A Case Study of the Craft-Made Guitar Industry in the Global Economy
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ DEMYSTIFYING THE CRAFT PRODUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF THE CRAFT-MADE GUITAR INDUSTRY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in SOCIOLOGY by Yi-Chen Liu June 2021 The Dissertation of Yi-Chen Liu is approved: ______________________________________ Professor Steven McKay, chair _______________________________________ Professor Hiroshi Fukurai _______________________________________ Professor Lisbeth Haas ___________________________________ Quentin Williams Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents.........................................................................................................iii List of Figures................................................................................................................v Abstract.......................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgments......................................................................................................viii Chapter One: Why Are Craft-made Guitars So Expensive?........................................1 Chapter Two: How Can a Luthier Create a Value for a Guitar? The Explanations from Political-Economic and Cultural Perspectives...........................................................14 Chapter Three: Case Studies and Methodology. .......................................................38 Chapter Four: Invention of Tradition and Invention against Tradition......................56 Chapter Five: How Does the Ladder towards Luthiers Work: A Case Study of Hippie Town in California....................................................................................................127 Chapter Six: The Variants of the Ladder towards Luthiers in Japan: Hamamatsu Model and Nagano Model........................................................................................191 Chapter Seven: The Global Mobility of the Craft Skills in Taiwan.........................228 Chapter Eight: Guitar Makers and Chinese Economic Reform................................257 Chapter Nine: Gender Inequality in the Craft-made Industry..................................283 Chapter Ten: Towards the Sociology of Slowdown................................................310 References................................................................................................................328 iii Appendix I Fender’s Timeline..................................................................................337 Appendix II Taylor’s Timeline.................................................................................353 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Vintage Electric Market Share, 2016..........................................................41 Figure 2: Lawsuit Guitars Made by Japanese Copyist..........................................71-72 Figure 3: The Body of a “Relic” Fender Stratocaster.................................................80 Figure 4: The Guitar-Making Industry Networks in Hippie Town...........................128 Figure 5 Plek Station, a CNC machine at HT1-1’s guitar shop in Hippie Town, California...................................................................................................................139 Figure 6: Fender Custom Shop’s Specification Order Form..............................141-143 Figure 7: The publicity photo of Fang Wu and her HT1-1’s guitar..........................147 Figure 8: A female worker at MMI Guitars is finishing a guitar by using shellac…166 Figure 9: A female worker is finishing a guitar by using shellac.............................167 Figure 10: The Diagram of Fender P Bass (1) .........................................................175 Figure 11: The Diagram of Fender P Bass (2) .........................................................176 Figure 12: Job Opportunity Email to Students from MI’s Guitar Craft Program’s Director..............................................................................................................182-183 Figure 13: The Ladder towards Luthier in the Guitar-Making Industrial Networks in Hippie Town….........................................................................................................190 Figure 14: Piano Manufacturers in Hamamatsu in 1957..........................................194 Figure 15: Piano Manufacturers in Hamamatsu in 2014..........................................194 Figure 16: HG’s Silver Star......................................................................................198 v Figure 17: SEB Construction invented by HG Instruments Company.....................201 Figure 18: HG’s Talbo Guitar..................................................................................202 Figure 19: A-Tsing (right), A Taiwanese Guitar Player, and His HG Custom-Ordered Guitar. We can Clearly see the Talbo metal body and the custom-ordered blue LED lights on the fingerboard and pickguard...................................................................205 Figure 20: The logo of Elger on the headstock........................................................216 Figure 21: Elger guitar built by Hoshino.................................................................217 Figure 22: The Architecture of a single-coil pickup...............................................286 Figure 23: A Fender Stratocaster’s single-coil pickup............................................287 Figure 24: An Installed Pickup on a Fender Stratocaster and its six strings separately suspended above the pole pieces of the pickups.....................................................287 Figure 25: A Pickup Winding Machine..................................................................288 Figure 26: The pickups wound by Josefina Campos and the certificate authenticity with her signature...................................................................................................290 Figure 27: The pickups wound by Abigail Ybarra and the certificate authenticity with her signature...........................................................................................................291 vi ABSTRACT Demystifying the Craft Production: A Case Study of the Craft-Made Guitar Industry in the Global Economy Yi-Chen Liu Despite the rise of social studies to address craft economy or production in modern society, how the value can be added to a craft-made product is poorly explained. By exploring the global context of the guitar-making industry in the 1960s and interviewing guitar makers in four different countries, in this dissertation, I argue that the rise of the craft-made guitar industry since the 1980s resulted from the invented tradition of "vintage" and the dependence on advanced technology. Additionally, by exploring various guitar builders' life stories, labor processes, and business networks, I create a concept, the ladder towards luthiers, to describe how an inexperienced apprentice may become an independent luthier in a hierarchical structure in the industry. Furthermore, I argue that the traditional definition of craft overvalues male luthiers' role in adding value to a craft-made guitar and overlooks female workers' contributions in the craft industry. In order to highlight different actors' contributions in the craft industry, we need a new definition of craft to help consumers understand that the value of a craft product is also made in a social process rather than by an independent luthier. Finally, this study also sheds light on the relationship between craft production and mass production and figures out that the rise of craft production could reflect a reskilling process of industrial capitalism rather than the opposite of the deskilled mass production. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I truly believe that I would not have been able to complete this dissertation without the support of many people, including faculty members, friends, and interviewees who generously offered me all resources I needed. I first have to thank Ben Crow for being the chairperson of the qualify exam in 2017. The most important lesson I learned from you is the personality of a good teacher: always open your door and support students. I miss you, Ben. I also want to thank my advisor, Steven McKay, who helped me refine the research question, strengthen the arguments, and organize the dissertation. Thank you to Hiroshi Fukurai and Lisbeth Haas, who served on my dissertation and qualify exam. Your encouragements and suggestions are always helpful and educational. Thank you to Hiroshi Fukurai, Miriam Greenberg, James Doucet-Battle, Megan Mcdrew, and Shun-Nan Chiang. Working with you gave me chances to practice teaching skills. My colleagues have also given me unlimited supports in different ways, including the coursework, master paper, qualify exam, fieldwork, TA skills, and dissertation. Thank you, Shun-Nan Chiang, Megan Alpine, Julian Rodriguez. You’re the best cohort and help me go through the coursework in the first two years. I am also grateful for all support I’ve got from Barbara. Thank you for sharing with me all information you know and helping me engage in this community. Thank you. viii Outside of the campus, I have to thank all people who support my research in this 7-year journey. I want first to thank you for the scholarship from the Taiwanese Government. The three-year funding gave me a chance to reach my goal in the United States. Besides, I want to thank all interviewees