Some advice regarding an introduction to Luthiery

[Lexxy]

Hi there,

I am Alex, 19 years of age and currently studying at RMIT University at Melbourne, VIC.
Over the past year or two, I have been very interested in ukuleles and their specifications (Type of woods and their tonal qualities, tuners, bindings etc). Which have also led me to researching about tonewoods on the bodies of guitars (Of course.)

It would be a dream for me to be able to be able to build an instrument from the first step, all the way till the end. The problem is though, being an overseas student (I'm from Malaysia), the living space in an apartment would highly disallow the building of an instrument (And the tools etc.)

Would it be a good idea to ask local luthiers here whether they take students in their instrument building schedules, or something along the lines of an intern? I wouldn't mind being an apprentice.

Thanks,
Alex

[Allen]

It's rare indeed to find a full time luther devoted to building instruments. Most will either have another job to help pay the bills and work on instruments in the evenings and weekends. The full time guys will be doing lots of repair work as it's a means to a steady income so they don't have to eat rice and beans every day. The trick would be to find a person that is willing to take on a person in the shed which will only slow down their work with all the supervision required, and also the scheduling between you and them. A paying job would be rare as hens teeth. I would imagine that most will want some sort of renumeration if it was to be anything more than a shed visit.

As far as building an instrument from scratch in an apartment, it's possible, but you are more or less restricted to hand tools. Not such a tough job as long as you get some of the components machined to the appropriate dimensions for you. For example the back, sides and top could be thickness sanded and save you all kinds of work. I've seen lots of build documentary of people doing just this on the kitchen table.

There are guitar building class's available in Melbourne, but I'm not aware of any ukulele building ones. They are also pretty expensive, as you are walking away with a hand built guitar and the instruction along with it. As far as I know the class's I instruct are the only ones ukulele specific in Australia.

For a completely scratch built instrument I take on students in my shed at home. The costs are what you'd pay for one of my instruments, as essentially that is what you walk away with. They run over approximately 12 weeks so really is only suited to locals.

If you think some tuition would suit you and are able to come to Cairns from July 2-6 I'm running a uke building class again the week leading up to this years festival. Students build their own instrument that we have prepped to a point where it's possible to have it completed in such a short time. And we have lots of time to demonstrate various aspects of building such as hand bending sides, joining book matched tops etc.

[Lexxy]

Thanks for the reply, Allen.

Would you happen to know of any Melbourne based luthiers that are willing to offer such services? (I know it's very rare that anything like this would actually occur, but it's worth a try I guess!)

[Allen]

The only place that I know of in Melbourne that offers instruction is Thomas Lloyd Guitars. I'm certain that there are heaps of luthiers in the region, but as to their willingness of allowing anyone to hang out in the shed, I'm not in a position to say. There are several members of the forum whom live in the area. Perhaps they will be able to offer some suggestions.