Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone,
I am in trouble. I am doing a project for my school (east providence high school) in Rhode Island. I need to find a mentor to work with for 15 hours. Someone to just show me how creating a guitar or other stringed instrument is done. I was wondering if anyone at all could help me out in any way i would greatly appreciate it. Even if you could just point me in the right direction. Thanks

Try the New England Luthiers group. There is a meeting coming up on December 14th. Check out the website http://www.newenglandluthiers.org

You may be hard pressed to find someone able to show you the steps in 15 hours because it takes many more hours and a lot of it is stages require set-up time between them. A factory tour at Martin would give a good overview. 15 hours of tutalage is not near enouth to show the hows and whys and it would be 15 hours away from thier build schedules. There is on the other hand many publications that step you throught the process and would give more infor than 15 hours with a luthier will render. Go to Sewmac.com and look under books

Now I am not saying at all that one of us or many of us would not be glad to help where we can. As for myself I would be glad to help by phone and email but I am too far for a personal visit. PM me if you wish.

I think what this student is looking for is someone willing to spend 15 total hours helping them as a mentor. So perhaps an hour at a time across 15 weeks or something like that. So I'd go with the New England Luthiers and see if someone there might be interested in helping out. If that's not the case, then I'm with the Michael, you need to seek another method.

What a bunch of scrooges! Yes, what yon grasshopper is asking is quite a challenge, but I watched the show on "How things are Made" and they managed it in 15 minutes.

I would be glad to contribute grashooper, but you have to be willing to multiply said 15 hours of tutalage by at least a factor of 4 (or so) with personal research to make your project come off. Hey all of you, this is not a thesis! Lets answer some questions, point him to some resources and then let him publish his paper HERE.

Don't forget the multiplier effect of the board either. So, Joe, ask away. And credit not a person, but the ever helpful OLF board.

Suggestion: If you answer a question of Joe's, post the time it took you to do it. When the times add up to 15 hours (on DIFFERENT subjects, and he gets to pick the answer on a particular subject that he likes best), then we are done.

Mike

Could you clarify please? Are you looking to work with someone in person, or on line?

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Aoibeann

I talked with the senior project committee and they said it should be in person.. I know how difficult it is for a lot of busy people because of all the "no" answers i have recieved. I was thinking that a creative way to get around this would be to have some sort of "video meetings" where i could send i video to you you send one back with maybe you just workin on a guitar or something like that, then i would send a video back with a question etc. although this is not directly personal it is a way to get around actually personally meeting someone. Setting up a camera (as long as you have one) can take only minutes and sending the video wouldnt be hard either.

You might be interested in a video tutorial. I started with Robert O'brien's DVD

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Videos%2C+DVD%27s%2C+CD%27s&NameProdHeader=Build+a+Guitar+with+Robert+O%92Brien

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Ron

You didn't tell us what kind of guitar you were interested in building. That aside, David Schramm is the only online apprentice program I know of. He builds classical guitars.

Sylvan Wells has just moved up to Massachusetts. He has going to be having a ten day course real soon. Check it out. http://www.wellsguitars.com/In_The_Shop ... rkshop.htm

If the tuition is too steep, you might want to contact Cumpiano Guitars http://www.cumpiano.com and The Leeds Guitarmakers' School http://www.leedsguitar.com. Both are in Massachusettsl. I don't know the feasibility of being able to work with them either, but they might be able to point you to a former student who might be willing to help you out.

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Aoibeann