Official Luthiers Forum!

A number of you have asked us to schedule additional classes for our offerings "Fretting Class" and "Set-Up For Builders" so in the words of the great Mick Jagger...... so we did!

You can find descriptions of the classes, prices, dates, etc. here: http://www.annarborguitars.com/styled-6/index.html

To book your seat please call us at the shop at 734 332-6142 when we are open, M - F, 10 - 6 or PM me here on the good, ole OLF.

Many thanks!

PS: We donate a percentage of all class proceeds to Lance and the OLF and are happy to do so!

Bob I. it was great talking with you yesterday and everything went though just fine.

You are all set for the February 20th "Set-up For Builders" class and it should be a great time too!

UPDATE:

Guys here is the class schedule and who is in which class and who paid deposits as well so far. Please make sure I have you listed accurately in all respects and let me know if I don't?

John R. everything went through fine, many thanks.

Bob I. did your box arrive?

Feb 19, 2016
Fretting Class
4 seats available

Feb 20th, 2016
Set-Up For Builders
Steve D. deposit received
Bob I. deposit received
John R. deposit received
one seat left

April 30, 2016
Fretting Class
Greg deposit received
Steve Smith deposit received
Alex deposit received
Bill N. deposit received
class is fully booked

May 1st, 2016
Set-Up For Builders
Greg
Steve Smith deposit received
Bill N. deposit received
one seat left

Folks there are some seats left feel free to contact me if you are interested.

TIA

For those of you thinking about the fretting course, it's worth every penny.

And if that makes me a shill for Dave and Hesh, so be it

Joking aside, if anyone has any questions, email or pm me. Stevedenvir (at) gmail.com

Steve

Many thanks Steve!! I'm just glad that so far everyone seems to be in the right class as per the previous post above. I never knew that I would one day be the Registrar for our class offerings....

Even though you told me to stop being so complimentary about the work that I watched you do while you were here in Ann Arbor...... You did a GREAT job my friend!!!! Sorry, it's my nature.....

Was asked this morning what tools folks should have for the set-up class.

The gauged nut files from Stew-Mac in the six sizes that you will likely use the most for the strings that you build for or like is definitely recommended. Any other tools we will post as well but we are also trying to make the class requirements on the light side in terms of tool prerequisites. We also like for folks to try things out that we already have before you decide if you want to invest in the tools.

More to come.

UPDATE:

The February 20th, 2016 Set-Up For Builders class is now fully booked. There are other seats available in both the Fretting and Set-Up classes.

Thanks!


Feb 19, 2016
Fretting Class
4 seats available

Feb 20th, 2016
Set-Up For Builders
Steve D. deposit received
Bob I. deposit received
John R. deposit received
Steve W.

April 30, 2016
Fretting Class
Greg deposit received
Steve Smith deposit received
Alex deposit received
Bill N. deposit received
class is fully booked

May 1st, 2016
Set-Up For Builders
Greg
Steve Smith deposit received
Bill N. deposit received
one seat left

Folks there are some seats left feel free to contact me if you are interested.

Greg buddy thanks for calling this morning and you are all set for the set-up class on May 1st, 2016.

.

Steve W. you are all set and we thank you kindly too! See you in class!

UPDATED CLASS SCHEDULE AND AVAILABILITY:


Feb 19, 2016
Fretting Class
4 seats available

Feb 20th, 2016
Set-Up For Builders
Steve D. deposit received
Bob I. deposit received
John R. deposit received
Steve W. deposit received
class is full

April 30, 2016
Fretting Class
Greg deposit received
Steve Smith deposit received
Alex deposit received
Bill N. deposit received
class is fully booked

May 1st, 2016
Set-Up For Builders
Greg deposit received
Steve Smith deposit received
Bill N. deposit received
one seat left

Folks there are some seats left feel free to contact me if you are interested.

Hey Hesh, for the setup class, what level of finish do you need for the guitars? Nut installed, but no slots? Saddle installed with lots of room to be lowered?

Thanks

Steve

Hey Steve! What would be optimal for everyone is to have the neck installed, the instrument fretted, the bridge glued on and the tuners installed.

In the class we are going to make the nut and talk about all things nuts too such as some of the producers who finish the instrument with the nut in place i.e. Martin, G*bson, etc.

We are also going to demonstrate how we glue bridged on but since the class is only one day the mules that you guys brings should have the bridge already glued in place.

Next will be making saddles and compensation and of course for nuts and saddles it's always bone for us so it will be for you guys too if you wish.

Then all of these things come together to learn about set-up, industry specs, how to do the set-up in a sequential method that produces very high quality set-ups, easily and with NO trial and error or guess work. It's the very same method that we have used on thousands of guitars belonging to paying clients.

When the class is over students will be able to do professional quality set-ups with ease.

QUESTION: For the guys who were in the last class several weeks ago that stayed at the Sheraton I've been asked to see if you had a good experience there and if we should recommend this hotel. If you stayed somewhere else please leave a note of where and if you would recommend that place too?

Many thanks!

The Sheraton was fine. Good, generic hotel. Nice bar, good kitchen.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I used to work next door to the Sheraton when I was way... younger and after work would go to the bar there. They had a piano player who was a friend of mine and he knew I loved Sara Vaughn so when ever I entered that bar he would stop playing what ever he was playing and start playing "Send in the Clowns...."

Other than our own set of JAWS what will we need for the fretting and set-up classes? I have the basic set of eight nut files and just filled in the gaps with seven more....

Hey Greg I'll get back to you later today with answers, working on a 30's archie on a deadline....

OK thanks for your patience.

For the set-up class we would like you to have and bring the stew-Mac gauged nut files, the ones with two sides but the same gauge on either side. Probably a good idea to buy the six sizes that would more closely match your preference of string gauges too. More specifically if you always build for or use mediums get the files that will work with mediums and the same holds true if lights are the preference.

If you have some small files for working with saddles and shaping nuts, etc. bring these too or we likely have enough to go around too.

Of course bring a guitar to work on too, Bob I's is already here.

That's about it and everything else will be provided for your use including bone blanks for saddles and nuts.

If you are taking the fretting class the day before in the set-up class we will be making the nuts and saddles and learning how to set-up the guitar to play perfectly! You will leave the set-up class with a completely and precisely set-up guitar.

If you are not taking the fretting class you will leave with a guitar set-up as perfectly as the existing fret work permits.

Most importantly you will know how to do great set-ups going forward!

UPDATE:

Folks all of our classes that are on the schedule are now fully booked and many thanks to our students, past and future. We will be putting up new offerings in the future so please stay tuned.

Regarding the "Business of Lutherie" or the soft probe that I ran last week asking for interest levels of those who have interest in how to run a successful Lutherie business we are still keen to make this offering. We are also keen to customize the offering around the individual needs of our students. Again this is NOT your standard fare business class this is custom tailored and laser focused on opening and running a successful Lutherie business.

As such if you have interest in the "Business of Lutherie" please contact me and we can see what might work for all concerned.

lastly for now since there are two of us the new news is that we will create a class meeting your schedule on any week day provided that you have at least two folks for the class. We've noticed that we have some friends taking our classes at the very same time so this is in response to that. If you can get yourself and one other interested in a class on a week day we are happy to work with you to make this happen.

Thanks again for your interest.