I'm leaving school in June and I haven't sorted out a college yet but I've decided that i'd like to repair guitar and amplifiers for a living.
How would i go about doing this and what courses would i need to do?
And also, i have played guitar for nearly 5 years, i'm probably going to get a C or B in music, my other grades are in the C's and D's area, and i didn't do electonics.
You're actually looking at two different fields, an electronics tech and a luthier.
If you want to work on guitars (other than the electronics), there are some luthier training seminars. However, for the most part that industry is still an apprentice-based one. In other words, you're going to have to find someone that's already established to take you one (for little or no money), and show you the business. To really be successful in that biz, you've got to be part electronics tech, part wood craftsman, and part artist.
Every luthier has his own way of doing things, and all of them excel at different specialties.
I do my own setups fret work, and electronics work on my electric guitars. However, I don't do finishes, so I've got one guy I like for that. I've got another guy that's a wizard with Ovation acoustic guitars, and other that I'll use for extensive neck work on my older Gibsons.
It takes a long time to get established in that field.
Amp repair is a little more structured. If you came out of school with an Associates in Applied Science in electronics, you would actually be ahead of a lot of guys out there. There's still the "build your reputation" thing you have to go through, and it helps to get hired on with a shop that specializes in that kind of work, but it's a more defined career path.
My background is in broadcast engineering. I started out repairing amps and doing guitar mods for friends about 30 years ago. Since moving to Austin about 10 years, that's blossomed into a pretty good side business. I'm one of the few guys in the area that can work on the newer modeling amps as well as old Fenders and Marshalls. I've kind of got a reputation for getting an amp ready to tour, in that I've learned what's going to break first when you start trucking equipment around, and I'll beef that up.
I'm also doing system integration for effects systems. It looks like the big racks of the 80's are about to return, and that would be good for my biz!
In some ways, making it in the music repair business isn't a whole lot different than making it in a band…just less groupies to contend with.
Good luck.
Greetings from Austin, TX
Ken