Since then all of my publicity has been through word of mouth, or through the yearly Buyer's Guide. Demand has been fairly stable as I've raised prices to bring my income above minimum wage. I have low overhead and no advertising budget to keep my costs to a minimum. I sometimes complain that building custom instruments is a thankless job. There never seems to be enough money in the Pop music world to pay for really beautiful, hand made instruments.
Few people are able to justify buying an instrument that takes a month to build.
I've come to enjoy this aspect of running a small business because I get to do mostly what I want while I keep learning new things everyday. I've tried to continue my music, as playing live in a band is the best proving ground for new ideas and the refinement of old ones. Unfortunately my traveling forces me to move in and out of bands all too frequently as they become viable and need a commitment of time and touring. This jumping around has helped broaden my musical horizons at some expense to depth of experience. Recently, I've taken up the double bass, a herculean task, rich in rewards.