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I've done a fair bit of "doorstepping" in my time - turning up at a gig, guitar in hand. I asked a few makers if they had done the same. The first lot of answers are up on TLB:

http://www.theluthierblog.com/articles/ ... rketing-2/

Have you ever tried it? If so, what was your experience?

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nigel

http://www.theluthierblog.com

NO.
Personally, I think it is rude, self-promoting and cheap. Musicians work for a living and don't invite every Thom, Dick and Larry builder to bring instruments to their job. They are working. It's imposing, and to me it would be embarrassing.
Customers are your best sales tool. A good instrument will sell itself. If you have an excess of instruments, take them to a good store and sell them on consignment.
Frankly, it's pretty <O> and something I don't care to do. But then, I'm not in it for the big buck$. Ninty-nine percent of those builders that try to run that route don't make it.

I don't think I would ever do that. It's just not my personality. I'm not a very good salesman. Plus I agree that musicians are terribly busy and would feel like a nuisance if I even tried that. I have loaned out guitars to musicians that travel through town though. In fact next month I'll be loaning out one of my Selmer guitars to a musician who I know for a gig in town as he would rather not travel with his guitar for other reasons. That's a sort of marketing and it doesn't cost me a thing.

I have been at a number of "Classical Guitar" competitions, and often professional players will stop by and try out your guitars, but not all of them do. I have never pushed a guitar at one of them. In my conversations with a number of them, I find that they really are offended when a builder pushes a guitar on them to try. What are they going to say? "This guitar sucks!" Then they become the jerk. Not a good position to be in.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

And yet, I've read about builders who do - and sell their axe to Eddie Van Halen. The trick is to show up early, be patient. Eventually, the act goes on break.... and you make money.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I have recently got in touch with a person I know well and asked if he would like to play my guitar at a gig . He came over tested it out and said sure . That guitar went to the gig with him and he played it beautifully . Bonus , after the first set was done he made an announcement that the builder was in the room and had me stand up . " Totally" unexpected . It did bring several around to talk to me . I guess for me , Approach is everything .

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
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The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
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If Jim Olson hadn't pushed his guitars on to James Taylor, he wouldn't be where he is today.

If you got the chutzpah ... you will sell.

Waddy, I would have thought there is a whole gamut of assessment and comment in between "This guitar sucks" and "Hey, this is the greatest guitar i have ever played".

Yes, pushed is the key word. Figured that one would run. Exactly what I was talking about and here's the rest of it.


Ah, well, who cares...

I'm don't think it is right to say Jim pushed his guitars on James Taylor. He left a guitar in his hotel room with a note saying James should call if he liked the guitar. Apparently he did because he called and placed an order. As a side note here is a great video interview with Jim http://youtu.be/5H5IBKxlwJw

I have met lots of artists at their concerts, however the meetings were always setup ahead of time and usually by a mutual contact. I've never went uninvited and tried to show an artist a guitar.

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
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House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

And, there's Smallman and John Williams, but still, many don't like it, or so they say. I'm just saying that if they don't like the guitar, they aren't likely to say so. I've had one person out of say a couple of hundred that have tried my guitars that said he didn't like it, because he didn't like the neck thickness at the heel. I appreciated that. He liked two out of three. Not bad! These are not people who are shopping guitars for themselves, but have a lot of students. Not to say if yours is better than theirs that they might not be interested, but the future in a classical is, often, getting it in a few good students' hands.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I showed up at a Norman and Nancy Blake gig with a guitar I thought he would like, and I have not regretted it.
Norman is honest enough to tell you what he actually thinks, so it worked out great. The times before when I showed him a guitar, he was polite, but said it just wasn't his kind of guitar.



Even more important than the three Arnold guitars that Norman and Nancy have, I value their friendship.
I have found that most of the artists in traditional music are very approachable. That includes Tony Rice, Alison Krauss, and Ricky Skaggs.
Luck has a lot to do with it, but if you never put the guitar in their hands, you will never know what might have been.

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John

I'd say you haven't got nothing to lose. I've brought a guitar to a couple of gigs, granted musicians that I already knew, and each time the word was spread a little further....Getting your guitars in front of players is the only way you will get them sold.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.