The Business of Lutherie, 1984

by Ted Davis, Steve Grimes, Bob Meltz, and Matt Umanov

from their 1984 GAL Convention panel discussion, moderated by David Sheppard

Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000

See also,
The Business of Lutherie, 1980 by Richard Bruné, George Gruhn, Steve Klein, Max Krimmel, and Robert Lundberg
Where Are They Now? by Tim Olsen



We’ve got four people up here who are involved in the business of lutherie in various areas. We’re going to start by letting each of them take a few minutes and tell you about their situation currently. Then we have some questions, some of which we thought up out of our own heads and some of which were turned in by you. So then we will ask these questions and let each person give a brief answer as regards his particular situation. After that, if we have time, we will take questions from the audience. So let’s start down at the end and find out a little bit about each person.

Bob Meltz: I did my first repair in 1969, when I was actively involved as a sound man for a variety of rock-and-roll bands in my area. I was one of the first people in the area to rent out small sound systems, to fill the gap between Shure Vocalmasters and humongous concert systems.