Advise on advancing my skills

[Ian Davlin The Looth Group]

Historically, how have you learned best ? Self taught or in a school setting ? I would say that you will probably have an easier time learning this trade with the learning style that has brought you success in the past.

The only other advice is to resist the urge to feel like everything needs to be learned all at once or that it is necessary to learn all repairs on all instruments. Take learning at a pace that is comfortable and if you are already trying to make a living in the trade, don’t expect to earn a living wage while learning. So limit the learning to what you can afford.

[James Roadman]

I think the resources available to each individual are different, but you have what i think is the most important attribute, the desire to learn. My over simplistic answer is take advantage of everything you can. There is a ton of information and experience available here on the Loothgroup and there are great books, videos courses, and formal educational opportunities if they are available to you.

From a practical standpoint, there is no substitute for hands on experience. I learned by first practicing on my own instruments, looking for inexpensive or “lost cause” instruments where the stakes are low but there was knowledge to be gained. Trying something risky for the first time on someone else’s instrument is never a good thing.

I know it is hard to put your self out there and ask questions, but it is a good thing.

[Dave Staudte (rhymms with "Howdy") NB Guitar Repair (New Braunfels, TX)]

The archive of instructional videos here is just incredible. The live Loothalong is also amazing, there are no stupid questions, and you will be treated with respect.

Whenever you’re trying something new always practice on your friend’s guitar first 🙂 HA! Just kidding!

A lot of us on here who have been at it for a long time have said hundreds or maybe thousands of times, “we’ll I’ll never do that again!” You will have to learn from your mistakes from time to time, but this website and Zoom group will advance your learning curve much quicker than what a lot of us had to go through.

Keep at it and be active around here!

[Gerry Hayes Haze Guitars]

The previous responses are great. I might thrown in an idea from left field. I sort of ‘defaulted’ into repair work after building instruments for a while. That give you a heap of hands-on experience with a lot of stuff. Yes, it’s a sort of ‘green-field’ experience that won’t prepare you for everything you’ll encounter in a repair situation but it’s a fantastic way to build basic skills that’ll stand you really well. Plus, you get to learn on something that won’t break a customer’s heart if you make a mistake. 😄

You don’t have to spend heaps of cash to do this. Start with the cheapest kit guitar you can find. Trying to make a cheap kit sound and play well is a good project and you end up with a handy test-bed instrument to refret, replace a nut, mod the wiring, replace a bridge, or whatever.

If your budget and time will stretch to it, get a body and neck blank and try a build from scratch. It’s a fun way to work on woodworking skills, again without so much pressure.

I think you’ve got the right approach here. You know it’ll take time and you’re willing to work on your skills. Like James said, that’s really important.

And I understand the anxiety. What I’ll say is that the folks on here are not like many of the folks I’ve encountered on the internet. Looth Groupers genuinely seem happy to help without being judgemental or snobby. When you’ve got some people who have your back, asking questions can cause less anxiety than trying to figure stuff out on your own.

Keep asking. We’re a friendly bunch around here. 👍

[Mark Prestifilippo Presti Music]

I am far from a master, but I have found, as with all things, the more practice I do the better my results. I have cut at least 50 nuts for my own telecaster and each one has been an improvement. The reason for those improvements have been recognizing what I did wrong, but also asking questions and paying attention to the learning materials available, especially through this group.

There has not been a single negative interaction with this group, which is a testament to its purpose. As a high school math teacher, I have never turned away someone that was truly interested in learning, and the masters of this group have proven to be tremendous teachers and more than willing to offer advice and tips.

As for my own learning, I picked up a couple guitar on marketplace and have ripped them apart with the sole purpose of improving my skills. Yes, one must buy tools and materials with which to practice, but it is a dang good feeling to do a setup for someone and have them come back saying the guitar has never played better.

I must admit that I did a couple jobs that I had never done previously on guitars that were not mine, but I studied a lot and asked questions prior to taking it on and they weren’t jobs that I was petrified of completing. I am still wildly scared of doing finish repair because I’m colorblind and have zero desire to blend a red shade and think it looks good to blend a brown that I think is red.

This group is full of incredible knowledge and the desire to share it. I couldn’t be more happy to be a part of it and look forward to improving my skills thanks to the members of this group.

