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MOD vs BUILD. OR AM I JUST A BIT OCD?
I don’t think you’re too off-base.
You’re making the “hobbyist/enthusiast vs luthier” argument and it’s 100% warranted. I find this frustrating as well.
I would say putting together a kit is a great way to end up with a guitar that is unique and feels like “yours” but a luthier works with raw materials and can replicate their work consistently from project to project.
Swapping pickups or changing tuners is child’s play to a luthier.
You don’t ask an enthusiast or hobbyist to do a luthier’s work. There’s a reason all those build kits come with all the same pieces (pre-assembled, fully fretted necks, pre-routed bodies, generic pickups with the simplest of wiring schematics (if they haven’t ditched the wiring all together for an unbelievably low quality quick connect setup)) and the reason isn’t because it’s what’s most cost effective to sell.
Quality raw materials can usually be had for the equivalent of what a decent kit would cost. The thing is that those kits are marketed for the average consumer who wouldn’t know where to begin cutting a channel in quarter-saw maple for a trussrod.
A kit can be great and you may end up with an instrument that sounds decent and plays beautifully. There’s nothing wrong with that. When I was being taught we used kits all the time to practice craftsmanship and to use as examples on what to do and not to do.
On the other hand, after you have some experience you learn that luthier schools acquire these kits for students simply because they’re considered disposable.
At the end of the day, you know what you’re capable of and the categories here are self-explanatory whether the hobbyist/enthusiast crowd wants to admit it to themselves or not. Swapping pre-existing parts for new ones is an UPGRADE.
A MOD would be something like replacing your standard Strat neck with a Warmoth Baritone Conversion neck or Re-routing a body to accommodate a different bridge system.
Swapping passive pickups for active pickups is somewhere in between.
Reshaping the back of a neck to a more comfortable (subjective) profile, replacing fret markers/side dots, or scalloping frets, while intensive, are CUSTOMIZATIONS.
Taking raw materials and working those materials to be used in the crafting of an instrument is BUILDING. The basis of what a luthier does. (This doesn’t even factor in the whole aspect of actually designing a guitar which is a whole separate thing that a luthier should have mastered).
Ordering a kit and putting it together is ASSEMBLING. It’s nothing new. It’s not something from nothing.
Is there a market for that? Absolutely.
Just like there is a market for HandCrafted Solid Oak furniture. But buying a kit is the equivalent of buying a guitar from IKEA. Some ASSEMBLY required.
/end rant
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I don’t think you’re too off-base.
You’re making the “hobbyist/enthusiast vs luthier” argument and it’s 100% warranted. I find this frustrating as well.
I would say putting together a kit is a great way to end up with a guitar that is unique and feels like “yours” but a luthier works with raw materials and can replicate their work consistently from project to project.
Swapping pickups or changing tuners is child’s play to a luthier.
You don’t ask an enthusiast or hobbyist to do a luthier’s work. There’s a reason all those build kits come with all the same pieces (pre-assembled, fully fretted necks, pre-routed bodies, generic pickups with the simplest of wiring schematics (if they haven’t ditched the wiring all together for an unbelievably low quality quick connect setup)) and the reason isn’t because it’s what’s most cost effective to sell.
Quality raw materials can usually be had for the equivalent of what a decent kit would cost. The thing is that those kits are marketed for the average consumer who wouldn’t know where to begin cutting a channel in quarter-saw maple for a trussrod.
A kit can be great and you may end up with an instrument that sounds decent and plays beautifully. There’s nothing wrong with that. When I was being taught we used kits all the time to practice craftsmanship and to use as examples on what to do and not to do.
On the other hand, after you have some experience you learn that luthier schools acquire these kits for students simply because they’re considered disposable.
At the end of the day, you know what you’re capable of and the categories here are self-explanatory whether the hobbyist/enthusiast crowd wants to admit it to themselves or not. Swapping pre-existing parts for new ones is an UPGRADE.
A MOD would be something like replacing your standard Strat neck with a Warmoth Baritone Conversion neck or Re-routing a body to accommodate a different bridge system.
Swapping passive pickups for active pickups is somewhere in between.
Reshaping the back of a neck to a more comfortable (subjective) profile, replacing fret markers/side dots, or scalloping frets, while intensive, are CUSTOMIZATIONS.
Taking raw materials and working those materials to be used in the crafting of an instrument is BUILDING. The basis of what a luthier does. (This doesn’t even factor in the whole aspect of actually designing a guitar which is a whole separate thing that a luthier should have mastered).
Ordering a kit and putting it together is ASSEMBLING. It’s nothing new. It’s not something from nothing.
Is there a market for that? Absolutely.
Just like there is a market for HandCrafted Solid Oak furniture. But buying a kit is the equivalent of buying a guitar from IKEA. Some ASSEMBLY required.
/end rant
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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