Getting into the Luthier business

[ZacJM]

I just graduated highschool and I am planning on attending college in the fall, but I've also become very recently fascinated with guitar building. I was curious how one would get into the business of making them commercially? I tried going to Fender's website and looking for a job page. Is it a pretty exclusive field if your new or is there some sort of school you need and contacts to get a job making guitars or being part of the factory that makes them. Thanks for any info guys, I wasn't sure where to post this question so I did this in the Off Topic area

[dorkrockrecords]

http://www.roberto-venn.com/
http://www.mi.edu/guitarcraft

[Veenture]

I just graduated highschool and I am planning on attending college in the fall, but I've also become very recently fascinated with guitar building.

Congrats and good luck Zac

[juan_10]

I watched an awesome video on guitar making in China .. Eastman guitars on You tube .. they were still making those guitars by hand there!
I think the majors all use cnc cutters nowadays. I remember seeing fenders being made four at a time on some machine... Hand Made is what you are after I would reckon It's great for me to see them being made all the way through from a lump of wood , to the final glossy finished instrument .

Anyway here's that vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqVWMA5BJU

juan

[Sarah93003]

Very cool video! Thanks for posting that. I couldn't help notice the lack of safety equipment though. No safety glasses, kevlar wrist guards, etc. I'll bet they go through a lot of band-aids with all of those sharp tools. Very interesting nonethelesss!

[ZacJM]

http://www.roberto-venn.com/
http://www.mi.edu/guitarcraft

Thanks for the links! Looks pretty cool, might have to be a long term goal. I'm pretty set to going to University of Dallas, but maybe once I have myself well grounded afterwards I'd be up for something like that. Definetly be cool to learn how to make one from a professional.

[oipunkguy]

http://www.luthiersinternational.com/

these guys also have a great jobs program. Of course you could just do it as a hobby on your own until you get good enough you offer services to customers. I wouldn't say it's a high paying field though...

[juan_10]

@ Sarah .. those really big wood chisels made me squirm , but not a sticking plaster in sight. I reckon they start you off on the really small chisels , and the guys doing the shaving on the internal braces looked as if they had been doing it for years.
I still have a slight blue stain on my thumb from an old wood chisel injury that implanted metal into it. Never chisel towards yourself !
But you are right , poor worker protection on display in that video , unfortunately indicative of third world work practices . Kevlar wrist protection sounds brilliant .
All the same .. great for would be guitar builders to see the kind of industrial side of 'hand made'.


juan

[Sarah93003]

:-) @ Sarah .. those really big wood chisels made me squirm , but not a sticking plaster in sight. I reckon they start you off on the really small chisels , and the guys doing the shaving on the internal braces looked as if they had been doing it for years.
I still have a slight blue stain on my thumb from an old wood chisel injury that implanted metal into it. Never chisel towards yourself !
But you are right , poor worker protection on display in that video , unfortunately indicative of third world work practices . Kevlar wrist protection sounds brilliant .
All the same .. great for would be guitar builders to see the kind of industrial side of 'hand made'.


juan

I used to work at Milgard, a window manufacturer. When they took the vinyl windows out of the welder they used sharp chisels to remove the "weld". Safety is a huge concern in California (a heavy litigious state!) and they always had Kevlar wrist guards.

[oipunkguy]

Sarah and I are gonna start up a new company called Gretschrite. Every guitar will be finished in a pink sparkle just to annoy her.