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#1
02-26-2011, 07:32 PM
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Lutherie course
Hi everyone,
I am a new member but I have been lurking around here for a while. I am considering doing this course in June http://www.guitarmaking.com.au/. I live on the Gold Coast in Australia and this place is only a 20 minute drive from my house and I have the green light from my wife. My main aim if I decided to go ahead would be to find out if guitar making could be something I could take up as a hobby and possibly find a passion for. Also it seems like a good way to jump start my skills as I don't have a lot of word working experience. I wonder if some of the more learned members here would be able to offer me some of their impressions of this course. Do you think this looks worthwhile? Do their techniques look effective and up to date? Any impressions or advice would be very much appreciated. BB 
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#2
02-26-2011, 09:46 PM
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Hands-on is always better than books or videos. That said, there aren't a lot of photos on their website showing what they do or how they do it. I was a little disappointed with the student "work benches" shown in one of the photos. They appear to be folding tables, rather than proper woodworking benches.
The hours/per day seem very short to build a guitar in two 6-day weeks. It does say that components are partially completed. More than the one day allotted is needed for finishing. (You'll do the finishing on your own, after the course.) It is probably a little closer to building a kit with some hands-on instruction. It looks like it will give a limited introduction to the craft, which may be sufficient for your interests. It seems very unlikely, given the amount of time, that it will be much beyond a very basic introduction of traditional, rather than cutting-edge, methods. But, one has to start somewhere, and traditional is probably a good place to start. I wasn't particularly impressed by the sound clips on their webpage of their classical guitars. Given that the school is so close to you, you may be able to develop a relationship with them allowing you to get additional help from them after the course is over. You'll have questions about things that were covered, and things that were not, when you get home and try to repeat what you learned or complete what was started at the course. I'd suggest seeing what other courses are offered in Australia, if only for comparison. Compare the one you are considering, for example, with Charles Fox's courses, http://www.americanschooloflutherie.com/. Reading his Select a School may be helpful: http://www.americanschooloflutherie...._a_school.html Last edited by charles Tauber; 02-26-2011 at 09:56 PM.
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#3
02-27-2011, 06:23 AM
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I go both ways on this. I am DVD, internet, book, advise from those who know, taught.
I would love to have someone hold my hand through my first Archtop. If I could justify or afford both I would do it in a heartbeat. But, on my budget do I spend $3K+ for a class and an unfinished guitar. Or do I spend 3K on tools, materials, build DVD's..... Last year I presented my first build. A hybrid of scratch and finished parts (rough neck, bridge....) at a gathering. There were 2 other fellows that had taken a course. My guitar turned out great, so did theirs. Being I redid everything 3 times and knew why I screwed myself up as I redid them. In a way I felt I learned more by doing than being taught the right way first. I don't know if you have build video's produced in Australia. If not, there are a number of great DVD sets available. John Mayes video's are worth every penny. I have not watched other sets. BTW I had minimal woodworking skills in the beginning. Careful, its addictive! Welcome to the Forum!
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#4
02-27-2011, 07:17 AM
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I say... probably not worth it, but depends on how committed you are, and how much of a hurry you're in, and what your tool buying habits are like.
It is well known that building guitars is not a particularly profitable activity, so it's probably smarter to spend that money on wood and tools so you can have more hope of breaking even within the next 5 years  But if you're the type to buy lots of tools (especially the big stationary power tools) and then end up not needing half of them, then the class would be a big advantage to help figure out what to buy.As for commitment, if you're pretty sure you'll want to set up a shop after the class is over, then you might as well skip the class and set up the shop. Access to the tools is a big advantage of such a thing, so if you'll have the tools anyway then that advantage is gone. Expect at least $1000 in tools to get the first one done... still a lot less than the class, and you get to keep them. If you're in a hurry, then the class will definitely help. Although with only two weeks, it's going to be a race against the clock just to get the darn thing put together, even if you don't screw anything up. My first one took 10 months, including shop setup time. That was 4 months ago now, and it's looking like my inlay-heavy second and quickie prototype third will be done in another month or two. I'm always very slow with these kind of things though, and work very carefully and spend a lot of time thinking ahead to make sure I don't make any mistakes. There is plenty of info available for free online or cheap in books like Cumpiano & Natelson's Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology to get you through the first build. So buy that and give it a run-through, to get a better idea which way to go. My feeling is, by the time you've informed yourself enough to decide whether to take the class, you won't need the class.
