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Position:Home>Performing Arts> Can I make A Living Making Acoustic Guitars?Question: Can I make A Living Making Acoustic Guitars!? I love playing guitars (more acoustic guitars) and i was wonder could i make a good living making acoustic guitars and painting them!? like would i be able to live in a big house if im good at it!?
im 16 now lol but i was just wondering thank youWww@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: If you make very good ones, then absolutely!. Jim Foster of Foster Guitars in Louisiana has a waiting time of over 1 year for his instruments!. Some of them go for more than $10,000!. His workshop is his garage and he works whenever he feels like it!. Not a bad deal!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Possibly!. Somewhere near where I live there's a luthier--a guy who makes and repairs stringed instruments, one at a time!. It's all he does, and his shop is not large or lavish!. I have no idea what kind of income he derives from it, but he's brought his son into the business, intending to pass it on, so it must be enough to live on!. The decorative aspect, whether it's painting or inlays, is almost an afterthought and might require an additional skill set!. The decoration alone will not let you make a living; you'd probably do it as a sideline to other artistic endeavors!. The craftsmanship of the woodworking is what it's all about, and would very probably take many years to master!. You would want to work for a luthier for many years, sort of like an apprentice, and/or attend a university offering a Fine Woodworking major!.Www@QuestionHome@Com There are quite a few luthiers who build fine hand-crafted guitars, banjos, and mandolins throughout the U!.S!. Look at their ads in the back pages of "Acoustic Guitar", "Fretboard Journal", or "Banjo Newsletter" magazines, for example!. Most of them, I think, have one-man shops!. In order to make a full-time living at it, you'd need to sell your instruments for thousands of dollars each!. At those prices, the number of potential buyers is relatively small, and with the number of custom guitar builders out there chasing that market, in addition to the larger guitar companies like Martin, Taylor, Santa Cruz, Larrivee, Huss & Dalton, Collings, MacPherson, etc, also competing for that same market, you won't survive if your quality and workmanship aren't absolutely perfect!. Most successful luthiers have extensive woodworking experience, have graduated from a good school of lutherie, and years of apprenticeship with an established guitar maker, before going out on their own to establish their own shops!. Not how many of them really make enough money to live in a big house (unless they live out in the middle of nowhere where housing costs are low!), but they make a living at it!. I also suspect that many of them do quite a bit of guitar repair and set-up work to make ends meet, in between commissions for new guitars!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I have a cousin that does pretty good at it, http://www!.prenkertguitars!.com/ but he's really good at it and his guitars are highly sought afterWww@QuestionHome@Com |