Hello chaps….
I’m new to this game (2 yrs approx)and I occasionally work the odd day at a local workshop, with my friend Robbie Gladwell here in the UK, (worked at Gibson, Fender etc), who has been fixing/making guitars for over 50yrs, so I have someone to mentor me, but as a newbie I’m not able to do a lot of repairs to further my skills very often. I have worked on all of my guitars, other musicians who I play with, and the odd guitar I buy cheap to do up, but I feel I need to have a constant flow to keep improving. Any advice would be very much appreciated and thanks to you all for doing this….it’s a fantastic resource.
Regards,
Dave (Silktown Guitars)
Responses
Love this question/topic. Would love to see it expanded on and gain more insight, more so on the side of finding/acquiring customers
It’s getting tougher to get mentorship in anything these days. I asked the local grandmaster about apprenticing where I, of course, would work for free. He said he couldn’t afford it. Just in my lifetime and the world is a different place in that there are more people and less resources as a ratio. You think it would be equal but it’s not. You are an analogue in a binary world. Those teaching analogue skills are aging out like me. This is a good place to at least get a foot in the door for knowledge if not finding someone to step up to the plate to mentor. I ask myself if someone were to walk in and ask for help and the answer is “yes”. Already happening. Although interestingly, most are still opting for binary. But I think the chicken’s are coming home to roost. The recent election and the state of things seem to point to an upset blue collar/middle class that sees maybe a big con game happening where the Emperor has no cloths and zero’s and one’s have taken us about as far they can in the real world. Luthering, guitar repair etc. is just as much a sign as to what is reality. When my local electrician charges me 300. an hour, I know that something’s wrong. Those with hand skills are/will be in high demand. I hope you can find someone in your area that will give you a shot. In the meantime, there are good people here who share, which is very refreshing and hard to find on the net.
So It’s great you’ve got a mentor. Open up shop with what you know! Doug Proper’s advise on advertising is spot on! Guerrilla advertising, I’m finding, works best. I just opened up and the sandwich board out front, word of mouth, and fliers have all worked best and I’m in a small town. Intranet (google) has not because they don’t know your there and won’t look. In the meantime, use the binary for what it’s worth. There are a lot of great skills blogs out there. Take the practice guitar and bust the neck off in the street and repair it. Do everything to that guitar that you can over and over and you’ll get it. Many on here are self-taught. Don’t be afraid!