Harmonic
Tele-Meister
I think that if you want to have guitars then at some time you learn to repair them. Practice on a cheap guitar.
Bad luthier / shoddy work
- Thread starter MichaelD83
- Start date
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tonepoet333
Tele-Holic
In 1996, I came across this book and have only gone to a shop for re-fret work since then. All other work I've done myself for almost 30 years now.
tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com
tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com
Tele-Mania
TDPRI Member
lammie200
Friend of Leo's
Looks like there were already a lot of good responses in this thread.
Many of us have been in similar situations. I once took a brand new unfinished Warmoth body into a shop to get it finished only to get a different body back. The luthier guy (if that he wants to call himself) obviously kept the Warmoth body and traded it for something else. He must have thought that I wouldn't notice because I asked for an opaque finish. When I pointed out that he somehow, perhaps mistakenly, switched bodies he accused me of calling him a liar. In the end, I didn't get the body that I originally gave him back and was "banned" from his shop. I found someone else to do stuff that I can't do. I rarely need them now, but I am glad to have shed the other guy decades ago. It did make me realize that my first instinct on these types of matters is mostly likely valid. The original guy had a reputation of working on some celebrity guitars. I felt that I wasn't up to his liking as soon as I walked into his shop. Wasn't dressed the part I suppose.
I am a tinkerer. I used to love to work on my 60-70s era cars. But since they have become computers on wheels, I really can't. I put that energy into fiddling about with guitars.
Idle hands are the devil's workshop, but sometimes he visits mine. I would love to be an apprentice luthier, because I don't have the capacity to set up a decent shop. But I would really like to see the GAL (if they still exist) develop a decent certification system. I could call myself a master luthier and no one would be the wiser - except for my unhappy clients of course. Not that I am a fan of bureaucracy and licensing, but I am surprised lutherie does not have a true guild-type accreditation system in the US. Maybe a "belt" system like karate. Black-belt luthier!
Idle hands are the devil's workshop, but sometimes he visits mine. I would love to be an apprentice luthier, because I don't have the capacity to set up a decent shop. But I would really like to see the GAL (if they still exist) develop a decent certification system. I could call myself a master luthier and no one would be the wiser - except for my unhappy clients of course. Not that I am a fan of bureaucracy and licensing, but I am surprised lutherie does not have a true guild-type accreditation system in the US. Maybe a "belt" system like karate. Black-belt luthier!
