Do Guitars Magically Appear On Store Walls?
Do guitars magically appear on store walls? Did you ever stop to wonder how they got there, where they came from, or better yet, “who made this”? The who, the person making the product, may be on an assembly line, a single person in a workshop, or a variety of other situations. Sometimes they’d be considered a luthier, sometimes not. Whatever the scenario is, these workers are often unrecognized for their contribution to the end product that shows up on music store walls. Why is the idea of someone making something like a guitar so foreign to so many people? It certainly isn’t foreign in the art world, in fact it’s celebrated. Guitars are art!
I first visited Guitar Center about 27 years ago in search of an instrument and I was so overwhelmed by the magnificence of the abundance of gear, I certainly didn’t consider where anything came from. I wasn’t familiar with brands, I had just started playing guitar, and even though I was shopping for a new instrument, I didn’t have any awareness of where any of them came from. From that day to today, the culture of Guitar Center seems to be a lack of salesmanship - you’re on your own. Finding someone with people skills is pretty rare, as is someone with a deep understanding of the gear. Therefore, you’re left to learn about the guitars yourself - if you care to. When people go into these kinds of stores and are met with a “I don’t know, I don’t care” attitude, the customer learns that’s the way to act. Then that behavior perpetuates itself - few look deeper into the “how” of guitar making. It’s just about the glitz and glamour of the look, the brand, or the price. While that may be the situation, it’s important to note how we’ve really lost something focusing on the superficialities alone.
If you’ve read my previous blogs which mention galleries and guitars as art, we can see the stark comparison between this approach and the typical music store approach. If you’ve ever visited an art gallery, you’re usually greeted, then go around and appreciate the art, and then strike up a conversation with the person or persons who are there as dedicated representatives of the artist(s) and can answer most any question you have about the art you’re experiencing. That is a very enriching experience. It gets you in contact with the humanity of it all, and it builds your understanding of different art mediums and different artist temperaments and approaches.
In today’s world, big name guitars are often made mostly by CNC machines with little human input. Yet, big companies are still charging as much for their brand, have big budget advertising to make people want it, and then outsource the work to other countries (where they can pay workers less), thereby increasing their profit margin. Through their influence, they’re continually making a model for what a standard guitar is, and they’re setting a price standard for guitars. Let’s be real - a $99 instrument is an impossible profit margin and really leads one to question the ethics of the industrial machine.
Instead of thinking about bettering product and growing their workforce into more highly skilled, cross-trained individuals, the big labels choose machines and, often, overseas production. Out of sight, out of mind becomes the excuse for getting a product made by whatever means necessary and takes away from the value of the craftspeople involved in the process - that is if the craftspeople haven’t already been replaced by a mechanized process. The masses never know better, or care, because marketing is telling them everything is still the same, but cheaper. Why have one guitar when you can have many? This fits the “more is better” cultural message. This advertising-based mentality and consumer behavior is a huge hurdle for a modern day luthier to be realistic with their own pricing and enhance understanding of what they do as a craftsperson and why it is valuable. As a luthier, I have had potential customers say, “I can buy a handful of guitars for what you charge for one,” with no understanding or care as to why my price tag is what it is. Let’s be clear, there is no need to justify any price tag you put on your art. Nonetheless, we run into these challenges based on the influence of big name brands and big box music stores who shape the beliefs and behaviors of consumers.
Mechanization has long been a hot topic in the world of luthiery. Do you use CNC machines in your shop? CNC machines allow a process to be repeated with great accuracy, as well as make some work possible where a “by-hand process” might not be realistic or reasonable when time is money or you don’t have the hand skills to do the job. Some builders feel a need to let people know from the get-go that “no CNC machines are used” in their shop, while others proudly let the public know they use CNC machines. Whatever your stance is on the topic, there are many ways to make art. There are many builders and companies who have realized the value of CNC-powered tools and use them to help achieve their vision.
I have personally changed my feeling about CNC machines many times. We used a CNC router in the production shop I worked in for intricate jobs that needed to be repeated with great accuracy, such as inlay work. I feel like this use was a very smart and efficient way to improve the quality of the product and create brand consistency. My current feeling about CNC machines and their use to make musical instruments is that I support it, though I don’t personally use CNC directly for my own luthiery projects. Let’s be clear - plenty of the hardware and electronics we use on our instruments are made by CNC machines (though sometimes I make my own hardware and pickups). CNC machines are tools that require specialized skills to use (like other tools). I know some people who are highly skilled in operating CNC machines, who can make things I cannot make, and I turn to them at times for certain specialty parts. If you can learn to use CNC machines, then have at it! If it helps get your art from an idea to a functioning thing, then do it! Use of a CNC machine still requires fundamental luthier knowledge of how to design a functioning instrument that fits together, and the skills to assemble the instrument and make it playable. The CNC machine is simply a tool and can have its place in any shop.
Machines can help us do our jobs, but our creative human touch is important as well - dare I say it’s essential. When people get exposed to the world of custom-made instruments, they often remark on how good a guitar “feels” to them. They are speaking to the literal physical feeling, but also to something else. That magic human touch really elevates an instrument and adds great value to the player. The more people that get to experience playing a custom instrument, the more the overall cultural view on what’s valuable, not simply what’s cheapest or has a certain brand name on it, begins to change. Now when I go to Guitar Center and see the instruments hanging on the wall, I have a deeper understanding of where they came from and how they were made. I gravitate to check out the ones I know people had more of a hand in making and appreciate their craftsmanship. I also have friends at some of these guitar making companies, and it excites me to know they may have worked on the instrument. A prevalence of the human element, the unique craftsmanship, is a rarity at the big box stores, and it brings me a lot of excitement to experience it when I can.
The High Desert Luthiery Invitational is a place to experience luthier-crafted instruments. It aims to be a diverse, enriching, and supportive environment that showcases luthiers - those that do everything by hand, those that use CNC machines, and everything in between. We aren’t a trade-show that features the typical big brands. Our focus is to give the boutique builders that aren’t necessarily represented in stores a chance to shine and show their work. They get to be there to represent their art and share their processes: to educate others as to how a guitar is actually made and who made it. This is exciting in and of itself, and contributes to a cultural mindset shift around how guitars actually appear on store walls, and the want and know-how to look beyond the instrument to who made it and how it was made.
