Official Luthiers Forum!

We have a full class today and tomorrow of OLFers learning fretting and set-up at our Ann Arbor shop.

These are intensive one day classes, one day for fret work and one day for set-up that build on each other and our students leave at the end of two days of hands-on Lutherie fun with perfectly set-up and fretted instruments.

FYI our next scheduled classes will be:

Aug. 19 - 20
two seats still available

Oct. 7 - 8
three seats available

For details you can visit our site here: http://www.annarborguitars.com/styled-6/index.html

I'll be posting pics of our victims.... er students.... today and tomorrow so others can see how things are going.

Thanks!

Get er done!!

Greg buddy the entire class is now dogging Dave with "get er done...."

More pics.....

Everyone enjoy! I've got two setups to finish in the shop - the classes have sure helped out!

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Having done the fretting class, and hoping to do the set up class next year, be prepared to learn a bunch of other things, besides! David and Hesh put a funnel in your ear, and pour the knowledge in!

Alex

_________________
"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

and more pics.... just about to wrap up day one of our two days of fretting and set-up. These guys did a VERY good job and we are right on time, kind of sort of...... Three flat tops and one archie beautifully fretted!

Day Two:

Today we are taking our excellent fret jobs and adding bone nuts, bone, compensated saddles and learning about and doing set-ups with the end game being four completely fretted guitars.

Here are some more pics:

Wrapping things up here and it was a great, informative time! Many thanks to Brad, Keith, Dave and Joel!

Hesh and Dave,

Thanks again for a great class. I'll echo some of my comments in the survey from the class here on the forum.

Going into the class as a new builder I was apprehensive about whether or not I would be able to keep pace with the content. Dave did an excellent job of taking us all on a two day roller coaster ride. Diving deep on theory in the right places and backing it up with very accessible methods and tactics for implementing what was covered in the lecture. Even for a new builder! The other builders in the class were much more experienced but were equally engaged in the material and all expressed great satisfaction with the class.

You both were very willing to go over each step with me, inspect my work and provide valuable feedback. To me, the hands on and feedback was worth the class fee by itself. I look forward to continuing building instruments and return to the class in a couple years to get even more from another trip to your shop.

For any new builders here on the forum considering the class, I would highly recommend it. Look at it this way... For near the same price as an excellent fret job and setup you get to spend two days in hands on experience with folks who are very successful in the repair world. And you leave with an excellent fret job and setup!!

Thanks again, guys.

Brad

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

Thanks Brad and glad to know that you made it home OK too.

Thanks for the very valued feedback and your comments on the survey too! We often implement student suggestions with the hope that our class offering will continue to provide more value as a collaborative endeavor where everyone contributes as you already have.

You did a great job my friend and your guitar sounded killer too!

Take care and be sure to post some pics of Ben when he receives what is likely as cool a gift as a Dad can ever give to a son!

Thanks Hesh and Dave for putting on a class like this. I've only built a handful so far but have fallen well short on fretting and setup on each one. Going through the process with you two revealed better (and faster) ways to achieve the level of quality I want in an instrument. Like Brad said, for not much more than the cost of a refret you get the knowledge and experience to make all your future builds play as well as the one you take home. Plus you have a great time for two days.

_________________
- Keith

Thanks much Keith and it was a real pleasure for us having you in class! Some pretty good playing you did for us too!

Three cheers for Hesh and Dave Collins for taking us through the "mysteries" of fretting and setup. From theory to practical hands on-that it is possible to accomplish a guitar setup that almost plays itself. A cliche, now a reality.
Not to mention the moJo of the shop, the camaraderie, and the excellent lunches.
Long days but the hours go fast.
Again thanks Hesh and Dave.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________
"It is easier to fool a man, than it is to convince him that he has been fooled"
Mark Twain

Hey everyone!

Wanted to lend my thoughts on the class to help paint an accurate picture of the teachings from a fairly experienced builders perspective.

As a quick background, Iam a full time luthier who has been building for about 13 years now. I cut my teeth early on tinkering with cheap guitars and doing my best to find out what makes a guitar tick. Where and how they fail and what I can personally do to create my ideal guitar structurally and tonally. Iam almost entirely self taught which I find to be both a blessing and a curse. It allows me to build like no one else simply because I don't know better. It also lengthens the learning curve for the 'common knowledge' items.

One aspect that many builders suffer with is the fact that we do a very small number of setups a year, besides the odd repair this means anywhere from 10-20 a year. Which in the grand scheme of things is far from enough to become proficient. I have gotten to the point in my building career where I can confidently say that my setup skills are amoung the best in the hand built realm and Iam extremely happy and proud of the end product. In saying this I always have an eating feeling that Iam doing it 'the hard way.' Sure the results are right where I need them to be but Iam I spending twice the time I needed to get there?

This is where my interest in the class stemmed from. I had met Dave at Woodstock and was immediately impressed with his wealth of knowledge and keen eye for detail. I would later find out during the class that his hand and eye skills are off the chats! Surely due to his commitment and long history with repair work. Let's just say he is dang good at what he does

The class is layed out very nicely for a beginner and I believe that all of the students got an incredible amount of hands on knowledge to take home from the experience. For me it wasn't so much about the general process and the simple skills taught, instead it was the several 'aha!!!' Moments that I had during the weekend. You really don't know you are doing something the hard way until you see how easy and simple a solution can be.

I guess what Iam getting at is this class isn't just for beginners or those new to building. It can provide some very meaningful and important ideas and procedures to even the most seasoned builders.

Huge shout out to Hesh and Dave for the fantastic weekend, great fun and very informative. Also thanks to the student crew! We had a great time learning and having a bit of fun

Joel.

_________________
http://Michaudmade.com

Hesh,
I think you hinted about some new fret files coming from Stew mac at the class. Just received an ad for new z files today. What do you think of these?

_________________
- Keith

Hey Keith! We haven't tried these yet but we want to. It looks like a good idea so long as there is enough of a V shape to keep the file on the fret crown without slipping off and scratching the crap out of the fret or other frets.

My other criteria that I would want to check out with these is at times we have to crown frets that are .018" high.... Does the long side of the file prevent doing low frets because of it's length and does it mar the board. A three corner works for the low ones but so too does the old style of the diamond fret files.

They seem to have solved the problem with one size fits all wire files that don't work in the past too. It's actually so simple it's brilliant!

Not to be overly critical though we make our "lines" much thinner than the illustration above which kind of sucks as a example....

And they are not cheap either furthering the divide between hobbyist tools and pro tools that we spoke about earlier this year with the Jaw II no longer using the Bessy clamps.

Looking forward to getting one and trying one, two actually since we like 150 and 300.