Posted on July 1, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Instrument Resurrection Stories Letter: Instrument Resurrection Stories by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #96, 2008 Hello Tim and Everyone in GAL Land — I’ve been receiving some interesting e-mails lately having to do with the instrument resurrection stories I wrote. They’re not so much about the repair issues, but about work ethics and dealing with customers, as well as the stresses of overwork and handling burnout. Anyone busy enough to feel overworked at this point in time should only feel grateful. During the fifteen years I ran my own shop in New Jersey I serviced most of a county and four music stores and drew customers from both the NYC and Philly metropolitan areas, but forty hours of work in a week was a rarity. I had good uses for the down time, but more work would have been nice. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 13, 2024May 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips How to Become a Running Dog of the Capitalist Imperialist Music Mongers (and love it!) How to Become a Running Dog of the Capitalist Imperialist Music Mongers (and love it!) by J.R. Beall Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Newsletter, Volume 3 #2, 1975 I’ve just finished re-reading R.E. Bruné’s last article on making it as a luthier and on most points we are in agreement. On the matter of commercial sales, however, I’m not as stuffy as R.E. and must admit that a good portion of my income is derived therefrom. R.E. is a purist and I can admire him for his willingness to live the austere life, sleeping on his workbench and eating puree of spruce shavings and rosewood dust. I am, by his standards, decadent beyond redemption, with a legal wife, a comfortable home, and plenty of expensive grub, but I offer no apologies, I am disgustingly satisfied with my life-style and have no difficulty justifying my comfortable existence. In my opinion, the biggest problem with any one-man operation in our line of work, is that it is just physically impossible to turn out a sufficient number of any kind of instrument in any given time period, to earn as much as any average factory worker. For example, a good guitar builder, working alone can build one guitar every two weeks. That adds up to 24 per year, times $600.00 = $14,400.00 annual gross. That sounds pretty good to most of us but remember he must then pay for his materials, his maintenance and utilities, his traveling and advertising, taxes and the rest. If he can net $8,500. after expenses, he is doing well and we all must agree that in these times $8,500. is not big money. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 13, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Dulcimers as a Business (or Running Dogs, Part 2) Dulcimers as a Business (or Running Dogs, Part 2) from his 1975 GAL Convention lecture by J.R. Beall Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Newsletter, Volume 3 #4, 1975 I believe that a luthier ought to be able to make a living at what he does, if at all possible. I build dulcimers in the summertime starting (depending on how I feel after Christmas) February, maybe March. Every year I design and put out a new model, and that’s purely to alleviate the boredom, with also an eye toward improving the breed a little bit. It will last up until fall, maybe September, October by the time I finish building dulcimers, and by that time I’m ready to finish building dulcimers. Then I go on to building other things. Folk Philosophy I think to me at least, it seems the important thing about an instrument is that it plays and sounds well. If one spends too much time in decoration, you get into a financial situation where you can’t afford to sell it for the amount of time you’ve got into it. And again, this is my basic philosophy: To build things and build them well, and yet build them fast enough that you can make a pretty good living doing it. Now, there are probably some other people who’ve built dulcimers fairly rapidly. But frequently you can see signs of that in the inferior quality of the product. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 13, 2024May 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Entrepreneurs In Spite Of Ourselves Entrepreneurs In Spite Of Ourselves by Ralph Novak Originally published in American Lutherie #28, 1991 I‘ve always had an affinity for the sciences, strong curiosity, and a penchant for experimenting. How something worked was more important to me than if it actually did. My dad, who has exceptional skills in woodworking, model building, and aircraft design, taught me about wood, tools, mechanics, and bringing a job to completion. He answered endless questions and helped me fix things that became the objects of my curiosity. To this day he is an inspiration. I got my first guitar, a Stella acoustic, for my 14th birthday in 1965. The next year I got an electric guitar and amp, and my dad helped revive it after my experiments. Soon, neighborhood musicians had me modifying and repairing their guitars and I even did some refrets and pickup installations for a very small local store. I built my first guitar in that basement, making pickups from old TV and radio parts. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 6, 2024May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Guitar Insurance Questions: Guitar Insurance by Cyndy Burton Originally published in American Lutherie #82, 2005 Garrett Burton of Portland, OR asks: I’m planning to pick up repair work from guitar stores and work in my home shop. I’ve been told I need insurance for the guitars when they are in my possession as well as liability insurance. What can I expect to pay per month? Cyndy Burton (no relation) of Portland, OR responds: The only business insurance I’m aware of designed for musical instrument businesses is Heritage Insurance Services (215-322-8705; his@heritage-ins-services.com; www.heritage-ins-services.com/national.htm). The cost will depend on many factors, but in my experience, it is reasonable and well worth it.
