Hi there,
This may be a dead thread, but I thought I would add my two cents.
First, let me pose a question: how much time do you spend on an activity you are passionate about? Whatever figure you arrive at, compare it to 40+ hours per week times 50 weeks per year. That's the kind of work experience one accumulates as a full-time luthier in the guitar service industry. Multiply again by years in service and the picture becomes clearer.
In a busy shop, like the one I run at Long & McQuade-Ottawa, I see around 750-850 instruments in a calendar year. Currently, I personally attend to all repair work that comes into the shop, as my employer's business model does not include an assistant or apprentice position. It seems that setting a standard of high-quality work as the prime goal has had a positive effect on business, as there is a constant flow of instruments from both new and repeat clients. Negatives include the loss of direct contact with customers and a slower turnaround of individual jobs than is truly ideal. It is, in fact, the daily struggle to maintain a balance between quality and quantity that adds stress to this line of work, yet I still love my career.
As of Summer 2010, I've been repairing and adjusting stringed musical instruments for 15 years as a full-time professional, with an extra 18 years of playing and messing around ahead of that. Having worked on ten's of thousands of acoustic and electric guitars, basses, mandolins, banjos, violins, etc. over those years, I consider myself still to be a student of the processes relating to the craft of adjustment, maintenance and repair. After all, regardless of experience, one can never know everything.
Helping people make music; one instrument at a time,
Terry Calder
Stringed-Instrument Technician
Long & McQuade Music
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
Long & McQuade
[email protected]