Juergen wrote:
Hesh, I think that we are nearer than you might think! This is something you wrote in November 2013: "A couple of weeks ago I hung number 52 on the wall and someone decided to take it home a few days later. I still won't build a commission in that I still believe that I simply could not stand to spend 150 hours looking at someone else's idea of a guitar and prefer to build what I like and am interested in. So I build them on occasion when I have time and then hang them and then off they go. Some will, some won't, so what... next. Back in the day on this forum we agonized over things such as minimal glue lines but rarely discussed the user interface - playability or that all too subjective but hugely important goal - TONE..."
This is exact what I am doing! Guitars are an expression of art but for all an expression of myself!
Dear Hesh, I`m sorry that you think that I am disrespectful to all the mentioned repair people and especialy to you. I promise I am not! Contrary I have the greatest respect for your and their work. I know that here in Germany nearly every Master of Lutherie makes his living with repairs.
Perhaps I misunderstand what serviceability means? Perhaps you can explain that for a dummy like me?
For I want to be able to correct for surely happening mistakes I only use HHG, so everything can be disassembled.
Again, I didn´t want to offend you under any circumstances!
![[uncle]](./images/smilies/surrenderflagqv6.gif "Uncle")
Juergen thank You for your words here I appreciate it very much.
Serviceability for guitars is building them with the idea in mind that they will need to be serviced in time. Neck angles will degrade, bridges will lift, nuts will need to be replaced and people will have accidents where cracks need repair and other repairs need to be made. Fret work will need maintenance and replacement in time, braces will give out and come loose, tuners will fail and need repair or replacement.
If you are building art pieces for a museum some fool with a political issue may throw red paint on your creation.....
So builders first will build in a manner that these tasks can be accomplished without undo effort or expense to the client. Repair Luthiers also have to be serviceable in how we, how I approach a repair. I may reset that neck now but it may need another reset in 15 years and that should be on my mind in my glue selection and how I rebuild the dovetail joint.
When I install a nut I make I it so it snap fits in the channel and as such only a small drop of medium CA is required as insurance to keep it in place. When this serviceable nut wears out it's serviceable in so much as I used quality bone that can be filled with dental fillings. The repair luthier 20 years from now will only need a slight "tonk" of a fretting hammer and the nut will break free of its glue drop with no damage to anything. Serviceability, that one little drop of CA was at one time a serviceable concept and I put it in practice.
I learned about the snap fit nut and one little drop of CA from a builder not a repair person by the way. Thanks again Mario P.
My frets and a builder's frets should not be installed in over widened slots... that will never take a fret without glue again and the glue I use should not prevent a future refret either.
We fret after the board is installed so we can also shape the fret plane and what results is the frets need the most minimal material removal to be leveled and shaped. What's serviceable here is the full fret height is available to the client and under the frets the board is not messed up with a body hump where the neck joins the body. We milled that body hump out before we ever fretted.
All these things will make your creations worth more too. I like Suhr, Collings, Sawdowski as personal guitars in my collection. They are all built to be serviced and it makes them a joy to play, own and look forward to.
When I reglue a bridge the original builder hopefully used a glue that will release and not what we unaffectionately in the trade call AMG or Asian mystery glue that won't release.
I clear the finish under the bridge but not to the perimeter of the bridge so a future repair and my repair does.... not.... show and no one can tell that the bridge ever lifted. Customers really appreciate a pristine guitar even when it's been repaired.
Serviceability is present from the moment an instrument is started to be built hopefully and then all through it's life with all of us touching it never, never doing anything that shortens it's life or creates an imbalance on the cost of maintaining the instrument into the future and the value it provides.
We, builders and repair people are supposed to be all about creating and.... and preserving well into the future. It is a huge part of the challenge of being craftspersons.
When I was a new builder and there were others here like me now who will bring up serviceability over and over and over again I used to spend my lunch hours in the moldy humidifier room at a G*itar C*nter. I would check out the Martins, Gibsons, Taylors and Breedloves and imagined that I too one day could build as well as say Martin.
In time I recognized that this was NOT a tough goal if one has ability and really is driven to succeed. Funny thing in more time I became a certified Martin repair Luthier and I find a very good fit with my obsession for quality and the Martin company. We are on the same page, highest quality work for the price point in the product line and highest quality work repairing same when they need it.
No matter how well a guitar is built someone is going to break it. I've worked on guitars that have been shot by a shot gun, run over by a truck, stollen, burned, recovered, inherited, involved in a crime scene, and played by or owned by famous folks like Robben Ford's 58 Les Paul as one example. Robben is a hell of a nice guy by the way.
No one should ever think that the repair side or the building side is lesser than the other. But those of us in the trade will usually agree that there is FAR more to know and learn on the repair side. It's not making a model of a guitar more than once or over and over again, that's what turned me off to building after my 16th OM.... I think I built five different body styles back in the day.
If one follows the good advice on this forum mostly from in the past you will be exposed to concepts such as serviceably and doing the highest quality work imaginable that will serve you well. The OLF has always promoted a quality approach but lately, the last several years it's not seemingly as important and that is why more pros won't participate here and we all lose as a result.
Lastly this is just one forum most builders are not here participating and builders these days are very common. Ask John Hall how many kits he sells and he's just one source. Repair Luther's who make a run at a viable business and survive a decade or more are much harder to find. I'm not speaking of the guy who does a few repairs in his basement. I've speaking of people who successfully makes a decent living doing this AND who became the "trusted source" for many, many guitar players.
In all cases we should all want the same thing and that is real value for our clients.
I know you are interested in the artistic side of the instruments, great now build them to last AND be repaired if need be and they will beat a path to your door. You can offer a lifetime warranty as I did and not lose any sleep over it. I've never had a warranty claim, not a one. The bridge reglue was abuse and the client understood this when he sobered up...
So you can do as you wish and be as artistic as you wish. Just please go the distance to keep your stuff serviceable so that a client of yours does not end up with a tough economic choice when they become a client of mine.
Thanks
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![[clap]](./images/smilies/smiley32.gif "adulations")
this is great and you won't regret it either AND you will have a better understanding of the trade as well.