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Hi folks,

At the risk of being ridiculed by some for teaching ahead of becoming a master luthier …

Over the last few months I’ve been preparing a curriculum for a 4-day ukulele workshop. I partnered with my local Woodcraft and held the first workshop over the last two weekends.

The workshop was advertised as adults or kids 10+ accompanied by adults. No prior woodworking experience required and offered participants a chance to experience building an instrument from start to finish using many of the same techniques we use as builders every day. The class starts with the base of the StewMac ukulele kit, which Woodcraft sells - so pre-bent sides, plates already profiled, braces pre-cut, etc…

We decided on the Tenor shape. I designed a number of jigs, templates, molds and even an adjustable and collapsible go-bar deck which were all cut from plywood or acrylic on the CNC. The ultimate goal was for everyone to experience the process end to end and most importantly to see success in the end. It would be tragic to have someone spend 4 days building a failure, so I really focused on isolating the critical processes throughout the build and making jigs or templates to ensure repeatability in the workshop setting and ultimately success.

I’m glad to say all participants made it through including taking a younger student who relied quite a bit on dad to make it through.

Here are some pics. Let me know if you have any questions. We will be doing more in the future, everyone had a great time.












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Here are some closeups of the tools, jigs and molds used in the class.









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Looks they had fun!! Jigs/fixtures look well thought out.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Clever go bar deck!

That's just great Brad. You may have started a whole new group of luthiers!

Good job - get 'em while their young and put the hook in 'em.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Awesome.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I’m impressed, Brad! Well done. I think there will come a day when my local woodworking club will want me to lead a club project, with the project being the building of an instrument. I may need to pick your brain a bit when that day comes.

That's awesome, Brad. And with the intention I know you've put into the craft, I have no doubt you were more than qualified.

Yo brad . I like all the low tech jigs,!Great job teaching the kids ! You did good.

That's great! I can imagine what a rewarding experience it would be to teach a class like that. The prep work you did for the class was amazing including all the tenor sized go bar decks. For the kids to leave after 4 days with a ukulele also speaks to impeccable preparation.

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Thanks, all. The workshop was a great experience for me as well. The goal for this one was to pressure test the tools, jigs, processes and to get some learning of what works and what doesn't in this setting. I wanted to take it beyond just a construction project and give the students an opportunity to see methods that builders use to make high quality instruments. Adding the mold & spreaders plus the go-bar deck was I believe a good intro to building. The SM kit does a great job of creating instructions that use "around the garage" tools to pull off building the kit. What I wanted to focus on instead was learning methods that could translate into building other instruments including guitars.

John, I have to admit though, the blacklight to find glue to scrape and sand away was a hit. Thanks for that tip. At the beginning the comments were "do I really need to scrape away the excess glue" and by the end I was hearing "hang on, let me get this bit of squeeze out around the bridge".

I used a slide deck of about 40 slides to present a topic, would then demonstrate on a partially assembled kit, and then let them have at it.

We're planning to do more and some of the stores in the surrounding area are also now interested. I was asked by one of the parents if they could buy the tool kit so they could make more. I will likely work up a price and sell them as part of the class. If I don't get a cease and desist from SM that is.

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Awesome Brad! Looks like a good time and a great service to your local community of young kids.

That's really cool that you could pull that off successfully, especially on the first go. Says a lot about the quality of your prep work. Well done.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Hey Brad, I'm working on a uke with my 9 yr old grandson, we're getting ready to install the frets, how'd it go? Any tips for me.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hey Jim,

The students did a great job with hammering them in. I did have to remind them a few times not to swing the hammer quite so hard. The kits come with a walnut fretboard and it’s possible to sink the crown down into the wood. I had them use the plastic end of the fret hammer to keep from dinging up the frets.

We used a leveling beam with stick it to sand back the overhang after trimming the frets and then a three corner file to shape and clean up the ends. I felt that was easier for them than trying to put a bevel on them.

I’m curious how your grandson is doing with the time investment? The workshop was 4 days across two weekends. 9-5 on Saturday and 11-5 on Sunday was the allotted time, but we finished early every day except day 1. On day one I wanted to be sure to get the box closed. It was a long day for them.

You have to get creative and build in mental breaks for sure.

Good luck on the build!

Brad


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Apparently a "non-master luthier" can teach lutherie masterfully! Looks like a well planned and executed workshop - Bravo!
I love the KD go bar deck.
From the smiling faces in the photos it looks like the kids enjoyed the experience. How did you like teaching?

P.S. - I think the term "Master" is a bit anachronistic in this day and age.

Clay If I am not mistaken in germany . one needs to pass a journeyman 4 yr course to become a master in cabinetmaking, guitarmaking, violinmaking etc.Perhaps there are other places as well ?

Thanks, Clay.

I enjoyed it a great deal and looking forward to doing more classes. When I first decided to put the collateral together and hold the workshop I sat down and wrote out some goals and set my own expectations. It’s obvious, but I did have to make a conscious decision to let go of my own striving for perfection. Trying to meet the level of workmanship that I would let leave my own shop is not possible. At the same time, it needs to be playable and not implode when it’s strung up. So I had to agree with myself on that balance.

I built three kits myself ahead of time to sus out all the nuances of the kit and then decide what to jig up and what to try to perfect, and what to let slide. After all, it’s only 4 days.

There are a few things I can improve on for the next one, and that’s the overall goal. Get some learnings, improve, and move on to the next. The same as it was / is when we all started building.


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I have done those uke building classes at a music camp 4 times. Two of us did the teaching. We did it over 5 days, 2 hours a day. 1 hour in the morning and 1 in the afternoon to facilitate glue times. Good thing Titebond grips very fast. Students took other kinds of music classes in between. As a necessity, we had to do a lot of the work ahead of time. We prebent the koa sides and installed the neck and tail block before hand. The 1 piece koa top and back were also thicknessed with abalone rosettes installed. Necks were supplied 90% done too. Also supplied the kerfing and slotted fretboard. First time I did it, I was pretty nervous sbout the outcome, but it went well. The work they did involved, shaping and gluing bracing, installing the top and back, fitting the bolt on neck, installing the fretboard and fretting it, putting on the premade bridges, making nuts and saddles, and fitting the tuners, all in 10 hours time.The 10-12 people, adults and kids as young as 12 were very happy with the ukes. I was not so happy with some of them, but it's all good. Used a wipe on poly finish. I have also done it 3 times with lap steels on the same time schedule. For that I found myself redoing wiring til' midnight or later on the last night. Students were leaving the next day for the U.S. Mainland and Japan and the steels had to go home playable. Teaching on a time schedule can get the adrenaline flowing. Good work!-Bob

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Hi Brad,
It's been slow going primarily because we don't live in the same town and it can be hard to get everyone together.
When they do make it up here we work on the uke in what's probably 30-45 minute time chunks, long enough to get one task done then take a break and let glue dry. We get a few of these in a day. If his siblings are here it super easy for him to get distracted and have a short attention span.
My aim is for it to be an enjoyable project for him with good memories, so far so good I think, so I'm not really pushing a schedule, which I think helps.
We might be fretting this weekend, so I appreciate the heads up on that.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com