Mule

Answer the big questions first.  The main problem I encountered as a beginning luthier, and the mistake I see being made over and over again by beginning luthiers, is they forget to answer the big questions first. The excitement that comes with knowing you can make things is overwhelming. So you want to make everything.  You throw down lines on paper, call the guitar shape your own and start making them.  Problem is, it's not a great design and nobody wants it but you don't care its YOURS. THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU. It really isn't. There's many means that you make it about you . Pricing, design, language used in descriptions, entitlement. I know it's true because I've done all those things.  But you are not the point. There is a bigger question. The big question is, "What's my job as a guitar maker?" My answer, for what that's worth, is "to be inspiring, part of the story, and transparent."  The guitar being made is just the beginning. Then it goes into the world as part of someone else's story, inspires them, and hopefully your guitar isn't in their way.   People expect  guitars to look a certain way by now - Martins, Fenders, Gibsons- they are no longer brand names, they are 'guitars'.  Violin makers dont put horns or flat spots or curvy spots where they shouldn't be.  They work in the context of a traditionally accepted design.  They lengthen, shorten, arch.... that is their transparent signature.  Their creativity and signature is almost - almost- behind the scenes. It isn't there unless you're looking for it, and if you are, you're pleased when you find it. Then it disappears and the tool does it's job. Be transparent.