luthier workshop's this summer?

[TrailBoundCo]

Hey guys,

Lately i've been really into woodworking and have experimented with making a#couple of simple mountain banjos as well. I'm hoping to find a 2-4 week class this summer around building a guitar, mandolin, violin, banjo ect. I'm really just trying to better understand tone wood and similar luthier topics so any instrument would be fine.#

I live in Santa Cruz, Ca but am open to traveling around the country (or out of the country) if the class or location sounded inspiring!
It would be a bonus if I could find a class that was in a location where the tone wood was harvested locally like this video of Ron Sharp in Virginia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_s9b3VZyig (haven’t been able to find Ron’s contact info).


Let me know if you know of anything or have thoughts of where to look.

thanks,
-chris

[TrailBoundCo]

I was really excited www.vermontinstruments.com 4 week class, as it was in a beautiful place and housing was included but that's all filled up till next year.

Also had my eye on siminoff.net/luthierie-camp 5 days seems short for an instrument build, but who knows!

[delsbrother]

Uh, isn't Santa Cruz full of luthiers?

[Scott Tichenor]

Roger Siminoff hosts a series of luthier workshops year round in California which might be your best bet:
http://siminoff.net/luthierie-camp/

Don Kawalek also has a luthier camp but the the last one just happened in March: http://holidaylake4h.com/banjmand.php

Both are forum members. There may other camps others can share with you.

[jwpope]

Try North Bennet Street School in Boston.

[Michael Lewis]

It sounds like you're itching to get started. You can do this by yourself if you have any mechanical aptitude, as there is a wealth of free information available. Do you have wood working tools and know how to use and maintain them? That is where to start. If you have some shop skills then get a kit and put it together. By the time you get done with it you will have a good idea of how to proceed with raw materials to make an instrument. It's not rocket science, but it IS work, and it won't do it by itself.

There are several books that will help you get through the "difficult" areas, and there are web sites where you can ask advice and help, like this one.

[TrailBoundCo]

Uh, isn't Santa Cruz full of luthiers?

Yes, I haven't seen any public classes in my research, other than two luthiers listed on luth.org (not sure how old that is) i've emailed them to see if they would still be able to setup a class.

If you know anyone in specific to reach out to let me know!

[TrailBoundCo]

It sounds like you're itching to get started. You can do this by yourself if you have any mechanical aptitude, as there is a wealth of free information available. Do you have wood working tools and know how to use and maintain them? That is where to start. If you have some shop skills then get a kit and put it together. By the time you get done with it you will have a good idea of how to proceed with raw materials to make an instrument. It's not rocket science, but it IS work, and it won't do it by itself.

There are several books that will help you get through the "difficult" areas, and there are web sites where you can ask advice and help, like this one.

Indeed I am! Work is going to be slow next month so trying to take advantage of that and get into a workshop but it's proving to be hard as most are booked till next year!

I've spent the last year slowly accumulating hand tools, learning to work with various types of wood to understand their properties and learning sharpening but i'm ready to get into another bigger project. I hadn't considered a kit but that may be a starting point. Confident in being able to do all the neck work (and that's the part i look forward to most) the thin body/bending/sound board is what's intimidating to me and feel that having 1 on 1 guidance here would be best. But thinking about it, having the experience of trying to figure it out on my own would make a class that i took later down the the line better as I would have a number of questions ready for the instructor.

I think one thing I was looking to take out of the class was to get an understanding of the tools i need, don't really need and could make myself. Seems like theres a number of specialized tools but I have yet to research them.

[Perry Babasin]

So Roger Siminoff is pretty close to you, he has been building for quite a while, had a lot to do with Gibson stepping up it's game in recent years (relatively speaking). I think he still owns Lloyd Loar's personal F5 and has studied it carefully to devise his plans and techniques. If you are able to come on Father's Day weekend there is a Bluegrass festival in Grass Valley (near Tahoe) and Roger and several other builders are going to be there with examples of their work. You could talk to the man himself. I think another builder, Steve Sorensen is going to be there too.

http://siminoff.net/luthierie-camp/

The camp might seem short because I believe you start with a rough kit and work through the graduation of the plates and construction. You don't start with a hunk of wood. I've thought a kit would be a good place to start for a first build...

[TrailBoundCo]

So Roger Siminoff is pretty close to you, he has been building for quite a while, had a lot to do with Gibson stepping up it's game in recent years (relatively speaking). I think he still owns Lloyd Loar's personal F5 and has studied it carefully to devise his plans and techniques. If you are able to come on Father's Day weekend there is a Bluegrass festival in Grass Valley (near Tahoe) and Roger and several other builders are going to be there with examples of their work. You could talk to the man himself. I think another builder, Steve Sorensen is going to be there too.

http://siminoff.net/luthierie-camp/

The camp might seem short because I believe you start with a rough kit and work through the graduation of the plates and construction. You don't start with a hunk of wood. I've thought a kit would be a good place to start for a first build...

Thank you perry, I have been looking into siminoff camp and would be a bonus being so close. good call on the grass valley festival as well. Been wanting to check that out.

[TrailBoundCo]

I found a course for archtop building a week from now that I think I may check out (as many of the courses i've seen coming up are booked)

http://americanarchtop.com/pages/naz...itar-institute