join the makers...

Have you ever considered getting your hands dirty and joining the growing number of guitar makers in the UK? Like Lewes, Somerset is becoming a haven for electric, acoustic, and traditional luthiers, and we would love you to join us.

You will be spending the time in the Godney workshop, benefitting from individual (one-on-one) instruction with Matt. There is a lot to cover in each half or full day, and although you will be provided with any useful documentation and diagrams, you will greatly benefit from having a fresh notebook and a reliable camera to ensure you capture the technical and complex topics covered.

Half day - 09:30 AM to 14:00

Full day - 09:30 AM to18:30

Join the makers - Areas of study

Full Setup (full day) - £130

• Fret level and crown

• Truss rod adjustment and maintenance

• The use of neck relief

• Individual fret reseating

• Pickup height adjustment and its effect on performance and tone

• Nut adjustment and cutting - Theory and practice

• Bridge height

• Intonation options for different string gauges

• Action adjustment - Theory and practice

• Board maintenance

• The use of shims in extreme cases

• Electronic component testing and solder joint reflows

• Ground circuit verification

• String installation techniques

• Order of operations

• Strap button fidelity

• Repairing and resetting screw holes

Fretting (full day) - £130

• Fret wire selection and its effect on performance, action, feel, and tone

• Fretting tools and the alternative options

• Fret wire bending to radius

• Cutting fret slots (both manual and mechanised)

• Setting (installing) frets (both manual and mechanised)

• The use of glues while fretting (and its pros and cons)

• Fret crowning and dressing

• Calculating fret positions for custom scale lengths

Cutting a bone nut (half day) £75

• Natural material selection - Source, skeletal choices, cleaning and preparation

• The 90° cut

• The falling (rear) curve

• String spacing - Theory and practice

• Guiding the strings - The helical curve

• Slot height - Cutting to the fret level and cutting to the first fret

• Slot profile and width

• Nut lubrication options

• Tooling options (both manual and mechanised)

Passive electronics - Theory and practice (full day) - £130

• Voltage, current, and resistance

• Ohm's Law

• Transducers - Magnets and coils

• Pickups - magnet flux density and Gauss, wire selection, winding patterns, magnet materials

• The ground circuit

• Potentiometer theory

• Capacitor theory

• Resistor theory

• Switching, splitting, and signal routing

• Series and parallel circuits

• Soldering - Theory and practice

• Mechanical connections (solder is not glue)

• Wire flow

• Shielding to ground

• Bridge grounding

• Common sources of interference (noise)

• Frequency - Phase cancellation and summation

Cutting and preparing tonewoods (full day) £130

• Tropical hardwoods - Why we use them

• Native (British) hardwoods - Why we can use them

• Alpine woods - How and why they are useful

• Does the wood matter? And why?

• Grain structure and grain frequency

• Grain tearing

• Timber faults - Spalting, knotting, flaming, burl, and shakes

• Waxing to impede shaking

• Aesthetics vs. mechanical fidelity

• Timber orientation on the instrument - Why it matters

• Bending and correcting

• Marking tools - Pencil maintenance, tailor's chalk, using marking pens with caution

• Measuring and alignment tools - The width of both the line and the blade

• Blade maintenance and sharpening

• Cutting technique (both manual and mechanised) - Saws, files, rasps, surforms and chisels

• Planing technique (both manual and mechanised) - The importance of planing direction

• Glueing technique - Clamping, historical and contemporary

• The use of abrasives

• Internal timber pressures - Resting the material after major cuts

• The use of lamination

• Stacking and storing

• Humidity - Storage and workshop

Luthier Tools (half day) £75

• Routers

• Jigs and templates

• Fretting tools

• Bandsaws

• Table saws

• Hand saws

• The router table

• The drill press

• Hand drills

• The "Luthiers' Dowel"

• Chisels

• Sharpening

• Measuring and marking

• Glues and lubricants

• Clamps

• Fret slotting tools (both manual and mechanised)

• Fret pressing tools (both manual and mechanised)