of our clients will even bring me work to my home now it's getting more and more common especially with the gigging crowd who has a bad jack an hour before the lights go on. They can call old Hesh and he will not only fix it but they are welcomed and may even be offered a beverage or two.

Last week a local minister walked over a 12 string and a PRS for me to do at home. Both guitars were repaired in less than 20 hours and back in his hands.

There is a price though, I might ask the folks who come to my home to teach me a tune and just last weekend my studio had some notable lead guitarists enjoying my Dumble clone and the walls filled with Collings, Gibson, Suhr, Fender, Sadowsky and PRS axes.

I read an article about how much money various stores make per square foot of retailing space. Costco beat the hell out of everyone and I found that impressive.

So my shop is maximized not for how many shiny, new StewMac tools I have, not for how big it is and all the associated overhead with heating, cooling, RH of a big space. It's not maximized for having a 3D printer (we have one in Ann Arbor at the shop there) or an ERP system for running the business.

It's maximized to have the most capability in the least space and here is the kicker.... it's maximized for the jobs that are not the exceptions that always cost everyone the most to do where you may have to bang out tooling and such, make jigs, etc.

I can dress frets, fix cracks, reglue bridges, do the 600 set-ups I do a year and repair electronics if I need to. I can install pick-ups and more. This little space can produce and that is something that I respect people and things that help people get our work done well and on time.

So with this said.... how about showing us your shops and what your aspirations for it and you are?

Thanks

You won't be seeing pictures of my shop, without a court order.:>)
Just imagine the exact opposite of what you see in the pictures of your shop.

You mean like this?
Student installing back braces on her J-45


Sent from my moto g(50) using Tapatalk

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

JTB no worries you won't be the only one and it's me who is the sick..... here

Colin very cool! Very cool too that you are teaching.

Thanks guys.

I've been dealing with Hesh's obsession for neatness for over 20 years now - no big deal. Go ahead and post the photos of your messy shop, I do (ours are all messy too!).

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Here are some random shots of the shop. Yup, I’m on the tidy team. Once I’m back from Europe I’ll start the long process of dismantling it and selling most everything off in preparation for the move. Sure wish I didn’t have to do it -

Cheers, M

Love the downdraft desk! I'm going to have to have one.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Michaeldc you have the coolest shop I've ever seen, wow! Lots of cool stuff too that I have not seen before such as the vertical bus driving.... dish sander.

Is that the new StewMac bender or something else? It looks like commercial quality and very nice too.

Why are you down sizing, retirement? I would not want to leave that shop either, wow very nice!

Hi Hesh,

The bender is my take on the C. Fox design. I built it about a dozen years ago. It has served me well. I’m surprised nobody has asked for the CAD files. Once again, the powered radius dish is my own design. It takes up very little floor space and has full dust collection. All of my dishes are from Canadian Luthier Supply - the best in the business.

As for closing down the shop - About 40% of the US population is thrilled with the direction the country is headed. The other 60%, not so much. I’m in the later group. My wife is a German citizen so we are looking to sell off our homes and holdings here and move to Deutschland. Kind of ironic, no?


Best, M

Don't do it! That shop is so beautiful, it would be tragic to dismantle it over geopolitical drama. Besides, Germany is likely to swing back the other way soon as well, so it will all be for nothing.

I hope the move works out well for you, Michael. Thanks for all of the inspiration you have provided here on the OLF. You set a very high bar in terms of your craftsmanship.

Michael do you ave plans for the Power radius dish? I just made one but yours looks sweet

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