Luthier

Musicians play music. As a Luthier, however, you make it — literally — as it’s your job to build and repair stringed instruments, including both plucked or strummed instruments, such as acoustic guitars, dulcimers, banjos, ukuleles, and mandolins, and instruments that are played with a bow, such as violins, violas, and cellos.

Although many modern musical instruments are mass-produced in factories on automated assembly lines, as a Luthier, you’re a Craftsman who’s committed to continuing the age-old art of making handmade stringed instruments. You might do it as a part-time hobby or as a full-time profession, but either way, when your a Luthier, you’re equal parts Artist and Technician, paid by your clients to create one-of-a-kind products that look amazing and sound beautiful.

To do exactly that, you’ve got to be a master Woodworker, as the process of building a stringed instrument includes — as it did in the 16th century — carving, assembling, staining, and stringing pieces of wood, which are adorned with metal and plastic pieces, many of which are similarly molded and fabricated by hand in order to create headstocks, fingerboards, bodies, frets, and all the other components of a stringed instrument.

In addition to making new instruments, you’re often hired to repair or revitalize old ones. For instance, you can repair a smashed guitar by cleaning, sealing, patching, and refinishing a hole in the back of it. Similarly, you can adjust or replace the parts of an instrument — a violin, for instance, or a cello — that have been worn out due to age or environmental factors. The result: an antique instrument that looks and plays like it’s brand new.