This course is supplementary to the nine-day Musical Instrument Making course, held in the spring. It enables you to have time to design and make the moulds and jigs necessary for making your chosen instrument. It will also help you to select and prepare some of the woods required. It may also be used to finish and set up instruments made on a previous course.

What you should achieve:

Starting a guitar or ukulele

• An understanding of the process of making your chosen instrument
• The correct use and sharpening of hand tools
• The preparation of templates, moulds and work-boards
• The selection and preparation of suitable tonewoods

​​​​Or
Finishing your instrument

• An understanding of different types of finishes and their application
• Preparation and application of a French polish or oil finish to your instrument
• Fitting machine-heads
• Cutting and fitting a bone nut and saddle
• Setting up strings

Teaching is generally on a one-to-one basis, catering for each student’s individual needs, and dictated by ability, previous experience and knowledge. There will be group demonstrations where appropriate. As the course takes place in the main workshop, adjacent to the other courses in this series, you will also gain knowledge by interaction with fellow students and other tutors. Those starting certain instruments have information packs provided by the tutors. Most instruments require attendance on several courses to complete.This may depend on your skill base and opportunity to continue work at home, so we recommend you discuss this with your tutor prior to the course when they contact you.

Health and safety is discussed as an integral part of the course.

Please note: humidity levels in the workshop are variable to dry; whilst the College has addressed this, some factors are beyond our control, and instruments are brought at your own risk.

Included

A comprehensive range of materials and consumables is included within the course fee, allowing students to focus on developing their skills rather than sourcing specialist supplies. This includes abrasives, glues, finishing materials, tracing and transfer papers, blades, MDF, and other workshop essentials. A selection of shared tools, jigs, sharpening equipment, and specialist workshop machinery will also be available throughout the course.

What students need to bring

The instrument you wish to complete

As soon as you receive confirmation of your place, please indicate which instrument you wish to work on by emailing: [email protected]

If you are new to the course, please give details of your past experience in instrument making and fine woodworking. We will pass this information to the tutor who will contact you to discuss this and the materials required. Alternatively, if you are bringing a part-made instrument, please bring the materials and information relating to this, or inform the tutor about what you need.

Any hand tools you may have or think you may need (marked with your name) Appropriate workshop clothes and stout covered footwear (not sandals) are essential.

Tools:

• Some woodworking tools are provided by the College, including a variety of planes, chisels, drills, etc. However, numbers are limited, so you should ideally bring your own, if you have them, to include the following:

Useful tools for making templates, jigs and moulds:

• 300 or 150mm steel rule
• Pencil
• Engineer’s square
• Scalpel or marking knife
• Block plane
• Half round file and rasp
• Glue brush

Finishing materials:

• Bench cloth
• Cotton rags
• Fine flat files
• Nut files

Any tools you need in order to continue with basic construction (if in any doubt, please ask the tutor – please mark tools with your name):

• Chisels
• Cabinet scrapers
• Straight edge
• Smoothing plane
• Low angled block plane
• Flat thumb plane
• Spoke shave
• G clamps (4 if possible, 3” or 4”)
• Sharpening stone

Available to buy

There are basic materials in the Garden Gatehouse craft shop. Please note that it does not stock specialist products.

Additional information

If you are making a new instrument, a charge for materials, timber and drawings, if supplied, should be paid to the tutor at the start of the course.

On this course, the tutor can supply most of the materials to you individually and will agree the specific requirements with you before the course starts. The charge should be paid to him directly before the end of the course by cash or bank transfer.

The following is a guide price for a set of wood (e.g. Indian rosewood or maple back and sides, spruce or cedar soundboard, mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard, fretwire, bridge blank, head veneer, struts, linings, bindings, purflings and rosette):

The timber costs listed are approximate to give a guide only, and final costs will depend on individual choice and grade of timber. Costs of strings, machine heads and finishing materials are not included.

Classical guitar £285 Acoustic guitar £310 Ukulele £110#

The classical guitar option is a traditional 'Torres' type instrument. The steel string option is a Martin style OM guitar. These are ideal first instrument projects; it may be possible to build another type of guitar, but this will need to be discussed with the tutor prior to the start of the course.

Instruments marked # are simpler to make and are suitable first instruments. While the aim is to complete these in one nine-day course, please be aware that this is not always possible and you may need to return for a subsequent course.

Please note that a guitar takes approximately 100 hours to make and therefore should be regarded as a major project. You may need to participate in more than two courses to complete your instrument.

Arrival day - first date of course
Residential students can arrive from 4pm, non-residential students to arrive by 6.45pm for registration  
Student welcome, followed by dinner: 6.45pm (dinner included)
Teaching session: 8pm-9pm (attendance is essential)

Daily timetable
Course teaching: 9.15am-5pm  
Morning session: 9.15am-12.45pm including coffee/tea break  
Lunch break: 12.45pm-2pm (lunch included)  
Afternoon session: 2pm-5pm including coffee/tea break  
Teaching finishes: 5pm    
Evening working: students may have access to workshops until 9pm, but only with permission from the tutor and provided any health and safety guidelines are observed.

Departure day - last date of course
Course teaching: 9.15am-3pm (lunch included)  
Teaching finishes: 3pm  

Residential students will need to check out of rooms by 10am.
Please note, the tutor may make slight variations to the daily timetable as required.

Terms & Conditions