Originally Posted By: bobcflatpicker
...But only a fool or someone who’s totally ignorant of what the term actually means would call me a “luthier”.

That same principle applies to anyone who would call a DJ a “musician”.


However...probably a large majority of the population, 60,70 maybe 80% (90%? ah, I'm trying to be generous) are fools and ignorant when it comes to this subject and a population base that large gets to make the rules as far as cultural perception goes.

Again, my posts here are not agreeing with this definition or advocating it, I'm simply saying it is what it is.

What we're talking about is gradually getting pushed into higher and higher levels of academia and it's becoming less and less prevalent in the general population. Your point is a very good one, how many people including casual musicians would know the difference between you and a luthier? "Good ole Bob over there has been building guitars since the 60's, he's a heckuva of a whattyacallit, a luthier".

This same subject was discussed on a piano forum talking about how many piano stores are closing and the extreme slowdown in new piano sales. Same principle. Pianos require expert craftsmanship too and with the advent of cheap little keyboards being sold everywhere nobody is willing to pay that price so it too is becoming a very exclusive art only for the very rich. People think their kid who's playing a $100 Casio is a "musician" or keyboard player or worse yet he's playing a $100 controller through his iPad playing all sorts of crappy screeching, thumping stuff and mommy walks around thinking her kid is making music.

This stuff is beyond huge in the marketplace, just Google some iPad interfaces and synths and then listen to the demos. This is the generation of "musicians" that's coming up behind us.

Bob

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