Seems pricey but I'm paying $1500 usd to take a 2 day amp building course. I get a Marshall clone when I'm done though.

 

I wish there was an amp building course in the Halifax area. I would love to try that out.

 

I was just reading about this school. They have a one day course ($350) a course for a couple months where you build an acoustic from scratch ($4,000) and a one year course that teaches you all the intricacies of Lutherie ($35,000)
Is this what it costs to become educated in the art of Lutherie? 35k for one year? You can get a university degree in a 4 year program for that or less.

There are multiple lutherie schools of varying prices. There are also many luthiers who take on apprentices and/or teach courses on guitar building. Even some technical schools have luthiers come in to teach programs on guitar building. Lots of options, just not well advertised.

Stew Mac lists half a dozen Canadian businesses/luthiers that offer courses:
Lutherie Schools List | stewmac.com

There are probably numerous others that aren't listed. Hmmm.... Maybe that is another thing we should consider adding to our currently growing tech directory.

With that being the cost of learning will we see a decline in guitar techs?

I doubt it. Most techs are self-taught. I venture to say that even most "luthiers" (at least, people who call themselves luthiers) are self-taught. It isn't a regulated industry.

 

Canadian School of Lutherie appears to be shut down based on their website, so maybe not enough people were willing to cough up that kind of scratch.

From Brantford you could check out Tony Karol who runs courses in Mississauga - drop him a line if you have any questions, he's a great & accommodating guy, as well as top-notch in the guitar building wizardry arts.

 

Thank you for the recommendation.

 

I took the one day course at CSL because I wanted to learn fret dressing. It was ok but I found that one day was not enough to give me the confidence to try it by myself. And the certificate they gave me actually says "One Day" on it

 

I wish there was an amp building course in the Halifax area. I would love to try that out.

I know a young guy in Halifax who would gladly walk you through a build of your own.

 

Is it you?

 

If you are building an acoustic, Sergei DeJong in Ottawa. They have on-site accommodation as well

 

When David Wren decided to get back to building he spent time with the DeJongs to re-ignite his chops.

 

When David Wren decided to get back to building he spent time with the DeJongs to re-ignite his chops.

An acquaintance of mine was there at the same time

 

There's a guitar company in Vancouver that has a guitar building course. The name escapes me.

 

hi. truth fact. before enrolling to the course you have to pay the for the course. a faster route to learn building a guitar is to buy the tools yourself directly and start learning the skill from youtube. tchiks channel on youtube has a 3 part series on this matter with very detailed information. he build one of the guitars with one hand and the satisfaction you get from doing. plus you have to spend time and money on transportation to course location. if you dont have a place where to build a guitar you could rent a 5m x 5m garage or something. good luck

 

OCAD used to have an instrument building course, but that was in the ‘90s. I took it and built a Grit Laskin based flat top acoustic that I use to this day. I’m not a luthier but I learned a lot about the guitar. I bought a slotted fretboard, the bridge and a pre-made rosette from stew-mac but made everything else. It can be done.

 

Second option would be the route I took… buy an IKEA starter kit !

 

EDIT: I momentarily forgot that the request is to build an acoustic guitar. I’ll leave this up in case it’s of interest, though.

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I don’t know anything more about it but Cithara Guitars in Hamilton (mountain) advertises clinics. Not too far from Brantford.

Cithara Guitars Inc

Custom guitars, guitar repair and restoration services.

citharaguitars.com

 

This place is outside of Ottawa. Never been and can’t vouch for the builds but got pretty curious when driving by a few weeks ago and poked online. The pictures look pretty impressive. $5k for a 12 week accoustic guitar course.

Blackwood Guitar Company

Making fine instruments for the discerning player

www.blackwoodguitar.ca

edit: should we move to acoustic section to avoid confusion? Also might have better informed viewers than electric types

 

the $35000 course could be a 1 on 1 teaching... so it is not a course among other students.