Hello, I'm Luke and I try to make guitars!

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#1

Hi all,

Okay, so I wasn’t quite honest in the title there… I’ve almost finished my first electric guitar, but there are many more planned, I promise! I’ve built this first one using mostly handtools (excluding a pillar drill and random orbit sander) and whilst it’s taken a while, I love the meditative aspect of it.

I’m currently a member of the London Hackspace over in Hackney, but living south of the river makes getting there a bit of a mission (as well as covers my flat in dust and shavings when I’m too lazy to make the journey).

I’m planning on attending the next open evening and will join properly afterwards, especially since you guys have a bandsaw and planer/thicknesser which I’m really starting to lust after.

Really looking forward to meeting you all and making some new friends :slight_smile:

#2

hopefully will have those tools on line soon , but we do try very hard to try to let members to use them when the techs are in the space

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#3

Thanks Joe. Got my direct debit set up, just got to wait for that to go through then I can start making some dust!

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#4

Hi Luke - I also just joined - check this guy - http://www.stephenhillguitars.com/guitar-making-courses.html he runs a course in Spain - on the coast below Granada for people who want to make guitars - he’s a childhood/family friend of my wife and he is a super nice guy - we happened to be there when the class was finishing and he had professionals come in to play the guitars the group had made (only 4 spaces per class/month) - and they played and critiqued the guitars - all at Andres Segovia’s old house! Was amazing - and I have always wanted to go to one of these classes - one day…

look forward to seeing how you come on w/yours

#5

We had a plan once upon a time to form a regular guitar making group at the space. The idea was to get a luthier in for regular sessions, and share the cost.

Not a bad idea.

#6

I would be really up for this.

#7

Hey Geo, that course sounds like a lot of fun - I’ve been considering going on a course similar to that for a while. Since my guitar is my first ever woodworking project, though (thrown myself in the deep end a little), if I attempted an acoustic rather than the electric I’m doing now, I’d want a lot more experience first. They seem so much more difficult!

I’ve saved Stephen’s site for when I’m a bit more experienced. Thanks :slight_smile:

#8

Hey @Dermot, I was considering gauging interest for a guitar-making group. I met Howard when I popped down for the open evening last Weds who mentioned that he’d made a few guitars in the past, too, and it got me thinking about setting up a group.

It’d be really nice to have a group in which we could all learn from each other and help with other’s designs and builds.

My DD should clear soon, but shall I start another topic (maybe in the Projects section?) and we can see who else would be interested?

#9

I would be up for this. Always hankered after a Patrick eggle / prs guitar

#10

Me too, I’d love a PRS. Tried to copy a few PRS features on the one I’m doing at the moment; the recessed control knobs are proving tricky…

#11

I would like a luthier to teach basic setup techniques and simple maintenance (both electric and acoustic). South Thames College offered a class like this, but they cancelled it. Would be happy to split expenses for this - the only other course I found is a one-day in Sussex, and it cost about £200. I do some of this myself already (bridge and nut filing etc.) but would like to see how the pros do it. I just had a professional stone done on electric guitar frets and the results are remarkable - a better than new instrument.

#12

I too would be interested in a course like that. I’ve been considering one of the courses at Crimson Guitars for a while. Talking of which, they (and quite a few others) have a lot of videos on YouTube about luthiery. Might be worth looking at some and seeing if you can pick up anything.

For the group, though, I think that unless one of the members here is a practicing luthier (read: a luthier by trade), I’m not sure that would happen, but only because it’s a long shot. If the group goes well, though, it could be an option to see if a practicing luthier would be open to popping along to a group meeting where we could ask questions, etc.

I daresay there may well be people here who do know how to do these things well but just aren’t luthiers by trade, and to those I encourage them to join the as-yet-non-existent group!

#13

I’ve created a thread over in Discussion for anyone interested in a little guitar building and maintenance group:

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