From Tech to Luthier - Discussion

The subject of this post arose in the recent thread that discusses challenges, which can be found here...

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/115481/is-it-time-for/p1

While that thread's focus was on what the next challenge should be, some of my contributions led to a different idea, one where we could take greater advantage of Making & Modding as a learning resource with a view to encouraging more people to take up guitar building. (This is about modifying and building solid body electric guitars because that seems to form a large part of the activities that are posted about in here. I'm not in a position to propose something relevant to pedals, amps, acoustics, etc, but perhaps these can be addressed by others if a template of sorts becomes established for solid body guitars.)

The purpose of this thread is to discuss this learning resource idea more fully. I'll start with some general observations and comments, followed by a proposal, and then some closing remarks. Feedback and comments from others is more than welcome.

Introduction
Making & Modding is already a good learning resource, due in no small part to the tendency of many of its participants to post detailed accounts of their build activities, not to mention the occasional tutorial focussing on a particular technique or subject. Another very good thing is the general offering of help, tips, etc, whether it's in response to someone asking a specific question, or an unsolicited contribution to a discussion. People give their opinions and advice freely, and we have an excellent culture of sharing knowledge.

There are also the challenges, which tend to have a specific theme and can be attractive because they entail several people working on a broadly similar project over the same period of time. It can be fun to join a shared challenge if it's within your abilities (or you think it is), and fascinating to see the different interpretations and approaches as the builds progress.

The many ad-hoc build threads show what is possible, especially in a small workspace at home, and both these and the challenges encourage people to have a go. For someone who has maybe changed pickups or other components, or sets up and maintains their own guitars, building your own can be very appealing. However, challenges have a time limit (which might already have passed), or the theme might not be to your liking, or you might feel it's too difficult. Build threads can be positively inspirational, but going from pickup swapping to building a whole guitar from scratch can be a big and daunting step.

Proposal
What I propose is a small set of projects that can be undertaken by a beginner who wants to go further than being their own guitar tech. The idea is to have a series of projects that are geared towards developing a set of skills that culminate in being able to build a guitar from scratch. Each step introduces some skills which can be carried through to the later steps. They are also chosen such that the tools required can be relatively minimal at the start, with more being added as each new step is taken on.

Here's a possible list of projects...

• Build a kit guitar, or refinish an existing one.
• Modify a guitar.
• Build a lap steel guitar.
• Build a conventional solid body guitar from scratch.

Build a kit guitar, or refinish an existing one
The main aim is to learn assembly and finishing. Minimal tools required. Can be a refinish if desired. May need some basic woodwork if a kit has a paddle headstock, or pre-drilled holes are in the wrong place, but generally want to avoid big modifications.

Modify a guitar
Take a guitar, new or used, and make some substantial changes to it. Focus is on woodwork, such as shaping headstock, changing body shape or control/pickup cavities, reprofiling neck. Some woodworking tools needed (eg, router for cavities, spokeshaves for neck, etc). Also need to consider workholding.

Build a lap steel guitar
A scratch build without the tricky stuff like making and fitting a neck, fitting frets, or getting bogged down in details like getting the bridge position right for intonation. Emphasis is on design and planning, and taking on some more involved woodwork. May already have suitable tools from previous project.

Build a conventional solid body guitar from scratch
A full build that encapsulates the skills learned in the previous projects, and adds: making the neck and body, fitting the truss rod and frets, taking care with critical geometry like bridge position. Will need some more tools (paticularly for fingerboard and fretting work).

The particular steps are not fixed in stone. I'm also just trying to give a general idea for each without being too detailed or specific. For example, fretwork could have been part of the kit build or modify projects, inlays could have been done on the lap steel, etc. Maybe there's scope to add another project or two that covers this sort of thing. Also don't want to make it too prescriptive - the actual work done, and the end result, should be up to the participant (it's their time and money, and it's up to them to do what they find satisfying).

Further comments
Nobody is expected to become a teacher or tutor. The emphasis is on the participant undertaking some self-learning by reading build and tutorial threads, asking questions, and generally taking advantage of resources on the wider internet, such as YouTube. In other words, contributions from other Fretboard members need not be any different from what they normally are.

This is a forum, the nature of which is that collating information can be awkward - it doesn't have the inherent structure of a normal web site, the content changes constantly, and there is sometimes a need to separate chat from the primary information. I would argue that attempting to build a more formal course, or references to specific information is probably going to be onerous and risks falling by the wayside and becoming out of date.

In other worsd, the idea is to provide some focus and structure for the guitar building beginner, not to create training and admin jobs that need to be filled. To that end, this doesn't need to be much more than perhaps a sticky thread that introduces the projects and covers the general approach (basically, pick project, start build thread, add completed project to a suitable other thread with link to build thread).

The terms that are used for all this aren't especially clear yet. In the other thread, when the germ of the idea formed, I referred to on-going challenges (or background challenges with no deadline), and later likened them to missions in a computer game. I see my own build activities here as being what I might undertake as a luthier's apprentice. In this post, I've tended to call them projects. Whatever they're called, it should be something that encourages people to give it a go.

I would also add that it's not intended to be a course that one must do from start to finish. It's fine for somebody to be inspired to do the first project and stop there, or to jump in at the middle. It's all down to what the participant feels they're capable of and wants to get out of it. The projects are just there to suggest a series of steps that can be taken along the path.

Thoughts?