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Hi, can someone help me out?

I´m interested in checking out some of Tom´s content. At the point i am now, i have no need for a full lutherie tuition, but i like to check other´s working methods and pick useful stuff to add to my own work procedure -i think we all do, as it´s one of the things that keeps us getting back to this place, after the initial allure. Or maybe even correct stuff i´m doing wrong or inefficiently.

So, how does Tom´s course work? i´m used with Robbie O´briens way. If i need something specific i just buy it and don´t think more about it. Tom´s course seems to work out on subscription? but if i just need something specific (say, a fretting class or soemthing along thsoe lines) it makes no sense to get a lengthy subscription.

Thanks for your input,
Miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

It is indeed a subscription. You get access to all of the content available (several courses) as part of the subscription. There is no need to keep the subscription once you have what you need from the courses. So you could subscribe, watch several of the courses, take furious notes, and then cancel.

I recommend the video courses. They are all very thorough. If you are just trying to plow through the videos to watch them all and get any tips you can, I would say you could do it in a few weeks or so. The video editing and audio quality is really good too.

The subscription also gets you access to webinars that he does, I believe monthly or at least fairly often, where he takes questions.

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I subscribe (as I suspect Brad does, too), and here is my take on the value of Tom's instruction:

He takes his time, and tries to cover lots of details, leaving nobody behind and leaving no subtopic uncovered. Most of the time, that can be incredibly valuable, but at other times, I find myself being a bit impatient with it.

Some of his instructional videos are unmatched in their value and utility because of this attention to detail. I am thinking specifically of the French polish instructional videos. Those videos are just fantastic.

Other videos he produces tend to drag a bit for my taste, because of the attention to detail. I find myself wanting to fast forward a bit here and there.

In any event, I receive value for my subscription, so I keep subscribing. I only mention the "pace" issue because, depending on what sort of person you are, it can be either a good thing or a bad thing overall.

If I recall, he used to charge $300 for his french polish course. To my mind, it’s worth every penny of that. So that works out to what, 10 months of subscription?

I love the site. I only wish he had transcriptions of the video courses, for the odd time when you need to check a bit of info, but don’t want to go cycling through everything again.

As Don pointed out, the stuff is so detailed, he may be an acquired taste, but why not try it for a month and see?

Steve

+1 to everything so far. I also think some of the videos can drag. But. I'd almost guarantee you that the videos that drag are different for all of us, which goes to show that we all need that level of detail at different times.

I picked up the French Polish, Fan Fret, and Design courses before he went to the subscription model last Jan, so I have access to them for life.

I still get a heck of a lot out of subscribing though. I can't wait to see some archtop work come down the chute.

+1 from me too. $29/month over the long haul could seem pricey but considering you can start and stop your subscription as needed, it's a tremendous bargain. I used it heavily for a month when I was french polishing and could have just stopped it then. $29 for a thorough french polish course is incredible. Of course I'm still paying for it because A. There's a ton of other great material there that I enjoy learning about; and B. I'm too lazy and disorganized to take a simple step to cancel it. And C. I get more out of it than my cable TV which costs a lot more. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Also looking forward to some archtop focus.

I've monitored Tom's excellent general web content for quite some time, always hoping to find a full course on his approach to incorporating an elevated fingerboard listed among the offerings. Alas, I've yet to see it appear. If one of you who subscribe would confirm (or deny) that this course is available it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

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George :-)

Hey George, apparently the elevated fingerboard course is in the works.

Steve

Every corporation in America is trying to reach into your pockets and stay there. I’m so fatigued fighting them off that seeing Tom’s subscription model really put me off. The thing is, I can’t really blame him.

His market is tiny. He must have put some real money into producing his content. And yet, I certainly wasn’t going to put down $300 on something I couldn’t evaluate beforehand from a source I did not know. Same reason Apple doesn’t sell you a $1,000 pocket computer, it rents you a $30/month phone.

So as odious as it may be, a subscription model was probably the only way it would work for Tom. At least he doesn’t try to lock you in.

I subscribed. I spent a month with his French Polish course and it was transformative. I wanted there to be more content for me, but the rest just wasn’t of interest so I cancelled. Of course I wish I could revisit the course to steady my hand when I have doubts. But for $30, I am fully satisfied. For that matter, I wouldn’t have a video to go back to at Hesh’s set up course, and that would probably cost me over $1500 including travel to sunny Ann Arbor.

So my advice is take a leap of faith and subscribe for a month. I guarantee there is $30 worth of material there for you.


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Steve - Thanks for the reply. I'll keep an eye out!

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George :-)

FWIW, the French Polishing course was $175, and the others that were available before the sub model were $60-$100.

I knew nothing about this course but it seems great since I've never really had anything but books which aren't always the greatest at answering my questions on a particular process lol. I just checked it out and I do believe that I'll subscribe when the time is right. In the meantime though I figured I'd give any of the others that may be interested that if you go to the site you can enter your name and email and he'll send you 4 videos for free. For anyone on the fence that should be pretty handy to figure out if it's right for you or not. I'm likely going to watch the 4 videos and then subscribe.

$30 a month seems like a great price for the materials he's providing (at a glance).