More Than A Maker

Reflecting on the experience of lockdown, Alex Bishop muses on the difficulties of ‘making it’ as a luthier in 2020

- Alex Bishop

The time has come, at long last. Musician friends in my social media feed this week are announcing their first real outdoor gigs since March, welcome news for us all who have been otherwise confined to our laptops and tablets for live-stream videos and awkward socially distanced music videos. The slow reemergence of the music industry has had me reflecting on my position in it as a guitar maker and the unique challenges facing us musical creatives in these peculiar times.

For the most part, independent guitar making is a pretty resilient business by virtue of the fact that many of us work in relative solitude. Daily life as a guitar maker demands that you find your own company preferable to the office politics and banter that accompanies most workspaces, so the early part of lockdown actually had minimal impact. If anything, much like my fellow musicians it allowed me to delve a bit deeper into the creative side of my work, finishing side projects and learning new skills.