Before the industrial revolution, painters had to mix their colors. They needed a base, some common types were oil, water, and tempera (egg yolk), pigments, and to place to mix them. Back then, one could easily go their entire lives without seeing a specific color on any physical objects (they still had beautiful sunsets though), because the pigment was made of the shell of a type of rare snail. Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring‘s shade of blue was made with lapis lazuli that needed to be transported all the way from Afghanistan.
Now we have to machinery to manufacture our own paint. While it is a fair argument to say that this takes a step away from the artistic process (you could also say this about mirrors and camera obscura), but it also increased it’s accessibility. That broader topic is for another day, as I’d like to focus on making instruments for now.
By no means am I saying for everyone to know how to build their instrument, but I do think they should know how to do basic repairs and setups. Yes, it’s okay to take a four thousand dollar saxophone into a shop for major repairs, but if you are dedicated you should know how to tweak your instrument. A basic repair kit is cheaper than repeatedly going to a technician.
The job of a luthier is still essential. Making instruments is an art, and very few master their craft. But realistically, the demand for instruments, especially one like guitar, is simply too high for luthiers to keep up with demand.
Guitars, if you have basic setup knowledge and don’t mind some ethical manufacturing concerns, can be bought for very cheap (<100) and play and sound decent. Guitar is already one of the cheaper instruments, a friend told me that a mid-range violin is around $10,000, which is a great thing, but this means that to meet demand is generally to use underpaid, overseas labor.
I transformed a used fretted guitar into a fretless guitar, and the experience was very insightful into the guitar making experience. I didn’t have to use any power tools, and the patience required was rather calming. I feel as I could make a guitar from scratch now, assuming I get proper training on any machinery I use. It probably wouldn’t be too go, but it’d be functional (I hope).
Besides the practical benefits, as stated in Going Fretless, this is still a step in the artistic process that many modern artists, for good reason, skip over. This will not affect my music on a conscious level, but I’m sure I am more familiar with the instrument now than I’d ever be otherwise, and I appreciate it’s craftsmanship. I think I managed to take a cheap, back-stock guitar that would not added value to my craft as is, into a one-of-a-kind instrument that is personal to me.
Making an instrument is not an easy process, but with the massive amounts of information available, online and in person, creating or modifying an instrument to fit your needs should never be discounted as an option. Also, it does make the instrument cooler.
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