Introduction Three times a year, the Totnes School of Guitarmaking runs a 12-week course for up to seven people. Each of them has chosen what kind of guitar they want to make, and leaves at the end with the finished instrument. Beautiful work and fine craftsmanship are regularly achieved. Beginners and advanced students work in one group.
Some beginners have no previous woodworking experience at all.
Even so, they can make almost any kind of guitar or related instrument. All students on a course share the goal of finishing their instrument by the end of the 12 weeks. For some it is the beginning of a life-long interest which may, or may not, be professional. For others it is an opportunity to make a guitar just once - to bask in the pleasure of having and playing an instrument you yourself have made. Not only is the course open to anybody who is taken by the idea of building a guitar, it also gets a good deal of energy, invention and balance from students having very different aims.