Luthiery
 

Null

that's fucking cool.

I heard on NPR a report about a guitrar shop in a small town of 13thousand, and they said the music instruent bsiness always does well in recessions and depressions because people want to entertain themselves, and fix their old instruments and get guitars to play with their friends and family.

for a second i thought you were gonna go to school to be a Lutheran.

Little known fact: all stringed instrument makers ARE Lutherans. Deal with it.

Red Wing, MN has a very good school for this. A beautiful area as well.

Do it. That sounds like several legions of awesomeness.

Yes! Will I be able to send ye a lefty Fender Strat (body only) for you to re-wire n throw on some pick ups?

I've never heard of school for luthiery but it sounds cool. I have dealt with quite a few luthier's, good and bad. Not to sound all profiteerish, but your best bet to do well with it would be to get good at making your own guitars (or instruments). I'm not an advocate for "schooling", but if that's what it takes... just bear in mind that a lot of schools are set up to make money and don't always leave you prepared to recoop the investment. Not to discourage the school at all, just make sure it's reasonable and that they prepare you to make money - Sounds shallow, but that is what they are taking your money for, otherwise you can learn in the field.

Your best bet would be to work with an established luthier locally or something. Work as an intern or cheap labor until you 1. get the feel for the craft and 2. make sure it's what you'd want to do.

The best guy around me creates custom acoustics and does really well with them. He generally can't keep up with demand and makes a good living. This is him: http://www.abitaguitar.com/ he's done some fret work for me before. Quite an asset for him to be available for repairs and all, but I don't think he could make a living off of it.... it's with his custom guitars.

My friend, who is a mutual long time friend of his tried to get in his shop to work with him as an intern or apprentice but the luthier doesn't take others in. He claims it's because he's so accustomed to making his own schedule and that he'd have to set schedule to have someone in with him and I can see that.... but I think it's mostly to preserve his craft and not let others cop his style basically.

That's just one guy, you might have some luthiers around you that would let you hang around their shop. I'd encourage that.

for sure, the school sounds legit.... and for the sakes of cramming all the craft at once (and doing it right), it's the only way to go. I really only recommended the apprentice angle to encourage you to submerge yourself into it before you invested in it. I guess I'd say that about anything....

That said though, the training can't hurt anything but your debt. If you're confident in them and committed the craft, the pro outweighs the con.

I was going to recommend the electronics too.... part of the guitar luthier skill incorporates the electronics too... then once you get into that, you might as well be doing amp work and even like you mentioned, pedals. I use an amp tech about 3-4 to 1 more times often than for luthier work. All of these could be really interesting, but if you were thinking big, like creating your own instruments, that could be the ultimate goal and most rewarding.

I'm sure you've got your own references, but here's a couple guys I've dealt with doing similar things. You can see what they are doing conclusively. A pedal maker.....
http://cusackmusic.com/wp/
an all around service tech.....
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/msg/1883873945.html

this store pretty much has the biggest line-up of custom-shop pedals, so gives you an idea of who's doing what.....
http://proguitarshop.com/

if you get into the custom stuff, keep in touch, I can help w/ the branding and packaging.... I love start up business ventures!