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#5
02-28-2011, 10:18 AM
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i think it all comes down to whether you are someone who is comfortable learning alone at home or in a classroom environment. the camaraderie of other students learning along with you is a benefit for some people and not needed for others. what works for you in this context? it could be the motivation you need to go totally nuts about guitars!
i did notice that if those tables are their only tables for woodwork they're a bit unstable for serious use other then assembly and i didn't notice any machinery other than a scroll saw. no drill press, no sanders, etc... but they may have additional rooms and areas that aren't pictured. charles tauber has good points in his reply although I couldn't find any sound clips of the classical guitars?. welcome to the forum and good luck! Last edited by arie; 02-28-2011 at 10:25 AM.
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#6
02-28-2011, 12:11 PM
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Quote:
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#7
02-28-2011, 01:09 PM
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#8
03-01-2011, 11:52 PM
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Thank you all so much for the informative posts. It sounds like I need to do as you suggest and research more into the process. It is a valid point that I could possibly buy tools and be on my second build for the price of the 2 week course. It would be very dissapointing to come out at the end and feel that maybe I could have done it alone.
So I guess my next question is, am I better off starting with a kit and then trying for a scratch build for my second guitar?
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#9
03-02-2011, 12:59 AM
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It's hard to say, each of us is different.
I started trying to make guitars while I was in highschool in the late 1970's. At that time, all of the information available was a few books. There were no DVD's, Youtube, internet discussion groups and not so many makers. I wasn't so successful. After graduating from highschool, in 1978 I spent 6 weeks in a course with Charles Fox - there were few courses then to choose from. Each of the students started with designing our own guitars. Everything was made from scratch, no pre-made or partially made components. Each student left with a fully completed instrument. We learned an awful lot, shaving years off of the time it would have taken to learn through self-study/trial and error what was taught in a short time. It was one of the best experiences of my life and included learning new ways to approach things, ways I wouldn't likely have come up with on my own. Now a days, there is an enormous amount of information available - numerous DVD's, lots of books, lots of Youtube video, lots of on-line discussion/consulting, lots of websites... Can you teach yourself? Probably. But, like any other discipline, part of the value of formal education is to accomplish more more quickly than one could by teaching themselves and researching and assembling the information. So part of the question is how fast do you want to get there and how far do you want to go in your craft. For example, if you don't know what a really sharp chisel or plane is like, you'll never get that knowledge from a book or video. Having someone hand you one that is, so that you can inspect it and experience what it is like to use, is immediate, something you won't forget, potentially shaving a lot of time off your learning curve and progressing your craft further, faster. Ditto a cabinet scraper, the light sabre of the hand-crafted guitar maker. And so on for many other skills and ideas.
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#10
03-02-2011, 05:03 AM
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Charles,
Thanks once again for taking the time to share your experience. Its seems I have a lot to think about. I think I might try and visit these guys and get a feel for what it is you get with the course and try and gauge whether it will be worthwhile.
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#11
03-02-2011, 09:54 AM
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one of the biggest things that i discovered that after nearly 30 years of cutting metals of all sorts is that wood is much more demanding in terms of how you approach it. grain direction and runout in regard to how you plane, chisel, bend, glue, and sand it is a important factor. i mean i've delt with wood before, but never with any real precision until i got into acoustic guitar making.
i'd suggest getting some chisels or a plane and a sample box of different wood species and just cutting it. getting a feel for how the wood works and understanding it's behavior is a big step.
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