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Review: How to Make a Living Doing Something Crazy — Like Making Guitars by Kent Carlos Everett

Review: How to Make a Living Doing Something Crazy — Like Making Guitars by Kent Carlos Everett

Reviewed by John Calkin

Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010



How to Make a Living Doing Something Crazy — Like Making Guitars
Kent Carlos Everett
$9.75 from www.everettguitars.com

Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of guitarists who admire fine instruments and seem to know all about them, have a fantasy life where they are a luthier. Their fantasy days slip slowly by as they sit quietly at their bench, engrossed in the pleasant task of rendering expensive wood into the most exquisite guitars the world has seen. Their favorite artists fill the background with wonderful music as they pause to admire a favorite lick and wonder oh-so-briefly what the lesser unfortunate members of humanity might be doing at that very moment. Their life is full and peaceful and maybe even prosperous.

I’ve come to believe that their fantasy is the real foundation of our New Golden Age of Lutherie, and that without it luthiers would be groveling for a living in some miserable cubicle in the ever-expanding megalopolis that houses American commerce. The next time a customer or friend is envious of your lifestyle just nod knowingly and tell them you entirely understand.

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