Getting Started

How does one get started? At anything. In my case, lutherie, making stringed instruments? Well, I suppose it’s the same as getting started with anything. Start. It really is that simple, although the actual starting point for each of us may vary infinitely. One must simply find a way to start doing that, which situates you in your happy place. My happy place is my current terminology describing a decades-later acceptance. I have always been very practical with my hands. What I discovered and eventually realised is that my mental, spiritual and physical well-being all benefited from doing what I enjoyed and was good at. Maybe more on this in an alternative blog.

I got started in lutherie, making my first guitar, as a direct consequence of having a perpetually demanding day job as an IT Security Systems Engineer. Although the job was demanding and enjoyable, my desire to get everything completed by the end of the day was rarely, if ever, achieved, leading to much dissatisfaction, despite the fact that I enjoyed my work. At some point after working 60/70 hours per week for several years, it dawned on me that, as a conscientious worker, I needed something much more exciting than my work, which would allow me to express what, after two decades, I can sincerely call creative individuality. Something I would much rather do instead of diluting my hourly pay rate. At the time, that something was to make a guitar. To do this, I needed to reduce my working hours to my contracted 40 hours per week. That was my starting point.

Naturally, I had been researching the idea of working in lutherie for many months before I actually started. I had a number of other completed woodworking projects, like a Welsh Dresser, a kitchen plate rack and many other smaller projects under my belt. Making an acoustic guitar was so different to any of my previous projects. In addition to skilfully working to fine tolerances with wood, there was the added sonic fine-tuning of Tonewood’s and acoustic dimensioning, which demanded my personal creativity, skill, and judgment. Previous woodworking projects informed me that I had an acceptable level of practical craftsmanship, skill and judgment; however, I did not perceive I had any real creativity, and I had many doubts about my level of skill and judgment in relation to making a great-sounding acoustic guitar. My entire focus in lutherie is to create great-sounding instruments. From the outset, this has always been and remains my principal focus.

However, as an engineer familiar with the logic and binaries of engineering systems design, what on earth is a great-sounding instrument? Who is qualified to make this judgment? What exactly must be done in the fabrication of the instrument’s tone woods to ensure the completed instrument sounds great? Furthermore, what tests should be conducted on a completed instrument to confirm any sonic greatness? What measurements should be performed and recorded during the making process to ensure repeatability? This was especially important to me because I came to lutherie much later in life. Consequently, I needed to accelerate the learning process. I needed to know what worked and what didn't regarding the fabrication of a great-sonic instrument. Having so many variables created great anticipatory excitement in this new endeavour, especially because, unlike systems engineering, I would be free from the limitations of digital binaries, aiming for dynamic response and sinusoidal purity. I learned very early on that the great-sounding instrument, conceived in my mind, heard in my ears, and felt in my spirit, did not always coincide with a guitar player’s idea of a great-sounding instrument. What a revelation that was. Some musicians preferred my instruments, which, to my hearing, were not the best, whatever that may be. Only when I quizzed them did it become apparent that they were hearing and responding to different sonic qualities, attributes which they rated higher than I did. This was an important realisation. It meant that I would need to learn how to produce a targeted sound and responsiveness in custom-made instruments. This is also a key construction objective for commissioned instruments.