lutherie schools

mahrous · #1 08-13-2005, 04:42 PM

i need information for lutherie schools located anywhere in the world.

links and so on are greatly appreciated

Hermit · #2 08-13-2005, 06:45 PM

Did you intentionally make that post as vague as possible?

Demens · #3 08-13-2005, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermit

Did you intentionally make that post as vague as possible?

Hambone · #4 08-13-2005, 08:11 PM

There are some here and I know of one there but it's expensive.

Fasoldt Basses · #5 08-13-2005, 08:48 PM

Anywhere in the world? Oh, shoot, I would tell you about this great Luthier school on the moon, but...

Take a look on google. Here's a page I found listing quite a few: Roberto-Venn and Redwing Tech are probably the best known. Another school to consider is your garage. You can start with a few books, like Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvin Hiscock and Guitar Repair by Dan Erlwine(? Published by Guitar Player Magazine, I believe) This forum is an excellent resource, as well as the Musical Instrument Maker's Forum at mimf.com . There's a TON to learn before you have to set foot in an "official" luthier school. Good luck!

mahrous · #6 08-13-2005, 09:07 PM

well, on Wednesday i was in GCA in West Hollywood checking them out. i was disappointed immensely.

i live in Egypt and my family own a furniture and woodwork production facility. i can easily say we are by far better equipped than GCA. i have been working in that business for at least 6 years now and have gathered good experience with woodworking and wood machinery.

living in Egypt, its easy to head any place in the world. so school to be located anywhere is no problem.

expensive? still not an issue, its for business purposes and an initial investment proven to be yielding is justified.

i have already checked out R-V School and another one in Grand Rapids, Michigan (which i might visit tomorrow morning. still touring the US)

i am specifically interested in bass construction schools. not guitars, not acoustics and definitely not violins!

full_bleed · #7 08-14-2005, 02:02 AM

I maybe foolish in suggesting this but wouldn't it be benificial to learn methods on how to construct as many different instruments as you can? That way you can intergrate them all together and maybe come up with something totally unique either in design or constuction methods. If you have the tools already then just read the books and the forums and learn on your own. I'm sure it'll be basically the same information if not more than what you would get paying 50,000 for a school that lasts 12 months. We learn more and faster by making mistakes anyways.

Hambone · #8 08-14-2005, 07:48 AM

I have a feeling Mr. Mahrous's motives here are far beyond the usual poster's that we get around here...

It sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, you are contemplating expanding your family business into this area and your are the "lead" man, laying the groundwork for such an expansion? If that's the case, you really should do the full luthiery thing simply for the broad range of materials and techniques you'll be exposed to. You don't need to become a stone pro at all of them to learn from the experience and having that will be very helpful in making decisions on the direction the biz will take when it's up and running. An example of this would be noticing an emerging trend that might utilize a particular building style not usually associated with basses. If you already had that skill in your bag of tricks, you would be ahead of the pack if you wanted to beat them to market with a new product to take advantage of the trend. See?

mahrous · #9 08-14-2005, 03:13 PM

Hambone,

thanks for the compliments. I will be a fresh college graduate very soon and you are right about expanding the family business. right as we speak, i am in the process of constructing at least two basses which is the deal with my father (and main financier). i need to finish these two basses before i earn the opportunity and financial support to attend world-class lutherie schools.
during this current trip to the US, i have purchased enough hardware for those basses.
the basses are replications to current basses i own. Ken Smith and MTD.
as you can see, no innovations yet. just replications to put my woodworking skills and knowledge applied to guitar making.
i am looking for a lutherie school to really pump me up with guitar construction and production!

u mentioned that you know that is really expensive, can you please post me the name and website address please?

Hambone · #10 08-15-2005, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mahrous

Hambone,

thanks for the compliments. I will be a fresh college graduate very soon and you are right about expanding the family business. right as we speak, i am in the process of constructing at least two basses which is the deal with my father (and main financier). i need to finish these two basses before i earn the opportunity and financial support to attend world-class lutherie schools.
during this current trip to the US, i have purchased enough hardware for those basses.
the basses are replications to current basses i own. Ken Smith and MTD.
as you can see, no innovations yet. just replications to put my woodworking skills and knowledge applied to guitar making.
i am looking for a lutherie school to really pump me up with guitar construction and production!

u mentioned that you know that is really expensive, can you please post me the name and website address please?

Mahrous, I was playing along with the joke about the vague references above...

By my reading and talking with folks, it sounds like Roberto Venn is likely to be your best bet. The real issue here isn't cost or location - it's reputation. Even the curriculum isn't a concern because a student that is driven to be the best he can will make the most of whatever is offered. It seems that graduating from RV will open the most doors and at least give you some instant "street credibility". Then your work will have to pick up the banner and do the rest of the talking for you.

WillBuckingham · #11 08-19-2005, 08:15 PM

Hey is there anyone that's very knowledgable about lutherie schools that would like to gives a breakdown of some of the top schools and any useful information?