Official Luthiers Forum!

I sure hope you're ready for the $lippery $lope you are about to step on....

In college several Professors urged me to go into writing. One in particular, a brilliant man who taught Philosophy urged this heavily. I wrote the most absurdly obfuscated prose possible for him largely because I was certain that Professors are bored to death of reading the same old dogma and because I found it extremely funny to write. He and I are friends to this day and write each other often. I enjoy writing to people, well writing period. If I would have been born earlier I would've written to Hunter S. Thompson whom I hear would correspond dutifully to anyone who wrote him. Later in life through circumstance I knew a former Cold War era spy that told me "it's the writing of things that makes them clear, too many nooks and hollows in your mind, best to lay it out on paper to see clearly. Later I studied Napoleon and was exposed to his method of planning. He covered ballroom floors with notecards like a _Choose Your Own Adventure_ roadmap of contingency plans. I've never done writing for actual money but I've greatly advanced my personal and Professional self by writing about things to better understand them. I know I sound auspicious when I say this but I'll say it anyway: I'm sure that I was one of the best in my Professional field because I went home and wrote about things that happened during the workday and thought through them, returning the next day armed with insight. It allowed me to see beyond my self and into the real solutions to things that no one else was even considering. It wasn't long before I was making three to four times what my colleagues were making. Colleagues spent their time complaining when they should've been being introspective about what was happening.

Every person throughout history who's written about what they've done provides a road map into their mind that I've really appreciated. Van Gogh is a prime example. You hear stories about how crazy he was but if you read _Letters to Theo_ it's clear the man was a genius on many levels and it made him posthumously famous. Had he not written those letters I doubt anyone would've recognized the fact that he made the single most important discovery in art which affects the sale of every successful product sold to this day. And I will certainly apply his philosophy and technique in the making of my guitar.

So my method is to write about this experience in order to glean as much as I can from it. This forum is the ideal place for it because it's dynamically interactive. I don't have any interest in making any money from it and doubt there is any anyway. It allows you and me to see inside each other's mind and perhaps that stirs the pot for something new. I urge you to write as well, regardless of eloquence or mastery of grammar (clearly I don't put much effort in perfect grammar). I do try, try, try to make things amusing to read because who wants to read laundry lists of actions? But sometimes they too are helpful.

What we're doing, or rather what you fine folks are doing (I'm attempting) is making art, craftsman art. Putting your heart and soul into some wood and metal to make it ALIVE. Over in the factory they're making CNC "machines" not art, devoid of human connection. We've all heard a drum machine and it will never compare to a real drummer. A human drummer with greasy hair has got soul that he puts into every slightly imperfect beat and we humans like it. Just as a CNC machine will never produce a guitar with real soul. When I played a completely handmade guitar for the first time it practically knocked me down. I was in Austin, Texas and a fellow musician was shopping for a Mandolin. To amuse myself I was checking out the offerings and picked up this unknown makers guitar. The first barre F made me think "oh ma lord!" Nearly all new guitars sound terrible to me but this was very different: loud, responsive to my gentle touches, she sang for me. I'm certain what I heard and felt was the soul that was put into the making of the guitar. When all I've ever played was "drum machines" this was a revelation. The people that buy the high dollar machine made instruments do so because they just aren't aware of what's out there. Nor do they understand the benefits of spending money within their own local economy. They choose a drum machine because they don't know any better. The factory is dependent on maximizing profit, the artists on this board are maximizing quality. I've noticed that hand made things I've bought in my lifetime have far outlasted factory made items. In my twenties I bought a pair of handmade boots. It was a considerable sum of money and factory boots were literally ten times cheaper. Twenty years later I still wear those boots daily, they look amazing, and smell like the day they were born. My Cobbler comments every time he resoles them something to the extent of "amazing quality, or there's something very special about these boots" as if he's never seen them before. People everywhere ask me where I got them and there's no adornment to make them stand out but there's clearly a soul to them that people recognize. In twenty years of hindsight I would've spent far more to buy cheap boots and replace them over and over and...

I'm stepping into an established arena where I basically know nearly nothing in order to get to know some of you I let you see into my mind. Writing is surely the best method for that. And while my posts seem inordinately long winded I'm of the opine that we as a society have become too dependent on the bite sized morsels of insight and information. In the era of letter writing it was commonplace and I subscribe to that era because it makes the most sense to me.

I'm avidly reading everyone's posts, learning, scheming, re-evaluating my plans, and writing about what's going on. It does help take my mind off the current state of things. I hope at least someone is enjoying reading all this.

-j

"The written word is not truth but the semblance of truth."
-Socrates

Every person throughout history who's written about what they've done provides a road map into their mind that I've really appreciated. Van Gogh is a prime example. You hear stories about how crazy he was but if you read _Letters to Theo_ it's clear the man was a genius on many levels and it made him posthumously famous. Had he not written those letters I doubt anyone would've recognized the fact that he made the single most important discovery in art which affects the sale of every successful product sold to this day. And I will certainly apply his philosophy and technique in the making of my guitar.