Can we call ourselves luthiers?

[gary sheldon]

That is my question for discussion.  I would like to call myself a luthier, but I hesitate.  I have built 21 instruments.   They all work.  I usually say I am an amateur luthier.  

I have built 3 string guitars, 4 string guitars and 11 ukes.  Do my own fretting, have built 5 boxes, albeit rectangular

Like most of us, I am self-taught, with a lot of help from you guys in the Nation.  I've made lots of jigs to compensate for lack of power tools.

I have been at this for 1 1/2 years and have sold about 8 instruments.  I am semiretired.

What do you think?.

[darryl kernaghan]

Not meant do denigrate luthiers John,but it is,after all, simply a title,if the product doesn't cut it,the title is meaningless anyway

[The Phrygian Kid]

Yep.
There are bottom feeders who's qualification is questionable in every profession. If you want to be that in luthiers, or dentisty, law, academia, whatever, then be my guest. This is a very rhetorical question imho (while I certainly find the opinions of others interesting) because it is so personal and subjective. Do you consider your product good? Professional? World class? It is entirely up to the individual, some swim in a sea of self loathing, others in a pond of delusion. The best :)

[John Jordan]

The pond of delusion seems to occasionally have some nice fish in it, though. :)

John

[Ron "Oily" Sprague]

That's GREAT song / album title, Kid! "Pond of Delusion." Yes.

[turtlehead]

[Ron "Oily" Sprague]

http://www.luth.org

[TN Twang]

?

[Mr.melo]

i make Beauty come alive.................

[jim]

No

[ross harper (rustic luthiery)]

  Someone called me a 'Rustic Luthier' when I told them about my CBG's.

[Monterey]

Hi Gary,
Wikipedia defines a luthier as being:
"someone who makes or repairs string instruments. The term originally referred specifically to makers of lutes. The term is used interchangeably with any term that refers to a specific, or specialty, type of stringed instrument, such as violin maker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc. The word luthier comes from the French word luth, which means lute. The craft of making string instruments, or lutherie, is commonly divided into two main categories: makers of stringed instruments that are plucked or strummed and makers of stringed instruments that are bowed.[2] Since bowed instruments require a bow, the second category includes a subtype known as a bow maker or archetier."
Wikipedia defines a cigar box guitar as being:
"a primitive chordophone that uses an empty cigar box for a resonator. The earliest had one or two strings; the modern model typically uses three or more. Generally speaking, strings are connected between the end of a broomstick or 1" x 3" wood slat and to the resonator, the cigar box."
Wikipedia defines a chordophone as being:
"a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification."
So therefore a cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone. A chordophone is a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. A luthier is someone who makes or repairs string instruments.
A cigar box guitar, or license plate guitar, for that matter, is no less a chordophone than a violin, guitar, lyre, harp, or piano.

[TN Twang]

Please don't include the pianoforte (or fortepiano) in your list of products of lutherie. Unlike chordophones descended from l'oud , which may be bowed or plucked, the piano is played percussively. I have it on reasonably good authority that makers of pianos are called "piano makers."   :-)

How the hell did we get off on this?? I'm gonna' quit now...