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Making An Acoustic Guitar
In the Autumn of 2006 I spent 12 weeks at the Totnes School Of Guitar Making in Devon, South West England, learning how to build an acoustic guitar. I’ve been doing guitar repairs and set-ups since my twenties and actually ran a repair shop for a couple of years back in the late ‘70s, but really it was a case of ‘the one-eyed man in the land of the blind’ - you can only learn so much from books. I’ve always wanted to be shown the right way of doing things.....

The school’s founder, Norman Reed, is a renowned lute-maker and the school uses traditional stringed instrument construction methods. Electric tools are used sparingly - for tasks like routing channels for binding and control cavities where speed and accuracy are needed - but wherever possible hand tools are employed. Working wood by hand gives the student a better appreciation of the properties of the material and is also an extremely satisfying and fulfilling experience.

This is the story of the twelve week process of transforming roughly sawn planks of spruce, rosewood, mahogany and ebony into an acoustic guitar.   
Making An Acoustic Guitar - Page 1
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