This is the 5 Best Strategies for Learning Guitar Making. In this post, you’ll learn five things that you can do to help you get the most from the learning process. Enjoy.
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(Updated 2023)
Learning Guitar Making
It takes a lot of different skills to make an acoustic guitar. It’s still a woodworking project, but it’s a woodworking project that requires so many different facets of the craft that it takes an exceptionally well rounded woodworker to know them all before they start.
There are however some strategies that you can use to increase your learning and your academic understanding of acoustic guitar making. These are good strategies to turn into habits, and that can significantly increase your knowledge.
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Take a look at these five strategies coming up. Odds are there are at least a few that you can incorporate into your daily life. Over time, and through daily exposure, your academic understanding of guitar making will increase quite a bit.
See Also: Acoustic Guitar Making For Beginners
Buy Several Good Books on Guitar Making
First, books are a tremendous resource for any guitar maker. If you are new to guitar making, the first thing you need to do is buy about five books making an acoustic guitar from five different authors.
It’s not that you’re going to need to do anything special with all five books. What the different authors are going to do is show you five different ways of making a guitar. At this point, you’ll be able to pick the one you feel is the easiest for you.
You’ll also learn from five different people, which is almost as good as having a live teacher to work with. These authors load up their books full of fantastic guitar making information, and that will help you get a firmer understanding of the craft.
You’ll also get step-by-step instruction in many of these books, and that will give you the how and the why as you make your guitar. It’s important to follow the instruction in a good book, because plans don’t tell you why or how to do something, they only tell you what it should look like.
See Also: Top 5 Acoustic Guitar Making Books
Find Local Guitar Makers to Learn With
If you have the opportunity, I definitely recommend finding a local guitar maker to talk to you. Even if it’s just an informal meeting that allows you to ask a few questions before getting into the hobby yourself, it can be a very beneficial conversation.
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Focus on your social network first, and see if you know anybody that knows someone who makes acoustic guitars. If you can find somebody that even makes acoustic instruments, and not necessarily guitars, that’s still a good person to talk to.
See if you can make at least email acquaintances with this person, and being able to reach out to someone and ask a question is a huge advantage to any beginner.
See Also: 50 Things I Wish I Knew When I started Making Guitars
Watch YouTube Videos on Guitar Making
YouTube is a treasure trove of information on guitar making. Technically, it’s a treasure trove of information on basically every subject in the entire world, but for this post let’s focus on making guitars.
Go online, and find a bunch of different guitar makers that post videos on YouTube. You can literally watch their videos for days, and you will learn a ton about making guitars. You’ll also see a lot of their jigs and set ups, and you’ll get a lot of inspiration too.
There is a big difference between watching somebody do some thing and reading about somebody doing something. It’s much easier to see it in action rather than look at a bunch of still images and try to fill in the blanks.
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Even if you were to spend your lunch break at work watching YouTube videos on acoustic guitar making, you could cram several hours of education into a normally wasted part of your day. Just set up your phone and watch while you eat.
See Also: 1,001 Acoustic Guitar Making Tips for Beginners
Learn Something Every Single Day
Another good habit to have for life but also for guitar making is to learn something every day. If you make it a habit not to go to bed until you’ve learned least one thing new about guitar making every single day, by the end of the year you are more likely to be a genius.
After 365 learning experiences, you will be well equipped academically with a good understanding of acoustic guitar making. Then, you’ll be able to take that information into your shop and do good work.
It’s not difficult to do in the beginning, because every single thing you read is going to be a learning experience. Towards the end of the year however, the learning opportunities will require you to dig a little deeper. This is where you’ll grow.
As you force yourself to be immersed in an environment that encourages you to learn new things, you’ll constantly develop. Whereas most people stagnate somewhere around intermediate, you’ll never stop learning, and you’ll never stop growing.
See Also: The Best Time to Learn About Wood Finishing as a Beginner
Start Building Right Away
Finally, start building right away. I talk to so many people who have so many excuses for not starting the guitar build. They range from getting the shop set up, to buying a bunch more tools, to making jigs, and to wanting to read more books.
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I promise, there is no real substitute out there for actually building an instrument, and putting in the hours in the shop. Even if you’re not 100% ready right now, don’t let the thought of imperfection scare you away from starting.
There is safety in procrastination. After all, you can’t screw up an acoustic guitar build that you haven’t started. The problem is you also can’t complete an acoustic guitar guild that you haven’t started. Don’t stall for the sake of stalling. Start and build now.
Your first guitar is only likely to be beautiful in your eyes anyway. That’s completely fine, you shouldn’t be trying to win a guitar making contest on the first round. Get started, I promise you won’t regret it.
See Also: My First Acoustic Guitar
People Also Ask
How do you learn to make guitars? Learning guitar making can start with books, and online learning, and that’s the best way to absorb as much information about guitar making as you can. Read everything you can get your hands on, and then watch videos, look at guitar making pictures and tutorials, and read through guitar making forums. If you learn a little every day, by the time you pick up your first pieces of wood and some tools, you will have a much better understanding of the process than most beginners.
How much money does a guitar luthier make? Guitar luthiers salaries can range from entry level repair work to full on custom builders, and if you are thinking of getting into guitar making, the far end of that spectrum is going to be where you make the most money, and that’s the custom work.
Is it hard to be a luthier? It’s not difficult to become a luthier, it’s just a long learning process, and that’s where many will fall off before they ever make their first guitar. None of the individual things you need to do as a guitar maker are difficult in themselves, it’s just that there are a lot of them to learn. If you don’t mind a marathon project instead of a sprint project, and you have the patience, you will be able to become a luthier.
Can you make a living as a luthier? You can make a living as a luthier, but given that there are not that may places that make guitars in the world, especially custom guitars, you will likely need to get into custom work to make a good living. There are several famous makers that do make a ton of money, but for every one of them there are lesser known makers that still earn normal living doing what they love.
Your Action Assignment
Now that you know these five excellent strategies for learning about acoustic guitar making as a beginner, it’s time to get out in your shop and take action. If you’ve been stalling on making a guitar, you have absolutely no reason not to start anymore.
Pick up a couple of the strategies and learn everything you can. Immerse yourself in the world of acoustic guitar making, and don’t come up for air until you are fully satisfied. In doing so, you can cram years worth of learning into months, and build a guitar that makes you happy.
If you have any questions on my strategies for learning acoustic guitar making, contact me and I’ll be happy to answer them. Happy building.
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