Livio Baldelli became a luthier for guitars and basses in Paris during the first confinement: a rarity for a profession that has suffered greatly from the health crisis. But for him, the Covid-19 has been a boon, thanks to a slight transformation of his new job, which allows him to make a living from it. Portrait.
” Me, I’m not in manufacturing, I only work on sick instruments, so for now, I don’t need to have a big room explains Livio Baldelli, his head bent over an electric guitar, his precise hand filing a fret on the neck. In the background, he listens to a guitar solo. Unlike the vast majority of luthiers, the craftsman does not have a shop with a storefront. He works from home, in a small apartment in the south of Paris.
And for good reason, he invented his own concept in favor of confinement: luthier at home, or more precisely “guitar tech”. He picks up guitars and basses from individuals at their homes, takes them home, works on them and leaves to drop them off at the homes of his customers once the repairs have been made.
A radical step aside
” Before confinement, I was a nightclub manager. But at 39, finishing at 7 a.m. every day is complicated “Recalls Livio, a large white T-shirt, thick beard. When his father’s music store, where he spent his childhood, went bankrupt in Nogent-sur-Marne more than ten years ago, he decided to put aside his violin-making apprenticeship and work in bars. . A decision driven in part by the music: “ I went from bars to clubs with my guitar to earn some money. One evening, I saw bartenders who seemed to have fun, I joined their team […] I never gave up on the job. No more violin making, Livio lives at night, has a series of staggered hours, works a lot. He is well paid but, in a corner of his head, he keeps his love for music and violin making. ” We’re not going to lie to each other, there’s a nobler side to being a luthier than to being in the world of the night “, gently mocks the former bartender.
Containment, a boon
It was during the first confinement, when the luthiers closed one by one and the bars and nightclubs lowered the curtain, that the desire for violin making reappeared: ” Like everyone else, we rest, we have web aperitifs. And at some point, we get bored… and we think of projects. »
Suddenly, there is no longer any question for him of returning to the world of the night. He no longer has the strength. It is his partner who pushes him to become a luthier, and above all a favorable context. The craftsman recalls: Online sales of musical instruments jumped 30%. People found their old instruments, started playing again. And the guitars were not always in good condition! »
” Me, I say thank you the Covid! »
Problem: violin shops are closed, some luthiers have gone out of business and can no longer work. The profession is considered non-essential, as a whole part of craftsmanship and culture. Livio starts all the same, but by slightly transforming the trade. He becomes self-employed, declares to work from home as a luthier, which allows him to have exemptions to move freely. ” My partner was certain that my concept would work. I listened to it, and I did well : I say thank you the Covid! »
A concept that works
He launched his site thanks to a friend, the comments on Google fell one by one and, little by little, he made his clientele even if, in the beginning, it was a bit complicated. ” People were not very reassured to leave me their guitars when I was not rated by many Internet users “, he confides. Today, the hundred comments on Google is outdated, people are gaining confidence and no longer hesitate to entrust their jewelery to him – some of the guitars he repairs cost several thousand euros – and the craftsman is finally making a living from his heartfelt profession.
Livio Baldelli has thus become a luthier at home, in every sense of the word. He picks up guitars and basses from his customers’ homes, works at home in a small room of eight square meters. Today, it is even sometimes customers who come directly to him to drop off their instruments. ” At first, I was not very comfortable with opening my door, but finally people like it a lot, it feels warmer. I’m cool, they’re cool, everyone’s cool “, he describes, laughing. Thirty guitars are waiting in his living room and his small room-workshop, and the wait is getting longer: ” I have them everywhere. Now I have a month minimum lead time. »
In the long term, Livio Baldelli would like to go further: continue to visit music players in distress, recover their instruments. sick “, while having a small shop with a storefront and being able to train young people in violin making, if the context allows it.
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