CONFESSIONS OF A LUTHIER ...
Twice a year, I run guitar-making courses designed to satisfy the demands of students who wish to experience building an acoustic guitar from start to finish in just three weeks. Given that my processes are predominantly hand-tool led – carving with chisels and smoothing with planes in favour of shaping with routers and power sanders – it’s an intensive lutherie experience that aims to leave my students with a six-string as good as any high-end guitar they might buy from the shops, all the while revelling in the magic and mystery of a master luthier’s workshop. No pressure there, then…
It’s easy enough for the students to turn up on day one. But it’s become necessary for me to spend a week preparing the workshop in order to be ready for this guitar-making spectacle. This is where I find myself at the start of this month, carefully organising piles of tonewood to be prepped for three different guitars: an OM, a dreadnought, and a Gypsy jazz guitar.