[Doug Proper Guitar Specialist]

Hi Francisco,

Welcome to the Looth Group! You’ll find this quite a welcoming place where members are eager to help and there is a vast array of experience to draw from without the egos or drama you might find elsewhere.

I’ll chime in on the discussion as the subject is something I happen to have some strong opinions about.

I’m a huge advocate of learning by doing and following your nose while doing so. Learning by doing is how I learned this trade. While many learn this job by going to a school, and guitar building/repair schools have seemed to replace the traditional apprenticeship, I do not think it is necessary to go to a school to learn this trade or develop the skills necessary to succeed in it.

There seem to be two main aspects to your question:

One, how to expand your skill set and two, deciding what to work on next as you are doing so.

For the second part – that’s what I mean by following your nose. You described yourself as someone who is primarily doing setup work and now graduating to some minor fretwork. Deciding what to work on as you expand your skill set should be fairly logical. If you aren’t making nuts and (acoustic) saddles yet – that should obviously come next. Fret level and crowning and then refrets are along the same path. If you are going to get into structural work and doing touch-up/finishing work – those areas are obviously more varied and can certainly be a bit more specialized. There again – follow your nose. It would make sense to pursue minor structural repairs (braces, bridge reglues, cracks) before you start tackling neck resets, pulling bridge plates and top replacements.

It may seem daunting but just making a list of all the repairs you can think of that someone might need on any acoustic or electric guitar and then trying to list them in what you would perceive as an order of difficulty would be a good exercise to organize a game plan.

Now for the hard part – How to develop those skills? How do you eat an elephant? – One bite at a time.

Take it slowly and get one thing under your belt before you move on to the next.

Then Practice.

And then practice some more.

This may be a bit of a controversial statement, as I know there are people who think otherwise, but NEVER – EVER practice on a customer’s instrument. Build your skills on “Crash Dummy” guitars first and do not perform repairs on customer instruments until you have those skills well on their way to being mastered. Many in the group have heard me tell the story that, when I was first starting out in this biz, before I did my first customer refret, I spent three months re-fretting six different (crash dummy) guitars no less than 10 times each. That means when I got to my first customer re-fret, it was my sixty-first refret. No drama and the job came out great – not to mention I had nothing to apologize for. I was by no means an expert fretter by that time but was sure enough in my skills to feel good about charging people money for it. As time goes on – you get better. Now, thousands upon thousands of refrets later – I’d venture to say I have gotten pretty good at it.

There is a colloquialism I have heard from time to time in this business that suggests that you “should let your customers pay for your education”, implying that you build skills by learning on your customers instruments and make a buck at the same time. I completely disagree with that sentiment.

You will find that here at the Looth Group there are tons of folks eager to listen, help and offer advice. Take advantage of the Loothalong and the forums. It’s a great place to learn from one another. I have learned a ton, made a great many friends and am a better looth for it.

Welcome to the club and this profession!

[Francisco]

I really appreciate everyone’s answers! Thank you. It has definitely calmed my anxiety a bit knowing everyone here is this friendly. I’ll keep everyone’s advice in mind and take it slow. I’ve learned best by teaching myself and being hands on, so that’s what i’ll try going forward and knowing I can ask anyone here for help, brings peace of mind.

[Paul M]

Watching a lot of Ted Woodford videos helped me a lot. He is very good and there’s just a volume of videos so you can see a lot of the same repairs in different ways.

I did two harmony rebuilds based on his 7 part harmony series.

I have some guitars that have had hard lives after I refretted them 6 times.

Working on cheap Chinese shit can be helpful. Sometimes the necks are so warped you finally give up. I had a scalloped strat neck I bought new on eBay and refretted over and over and finally I had sanded it into being only slightly scalloped. That went in the trash.

Fender stuff is better to start with. It’s harder to fuck up and it is more obvious what is going on. Teles in particular.

Making a few teles never hurt anyone. It is NOT EASY to make a great tele but it’s one of the easiest Lutherie tasks and you can learn a ton figuring out how to make one. Particularly from scratch. A tele neck is the world’s simplest neck but also not a simple thing at all.

I think mostly owning that early on you will do harm to the things you touch, so go in and do your harm and get it over with.