Happy New Year everyone
With the new year, I am setting some new goals and new projects for the year that will be very exciting.
By pushing the limits with my guitars, I have reached new sonic territory that is very close to what an "ideal" solo performance instrument should be with fullness, balance, clarity, and response all part of the character. After a years of work I have achieved a unique voice and is finally the tone I would choose over all others, but.......
In the pursuit of the "best voice" I have learned many lessons about guitar making, the chief of which is somewhat peridoxical to my own persuit of a singular tone. Unlike "The Highlander", there can be more than one! Although I feel my current guitars can do everything well, they particularly excel in the hands of a solo guitarist playing pieces that require fullness in all ranges. For strumming or bluegrass, this voice doesnt leave much room for the singer, so it can seem out of place in such a scenario.
The exciting part is this revelation means I have a good reason to return to my roots and explore the traditional guitar. In my past research, I developed a perfect recipe for the classic 30's Martin tone after spending time playing and measuring some of the best examples that exist. I was more focused on the ideal fingerstyle tone, I did not give it the attention that it deserved but now I can see a true delineation between the styles of guitars and that is a great reason to venerate both styles. This year I will make two dreadnaughts in my version of a 28 and 18 style. The goal will not be to replicate a Martin in look as there are many folks out there doing just that, but to match the sonic signature of those classic guitars. The guitars will be available around fall of next year if you are interested in owning one of them.
The second bit of new things is I am expanding my online teaching. As an instructor at a luthiery school, I learned what a luthier school is all about and surprisingly its not education... its about profit. While i do not have issue with making money, I think there is better value in a more modern approach.
A reason I feel this way is I witnessed hundreds of people spend tens of thousands of dollars to build the only three instruments they are ever going to make. Its easy to see that if you invest all your money in going to school, there is none left to get started and that is often the end. If you want to build guitars, you do not need to attend a school, you need to build a shop and start making guitars. When I began my life as a luthier, there was not a lot of open resource information available. Contrast that with today where there is a video or forum that can show you how to do most operations involved in building a guitar.
If the information is readily available, why then do people choose to attend an in-person school? The answer is guidance and mentorship. It is very often not the "how" that is hard to understand but the "why".
The pandemic taught us how to connect through zoom and I have been doing special classes related to my personal areas of interest but then is started thinking, as a life long luthier and teacher, I could offer a new way for people to get what they really need without going great distances to get it.
With all that considered, I am now offering online, one-on-one luthier mentoring. Why not call it classes? It is because most people don't need a standard technique, they need to learn the correct midset, and that comes through mentorship. Yes there is lots of infomation to share, but the goal is to make you a better luthier, not to teach you a specific technique. By helping the student understand why we do things and how to make the right decisions in buildng the instrument, you don't necessarily learn "my" way, but learn how to make your own way.
Classes range from a 40 hour complete build course to customizeable blocks on any of the topics of making acoustic guitars. Basically, you tell me what you need and I will mentor you through. You can book your sessions on your own schedule so you won't feel rushed to complete tasks. By working in your own shop, we come up with strategies for your success rather than a one sizes fits all approach.
I am excited to see how this project progresses, it will be great to be teaching again.
Finally, this year I am setting the goal to complete a long form build video that documents what goes into one of my instruments. I am begrudgingly accepting the fact that we live in a tv show and you cannot stop the rising tide, so here we are. Its an ambitous project but i have been slowly equipping my shop to be somewhat like a tv studio so it should be fun and informative. Going to try to not lose steam on this, but we will see how it goes.
I hope everyone out there has a great year and like/follow/share or what ever else you can do to let people know what I'm up to.
SAM
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